Alphonse stood with his back to her, peering up at the shifting tops of trees that marked the passage of the beast that had escaped him. He brushed a few small leaves out of his hair.

"A groon," he informed her impatiently. "It's been eating livestock for months. Last week it swiped a kid from the lakeside. I was called in to get rid of it." He turned toward her again, an arm against the tree. "I was about to stun it into the lake, where it would've drowned and dissolved -- but now I'll have to go to Plan B, which is a hell of a lot harder. How do you not know what's going on? This thing's been terrorizing all the surrounding settlements. [i]You're[/i] lucky I was already distracting this thing, else you'd be lunch by now, traipsing through the woods where you have no business being."