Rising Sun Valley Dear Fellow Traveller

A dark muzzle listed over her paws, stifling a throaty simper.

“You mock me,” and yet she fixed him with a twinkling eye, sharing the intrigue that came over his face. Tauris couldn’t spook a fieldmouse from off his seed, but she indulged in the compliments if only for the fact it was fun to imagine she was a master of bears with a pretty name. Louis didn’t seem the sort to charge a bear for something to prove. Charm one into submission, perhaps.

She fell into silent contemplation with his question before answering.

“Far North of here. A pack called Lyotak,” Her heart tugged saying the name aloud again. “My father, the alpha, covered both my mother and his mate the year I was born. She allowed us- my sisters and brothers- to stay, but only until we were old enough to hunt for ourselves. I don’t think she wanted the reminder. Can’t say I blame her.” She’d been small, in Lyotak, an inferior cousin. But she had been happy, too.

Her eyes wound their way back, searching the expressions that crossed his face. He couldn’t have been much older or younger than her, with only the faintest point of age under eye. 

“What of you, Louis? You have a northern look. Are you far from home yourself?”