"Uhhhhhh .... beasty, with all due respect, are you sure it is alright for you all to come with us? We don't want to cause any trouble." Marcus was sweating, more nervous than I have seen him yet.

  "Yep, Mom and Dad agreed to come with to "keep me out of trouble"" saying this with as much enthusiasm I can manage while trying not to laugh at Marcus's expression. To his credit he seemed to accept the news easier after that, nodding and then grinning before stretching and looking at the few other families with him.

  "Alright lads, nothing else to do but get moving." Turning to one of the women in the group, he asked "Sarah, are the water barrels refilled, loaded and ready to go?" Sarah, one of the younger women with long black hair, and a set of sparkling green eyes turned back to him, nodded. "Yes Marc, and we coulda been long gone by now if it wasn't for your insistance we wait for the littlest one there to come back." I wanted to smile at her brazen attitude and obvious sass hidden in their conversation. Marcus didn't find it as funny as I did, but bit his tongue to keep the peace it seems before turning back to us. "Well, beasty, are you all ready to go, we would like to reach the next camping spot before nightfall, lots of dangerous animals round this forest and it wouldn't be good to run into any before we next camp."

  Turning to Mom and Dad I ask them, not excluding the humans from hearing my words. "If you guys are willing, they say they are ready to go and want to get to a next camping spot before nightfall so they don't run into any dangerous animals." I feel a wolfish grin sleep onto my face at the statement, full well knowing the most dangerous animals in this forest are right here, and willingly walking with them for my own sake. Dad just nods at me, while Mom keeps an eye on all the humans with their simple spears in arms reach. Dad directs his Qi speech directly to me, seemingly excluding Marcus and the humans from hearing based on their lack of reactions to his voice. "We are going with you, so whenever they want to leave is fine with us. Not like they could outpace us with those slow creatures connected to their carts."

  Turning back to Marcus I simply state "We are ready to go with you."

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  The walk is uneventful, no other animals show up for the rest of the evening, much to the humans surprise and my amusement. The Oxen seem willing to move a little faster with 3 large wolves behind them, if the humans confused mutterings like "Hey, isn't that the campsite, Marcus, shouldn't it have been another 30 Sil until we got there?" I took Sil to be their unit of time to measure minutes. Marcus rubbed his chin, scratching gently under his beard. "Yeah... I'm going to attribute that to the Oxen wanting to stay a good distance from our 3 new friends over there." As I translate their words to Mom and Dad, Dad lets out a chuff of what I can only describe as amusement based off the wolfish grin I can see forming.

  When the humans stop for the evening to set up camp, I laugh as the Oxen are unhitched and more than happy to be on the farthest side of the clearing from the three of us. Mom and Dad just lay down on the edge of the clearing, keeping a wary eye on the humans. My curiosity gets the better of me and I start to walk around and watch as the humans set up simple tents connected to the sides of the wagon their goods are in, making a large lean-to looking structure on each side. Poking my head into the wagon I see it has a few sealed barrels in it, a few crates, and some large sacks on one side, the other holding what seems to be personal belongings and some cooking implements, based on the large pot that has a lid over it.

  "Hey beasty" a voice from right behind me startles me, making me jump and fall on my back outside the wagon. Marcus, looking down at me now continues as though nothing happened. "We are going to camp here for the night. If you don't mind, would you all stay away from the Oxen, they seem jumpy around you all, for the obvious reasons." He motions to my form with his arm. "You can be quite intimidating with your shape."

  At this I just nod at him, righting myself as I do so. "What's with the strange tent looking set up, don't you own your own individual tents?"

  Marcus rubs the back of his head briefly. "Nah, that's a lot of hide and leather we would need to make the tents out of something the rain won't just drip through. These cloths have been treated with oils and fats to make the water slide right off. Doing that with individual tents would cost too much for our little village, so whenever someone goes to sell the excess stock, they use this wagon and these cloths."

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  "What do you all eat on the travels, I didn't see any meat in the wagon. Do you not eat meat?" This question seemed ridiculous to me at the time asking it, but not seeing any dried meat made me wonder. "We eat mostly dried out fruits and nuts plus whatever we can forage. It would hurt our village too much to slaughter a sheep or Ox just for some meat for the road." They must be from a small village then by my guess.

