Two Crows Watch from the Gallows Tree (part 5)

Ky nodded. “You’ve just gotta intimidate the things in the South. Convince them you’re bigger even if you’re not. Up here…” she wrinkled her nose. “They’re all gigantic and they know you’re not. Even if you wave your arms.”

"That usually applies to the Northern creatures, with the exception of wolverines and wolves. The wolves will take down herds of elk, and I already explained wolverines." Gaius shook his head. "Giant seals are an issue too, but only on the coast."

“Giant…” she furrowed her brows. “I don’t like the sound of that at all.”

Marrow Man was friendly. She doubted the same could be said of giant seals.

"They're brutes," Gaius said firmly. "The epitome of toxic masculinity. Otters are like that too, come to think of it, but giant seals should be avoided at all costs."

Ky laughed at that. She’d never thought of personifying animals into toxic masculinity, but she supposed it fit. The little boy running Wolf Keep was certainly guilty of it. But at the same time, humor seemed out of place. “Well, here’s hoping I don’t run into any of them.”

"If you stay away from the coast you should be perfectly fine." Gaius smiled slightly. "Can't make promises about the humans inland, I'm afraid."

Ky shivered slightly at that. “At least they won’t eat me.”

She’d firmly decided by now she didn’t like the idea of that at all.

"The seals wouldn't eat you, I don't think." Gaius wasn't entirely sure. "Can't say the same for some of the men." Was that too much? Too real?

She wrinkled her nose at that, too. “Well, whatever. As long as they kill me first. The order matters.”

Was that too dark? She hoped not. But she still hadn’t fully recovered from the threat of the Marrow Man beginning to eat her before she was dead. She felt like it was reasonable to insist on death before consumption.

"I would hope they wouldn't eat you alive." Gaius couldn't imagine even Michael doing that. Well....
"Where would you get such an idea?"

She blinked, looking at him for a moment. Right. He hadn’t had the same threat made against him. “I don’t know.”

Gaius's brow furrowed. She looked uncomfortable. "You can rest easy knowing nobody does that up here, Ky. Not even in the Far North."

“That’s good.” She nodded. He didn’t know the Marrow Man was real. He couldn't know that, unless he met him face to face as she had. And she doubted Gaius could have gotten far enough, fast enough, to do so. The wolves would get to him before the Marrow Man could. She wished she knew his name. It seemed terribly cruel to call him the Marrow Man. Perhaps she’d think of him as a ‘Mark’ — that seemed like a good compromise. “It’d be terrible otherwise.”

(I'm still trying to get the right letters together. I know the first letter, that's all)

"I couldn't agree more. Disorder everywhere." Gaius shook his head, then a thought occurred to him. "Are you out here because you had a nightmare?"

(Haha all good! You don’t have to make up a name for him, Ky is just going to keep theorizing haha)

She pulled her cloak a bit tighter around herself, considering lying. But she didn’t like lies that she could easily be caught in — and it wouldn’t be hard at all to see no one had dug their way out of Tadaaki’s tent. She hadn’t been in it. And she didn’t want him to call her on it. “No… I didn’t want to have a nightmare.”