Bearclaw Valley You're on your own

Oh.  Ashlar's features fell with slight disappointment.  The boy hadn't been expecting a different answer from a wolf who looked so intimidating (and so used to fighting) but he had hoped, in some way, he'd find commonality there.  It never seemed anyone who actually liked music as much as he did stuck around for long.

Merrick did seem interested in the stranger.  Ashlar latched onto that, trying to remember as much as he could.  I m...met them a while ago.  They were alone and n...not a part of anyone.  They were just singing, and I asked wh-where they'd learned the songs.  The conversation hadn't gone any farther than that.  Their name had been strange though.  Ashlar couldn't remember it now, but he worked on it while he answered the next part.

Always.  This held a level of assured truth that Ashlar's former answers hadn't.  The stranger was harder to speak to after weeks but his love of music was easy.  It calmed and made him happy and he liked that, occasionally, it seemed to make others happy too.

WC: 178