  "Well, I was going to go hunting, I can share what I catch with you if you would like..." He seems surprised by my offer before smiling and nodding enthusiastically. "If yer willin to part with some of your catch, I bet I could convince Jenine to make a soup or stew with it. We got the time to spare tonight at least."

  I took this as a challenge, walking back to my parents. "Dad, Mom, I was gunna go hunt, I'm not too hungry but the humans don't have much food for themselves it seems. I was going to share with them if that's alright with you....." I trail off nervously when I see Mom look at dad with something akin to humor in her expression.

  "You owe me a large deer Talloe, I knew he would try to help the humans in some way or form tonight." I just stare at Mom... were they making bets on what I would do? Why? Am I that easy to read or predict? "You win Nasha, I'll get you one of your favorites when we get back home from this trip. You like the frost-horned deer. That should make an interesting catch."

  They start to share some glances and looks before settling closer to each other, and I rapidly scurry the hell out of there. No matter what life you are living, your parents being all lovey with each other still make you want to get out of dodge. I take this as my que to go hunt, my parents seemingly relaxed around these humans. They must be as weak as Dad and Mom were describing for them to be this unguarded.

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  Now then, let's see whats around for dinner.... the humans' one that is. Tracking a few different scents on the wind, I find a few rabbits, but they aren't what I want to catch. I keep searching, getting farther from the camp I eventually find a smaller buck. This will be my largest catch yet, if I can get it.

  Sneaking low along the grass and hiding behind trees where I can I get within jumping distance before launching myself at it. The deer turns and bolts, bounding over the grass at speed and I give chase. The deer is fast, but I can keep pace. At this rate I won't catch it unless something fortuitous happens. I decide to use a bit of Qi, channeling the power towards my legs for a burst of speed, I barely dodge around a tree, then run straight into the deer, literally. Face-planting into it at speed isn't great for either of us. I feel its antler dig into my shoulder, painfully, my skin and fur giving way due to the force of impact. I hear more than feel its neck as it cracks and the deer stills.... oops, well at least it was painless for the poor deer. Hunt successful? I'll chalk this one up as a draw....

  Dragging the deer back to camp in my jaws, my shoulder aching every step of the way, I make my way back to where the humans set up camp. Hearing the sounds seems to of set the humans on edge, a few of them reaching for their spears before seeing how calmly my parents are laying and deciding that whatever the noise is, it mustn't be dangerous. Upon spotting me Marcus's eyes go a little wide before he starts laughing. Full belly laughs that send him sprawling on his back. This confuses both me, my parents, and half the humans with him. He composes himself, barely, before turning to Janice and half shouting "See, I told you it wouldn't just be a rabbit or 2... the little one has guts!"

  This makes me grin, but then he sees my blood covered shoulder, and my parents smell/see it at the same time. Marcus goes from laughing to panic as my parents get up and cross the camp, thankfully avoiding the oxen so as to not scare them. Thanks Mom,Dad.

  "You are hurt, son. I can see it isn't bad, but would you explain how this happened." Dad just asks his question directly where as Mom takes the deer from me, carrying it to Marcus and dropping it at his feet. She then walks over and starts to lick and sniff at my wound before looking back at the deer. I take the time to answer Dad's question, explaining how everything went down. He just gives a wolf grin, then lets out a low chuckling laugh, sounding almost like barking before turning to Nasha and stating "See, always finds a new way to get into trouble. Even got injured by running into a sharp pointy thing on purpose."

  Marcus takes his time dragging the deer over to a tree, and uses a rope to hoist it up with a few of the other guys from camp, starting to butcher the creature. He leaves them to the task, coming over to me and my parents very cautiously. "Thanks for the help, beasty, the meat will go great with tonight's meal. Just how much can we have of your catch?"

  "I caught it for you all. I wanted to thank you for letting us come with and not raising a fuss over it. Would you please give a portion of the meal to me and my parents as well?" I chuckle at the look on his face before he shakes his head and sighs loudly.

  He walks back to the rest of the humans, tossing a grin and a muttered "You are a strange one, aint'chya?"

  My parents even started laughing at that. Of course they understood that one..... I'm not strange? Right? I should probably let Marcus know that we all have names, maybe then he will think I am more normal..... yeah, right, that will work.