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"Your own brother, eh? That's hard," Salem said, taking a deep drag on a pipe he had pulled from his front pocket a few minutes ago. Ander was quite interested in the process of stuffing it with pipe-weed and then lighting it with a contraption not so different from his own flamebox, but once that acrid smoke filled the air he had to fight very hard not to crinkle his nose in disgust. How anyone could take that into their mouth and throat by regular habit was beyond his understanding, but he knew better than to say anything in that vain. "I lost an older brother too," Salem continued, "so I know how you feel. Well, maybe not exactly, since I wasn't the one who killed him." Ander winced, but Salem didn't seem to notice. "He simply took ill one winter. Must have been at least twenty years ago. By the gods, doesn't time fly? Anyway, one morning he couldn't get out of bed to do his chores. Just kept getting worse and worse. He was dead by nightfall. Just like that."

"I'm sorry to hear that, Sai."

Salem waved it off. "Happened a long time ago. And you don't have to keep calling me that 'sir' word. Seems a bit silly when you're twice my size. Call me Salem."

"But you're twice my age."

"Ha! I'm not that old."

"And I'm not that big. But all right. If you insist, Salem."

"That's the spirit. Now, on to the real issue. I'm sure you're thinking the same thing as I am?"

Ander nodded. "You're wondering what to do about the giant Wolf in your spare bedroom."

Salem snapped his fingers and pointed in one jerky motion. "Exactly. What do we do with you, Ander? What do we do?"

"You don't have to worry about that, s - Salem. It's obvious I can't -"

The sound of a door opening and closing, and an exasperated sigh.

"Beth?" Salem called. "That you?"

"Who else would it be?" she called back.

"My darling wife," Salem whispered in Ander's direction, rolling his eyes. "Beth? You're back much earlier than I expected."

"And with good reason!" Her voice was coming closer. "We might be sitting on one hell of a problem, Salie!"

"Salie?" Ander mouthed silently. Salem puffed up his cheeks and blew out a thick plume of smoke in response, rolling his eyes yet again.

"Those damn twins have been -" The vixen called Bethany suddenly appeared in the doorway. She took one look at Ander and froze, her mouth still partway open.

She wasn't exactly what Ander had been expecting. She was quite large for a Fox, for one. Almost a full head taller than her husband, and full-bodied, too. Not in a jolly, plump kind of way, but more in a bulky kind of way.

"So..." she said. "He's awake?"

"That he is." Salem said, puffing away on his pipe.

"Is he going to bite my head off?"

"How would I know?" He turned to Ander. "Are you?"

"No," Ander said.

Salem tipped his pipe in Beth's direction. "There you go."

"Huh." She didn't seem convinced.

"You were saying, my dear?"

Bethany tore her eyes away from Ander with what seemed like considerable effort. "It's Lonin's boys. Them and Mateo and those others that saw him come in yesterday morn." She jerked her head in Ander's direction.

"They been talking?"

"All over town. I didn't treat a single patient today that didn't ask me if it was true or not. I couldn't even walk down the roads without being accosted by nosy, prying Foxes. Like bored housewives they were! Darren even had his sword out! Kept talking about how Mateo told him we were harbouring a monster in our home."

"Well now, that could be a problem."

So it was happening already, just as Ander had known it would. His presence here would cause these people nothing but harm. He would have to think carefully about what to do in the coming hours.

"Did you tell them anything?" Salem asked.

"Of course not!" Bethany snapped. "But we can't keep him a secret forever. He wasn't really much of a secret to begin with anyway. Sooner or later, truth will come out, and when it does -"

"You don't have to worry about any of that, Kai. I don't intend to become a burden on you and your family."

"Kai?"

"The Wolf word for 'ma'am,' I'd wager," Salem said.

"You've already saved my life once. If I'm putting you all in danger, then I can't -"

"'Danger' my tail!" Bethany said. "I don't care if they storm my house with flaming pitchforks! I am quite capable of taking care of myself, thank you very much!"

"I doubt it would come to that," Salem added. "Mostly we'll be dealing with curious gawkers, if you ask me."

"Kai..." Ander looked at the big piece of fabric covering the window, blocking the view of the mountain. The sun shone through the weave in hundreds of tiny white pinpricks of light, highlighting the strands as they flowed over and under each other in countless little squares. "It's not the Foxes I'm worried about..."