Neverwinter Forest had me feeling like a ghost

His hunts had taken him close to the borders -- he'd followed the scent of a lone deer through the forest and it had wandered now back towards the edges. Probably a buck on its own, just guessing from that. It was still a decent ways ahead of him given the age of the scent, but if Mal kept going he'd catch up if it hadn't wandered from the territory entirely. Or that would have been the case if the howl hadn't interrupted him. He paused mid stride -- it was a kind of odd one, he thought, and his first thought was that maybe whoever it was might be kind of embarrassed at the way they sounded. He'd play that by ear, fun snarky comment if they were a good-humored sort or just pretend it didn't happen if he couldn't tell.

As the territory borders came up before him, Mal did notice that it seemed along here Atausiq had been slacking -- Mal had appreciated he was another who was perfectly willing to help keep the territory clearly marked, but here it seemed he hadn't been around. Well, he needed to tell him about the meeting with Ying anyway, so he put finding the youth on the list of things to do soonish rather than later. Right now he was to deal with this stranger who was waiting in the trees along the edge, coming in to view as Mal rounded the bend. The man there was similar in size and age to Mal himself, and Mal approached with his normal confidence and grin, This is Neverwinter Forest, I'm Mal. What's brought you here today, stranger? He really needed to figure out a better greeting, it was starting to sound kinda lame.