Siiri chuckled at the Kelvic’s apologetic tone. “Don’t worry. Garou likes to…” She paused, struggling to find the right words in the common tongue for a Myrian expression. “…to give me the rib most times and I usually let him. He brings plenty of skill in our fang with his experience. A strange one, he is. Spends more time outside the city than in it.”
She allowed Miharu to carry the conversation, just supplying a nod or a grunt of agreement at the right moments to keep the flow of words going, as she observed her. The girl seemed much more comfortable now that there were less people around her. Her tongue was looser, and her stance and demeanor more receptive to outside interaction. Siiri wasn’t sure if Kelvic body language was similar to Myrians or even humans, but she sensed the girl to be more open to her, and this despite the unseen archers up in the trees.
The Kelvic may think the guards were for Siiri, but in truth they were sent by Garou more to watch her than their fang leader. For all the non-hostile reception she received from them, Miharu was still deyhan – an outsider – and would remain under surveillance until she was fully embraced by the Myrians. It was nothing personal; Myri’s people were suspicious of anyone entering their lands. It was Miharu’s race alone that prevented her from being the target of Myrian weapons. Had she been anything else, and without a good and acceptable reason to be in the jungle, she would have joined the slavers – dead or soon-to-be sacrificed in Taloba’s temple. Siiri was giving her a chance to prove she wasn’t someone’s bondmate sent to spy on the Myrians or plumb the land for its hidden treasures. So far, Siiri like what she saw of the Kelvic.
And when Miharu took off her shirt, she liked it even more. “You should be careful walking around like that, it’s not only the men who enjoy seeing the body of a pretty girl,” Siiri teased. She noticed the Kelvic’s necklace and the curious pendant dangling beneath her breasts. “Why do you wear a ring on your neck instead of on your finger?”
She nodded at Miharu’s comment about being on top of the food chain. It was understandable; she was a predator in her own right but most of the creatures in Falyndar, and even some of the plants, have developed ways to predated on one another. That some of them were afflicted with dirism after the Valterrian did not help matters – many of the local fauna dwarfed the wolf Kelvic. Siiri would probably feel the same way as Miharu if she found herself in a foreign land where her surroundings were completely different from what she was used to, where creatures she encountered were unfamiliar from those she knew how to deal with.
“Do not worry about the tigers. They are a gift from Navre and are possessed of greater intelligence than the normal beast. They would not attack one who is not an enemy without leave of their riders.
“Usually,” she added, shrugging.