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moistened.
    Several of them looked up at us before we had even begun to move toward them; they were wary prey, used to confronting hunters. We had just begun to sneak down the hill on our bellies when Pell whoofed a warning.
    Five wolves ran across the plain, scattering the prey and heading straight toward us. We must have been easy to see, even in the faint moonlight. I had been stupid, standing there so exposed. Even from a distance, I could see the wolves’ teeth bared in snarls.
    We stood to meet them, and I found myself once again slightly ahead of the others. I tried desperately to remember how Ruuqo and Rissa would greet a pack of wolves in hostile territory, but nothing came to me. I tried to decide if I should be threatening or welcoming. Then I realized that the best thing to do would have been to run. I was still deciding how to react to them when they reached us, tails stiff, ears laid back in anger.
    â€œAre you stealing our prey?” the female in the lead asked. Her proud gait and the way the other wolves deferred to her made it clear that she was the pack’s leaderwolf. I would have expected a wolf in her prime, someone Ruuqo’s age. This wolf was younger than Pell. The rest of her packmates were either wolves in their second year, like her, or our age.
    â€œWe didn’t realize it was your territory,” I found myself saying. My tongue was dry, but my voice came out confident and calm. “We won’t take what isn’t ours, and we’ll leave your lands if you give us permission to pass through.” I’d heardRuuqo and Rissa speak this way, but it had never occurred to me that I could.
    The five wolves stood growling at us, teeth bared, fur raised along their spines. The leaderwolf didn’t reply. I waited for them to attack. We’d trespassed into their territory and were standing within hunting distance of their prey. It would be within their rights to try to kill us. They were all young and strong, and they outnumbered us. Ázzuen, Marra, and Pell stepped closer to me.
    â€œWhy do you smell like humans?” one of the wolves asked, still growling. He had dark fur and a bare patch behind his left ear where a jagged wound was healing. I prepared to fight. If they tried to follow our scent to TaLi and MikLan, I would stop them.
    â€œThey came from the Wide Valley,” the wolf in the lead said. “They all smell like humans there.” Her pale gray pelt seemed to shimmer in the faint moonlight. Her tail jutted out behind her and she held herself ready to fight.
    â€œWhat happened to your leg?” she asked me.
    I hesitated, not wanting to admit weakness.
    â€œA human cut her,” Pell said, his voice deep and arrogant. It was the tone he used when he was trying to intimidate. He took two steps forward, limping a little. The rain always made his leg hurt. He’d injured it fighting maddened elkryn four moons before. “She fought with him and he sliced her with his sharpstick.”
    â€œDid you kill it?” the dark-furred male asked.
    â€œNo,” I said, “but I bit him.” It was DavRian who had wounded me, when he tried to kill me, but I didn’t want to tell them any more than I had to.
    The five wolves confronting us seemed to relax a little, and the light-coated leaderwolf lowered her tail.
    â€œI’m Lallna, of the Sentinel pack,” she said, her mouth softening into a smile, “and this is Sallin,” she said, poking the dark-furred male with her nose. Behind me, Marra snorted. It did seem like a stupid name for a wolf pack. What did the five of them think they were sentinels of?
    â€œYou’re a wandering pack, then?” the young leaderwolf asked. She either didn’t notice Marra’s ridicule or was ignoring it.
    â€œA what?”
    â€œA wandering pack. You don’t have your own territory.”
    I thought about that. Swift River was no longer our home.
    â€œNo,” I said.