Chapter 8-4

It took them two more days' travel to reach the Pack's den—largely because maneuvering a large griffon through the underbrush was rather slow going. Several times Tirel had to look around for a different path than the one he was accustomed to in order to accommodate Zakhin'Dakh's bulk.

As evening wore on, Almonihah glanced aside with a frown. “That's not th' way a normal fox acts,” he commented.

The whole party stopped and looked where he was. Sure enough, a fox slipped out of the underbrush and looked up at them... then shifted into a clothed, humanoid form.

“You've got sharp eyes there, Bronze-scales,” the fox-Wyre commented, grinning.

Almonihah shrugged, unsurprised. “You learn 'f you live long 'nough in the wilds. Or die.”

“Such a cheerful fellow you've brought, Tirel,” the grinning fox-man commented to the other Wyre. “He a friend of yours?”

“A friend of a friend, at least,” Tirel replied, grinning back. “Garkhen you've heard of, and these are his friends, Almonihah and Zakhin'Dakh.” He pointed at each in turn as he introduced them. “And this is Eznin,” he finished, pointing at the fox-Wyre.

Eznin gave the group a little bow. “Greetings, greetings all! I'm guessing Tirel's filled you in on our little group?” Without waiting for an answer he slipped ahead of the group and started walking. 

“Well, we've heard a bit about you, too. And that means you go straight to Whitepaw. No messing around.”

There almost seemed to be a note of disappointment at his last statement.

It wasn't much longer before they came into... it wasn't quite a clearing, but more an area cleared of underbrush under the canopy of the forest. A few simple huts were built around the largest trees. It wasn't much to look at... but the inhabitants were. A dog-man, a hawk-man, a stag-man... and who knew if some of the animals around the area were actually Wyre?

“Welcome to our humble little home,” Eznin said, turning and bowing again. He pointed to one of the huts. “Whitepaw's waiting for you in there.” 

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Yeah, short post, I know.