The words Xander spoke reached Karma's ears for she was close by to where he was. She was about to say something when she froze. Dusk, a little further ahead, had raised his tail slightly as a warning hush for the others, for he had caught sight of a dark-furred wolf, female judging by her body structure. Holding their breaths, the siblings held completely still, watching the stranger but not looking directly at her, for staring straight at someone often caused them to gaze back. Seeming like hours when it was probably only minutes, the female finally vanished within the shadows, Dusk had to blink once or twice to make sure she had actually gone. Still, he kept his tail raised, scanning the area and sniffing the air to make sure she was really gone. Finally, his body relaxed slightly and he released a breath, lowering his tail.
Karma did the same, then turned her gaze to Xander. "Its too late to be backing out now," she said sternly, but keeping her voice low to not attract attention to them. "Numbers are meaningless, it's a wolf's skill that counts. That female wolf may come back, and maybe with others judging by how long she lingered here. They don't know that we could be hiding among the rocks, at least hopefully they won't, so when they draw closure we can ambush them. They'll be caught by surprise, but there's no doubt they'll recover quickly, so we'll have to take as many out as we can."
Brows furrowing, she continued, "But you know this pack more than anyone else. You need to get out of that state you're in, snap out of it and get over it. If you don't, we'll all be killed. You can tell us more of this pack and we'll be able to come up with a plan. There'll be plenty of time to doubt yourself after its over."
~*~*~*~*~
Cyris trudged along silently behind, gazing back at Kali with even eyes, but saying nothing. "That one wolf," he said instead, his voice like an echo in a black chasm. "The one Vanth brought as a prisoner. We should dispose of her now, I see no use for her. A hostage is effective, but she'll only slow us down, and I never saw this pack as cowardly enough to use bait."
Lowering his head slightly, he added, "Also, it sounded like she was only with one or two wolves if Vanth was able to take her, and since she was focused on just taking a hostage Xander was not among them, who is our target. For all we know, Xander and the wolf don't even know each other."
