Yarri stayed aside when the situation suddenly became complicated by the appearance of the two children. She half of her mind was focused on a magical mark which she had on the tiger, which was still apparently circling around them. From a large distance, for now, but she didn’t doubt in time it would get much more daring and come closer. That was the reason Yarri neglected all the signals that Shaela was giving her about someone coming. She thought the cougar was just nervous from the dangerous animal lurking around.

The first child looked like she had been in the forest for weeks alone and Yarri wondered how she survived that. Probably her cat keeping her alive, but it must have been very uncomfortable, eating raw meat and sleeping out in the forests. She let the others deal with the girl, Yarri wasn’t good in dealing with normal children, let alone such traumatized ones.

The other child she remembered from the ship. There was something strange about the boy, not just the look of someone who had been in a horrible accident and barely survived, but something else. Yarri couldn’t really put a finger on it. But even Shaela, which seemed to be happy to play with every other child on the ship, always kept her distance from this one, growling quietly whenever she passed by him.

While the girl was talking to Adrian, Shaela walked over to the moorcat, sniffing the air around it carefully. Then she lowered her head, so their muzzles nearly touched. The cats stayed like this for a few seconds, looking into each other’s eyes. Shaela must have been satisfied with what she had seen, because she just turned around and went back to Yarri. “Did you guys have a nice chat?” Yarri whispered to Shaela’s ear, absent-mindedly stroking her soft fur. The cat licked her hand and lied down on the ground, which was a clear sign that there was no immediate danger.

Yarri walked over to the young hunter and tried her best not to sound hostile when talking to him. “We should keep moving if you want to reach the town before dark, especially now with these children to slow us down.”