wc:309
The woman went on to clarify that she hadn’t been at all certain that she would return to this region. It still left Ehno wondering what had motivated her to leave in the first place, and why it had been so important that she left without a word. The Marino had his own theories, but he kept them to himself for the moment; it hardly seemed the right time to be throwing suspicions around. He remained silent as Naniko briefly spoke of her family and the pack she had started up. “Yes, I’ve met one of your… vagabonds once before.” He couldn’t prevent the disdain that seeped into his words as he thought of his tussle with the other man. He brought his hand up and lightly brushed his fingers against his scarred up shoulder, a silent explanation of just how well that meeting had gone.
Then came the question he expected would be thrown his way eventually, yet as he opened his mouth to answer, he found reason eluding him. After a beat, he forced himself to find the words, which tumbled into the air in a much less confident manner than he would have preferred. “I… I heard that you were back. I guess I needed to see for myself.” That was certainly part of it yes, as were the various questions he expected to get vague answers to and the tense conversations that would likely follow. Thinking of touchy subjects reminded the Marino of one particular topic he knew they would need to discuss. “And Harlowe. We need to have a talk about him.” A hard edge came to his words as soon as the boy's name was spoken. Ehno had no idea where their twisted son may have run off to, but he needed to be certain that Naniko knew of what lows he had stooped to.