My lip twitched, but I did not snarl. Snarling at him made him very, very angry. For a time I held the straps. Then it seemed as if my hands remembered before my mind did. I watched my fingers work the leather. When it was done, I held it up before him and tugged it, hard, to show that it would hold even if the horse threw its head back. "But there isn't a horse," I remembered out loud. "All the horses are gone."
Brother?
I come. I rose from my chair. I went to the door.
"Come back and sit down," Heart of the Pack said.
Nighteyes waits, I told him. Then I remembered he could not hear me. I thought he could if he would try, but be would not try. I knew that if I spoke to him that way again, he would push me. He would not let me speak to Nighteyes that way much. He would even push Nighteyes if the wolf spoke too much to me. It seemed a very strange thing. "Nighteyes waits," I told him with my mouth.
"I know."
"It is a good time to hunt, now."
"It is a better time for you to stay in. I have food here for you."
"Nighteyes and I could find fresh meat." My mouth ran at the thought of it. A rabbit torn open, still steaming in the winter night. That was what I wanted.
"Nighteyes will have to hunt alone this night," Heart of the Pack told me. He went to the window and opened the shutters a little. The chill air rushed in. I could smell Nighteyes and, farther away, a snowcat. Nighteyes whined. "Go away," Heart of the Pack told him. "Go on, now, go hunt, go feed yourself. I've not enough to feed you here."