The word itself made Ruby take pause. In an instant, her entire body had stiffened, her eyes hard on Sorath as if she had not heard the words at all. Then, a moment later, she seemed to absorb the word. In an instant, she breathed out sharply.

"Noble deaths. Demons.” She repeated the words and yet none of Sorath’s vehemence remained in them – rather, she breathed them out with a sense of awe. Her lips had lingered on the edge of a grin but then, they suddenly turned downward as she shifted into a more defensive position. She had become suspicious in an instant. "You speak of these things. Who are you? Who is your mother?” Ruby’s eyes narrowed, but she did not step forward despite her urge to do so. She wanted to close in on the girl, to force the information out of her and yet, she held herself back. Besides, any wolf knew that even a child’s teeth could do damage well enough. Ruby could be stubborn and a fool at times, but she surely wasn’t that much of a fool.

But she also hadn’t finished. "You speak words my kin might have spoken yet my kin were driven away from this place,” she said with finality. Then, she watched expectedly, her lips taut. She could not take her eyes off of the girl’s crimson markings, yet she felt her hackles bristle in uncertainty and...fear. What if her kin had not been driven away completely? What if?