Emwe didn't really mind her. She was not so small anymore, but she could be annoying. She didn't talk that much, not as much as the other two, but when she did she talked about things he didn't care about. She didn't play as much as the other two either, and he didn't know if it was that which annoyed him the most. She was kind of quiet. Had he ever been so annoying? He doubted it. But still, he didn't really mind. Sometimes he wondered where her mother was, and why she chose to follow him around. He knew, though he was dim, how unsuited he was for this task. Conor was way better, and Alexey was the one who was really looking after them, so... Ah, well. She followed him and he didn't want to tell her to go away. It might make her cry, and he hated when she did that. She cried over all kinds of stuff.


Oddly enough, she liked to talk about bugs. Bugs were boring and tiny! But she liked them, even if it took nothing at all to kill one, and even if she had probably killed lots of them without meaning to just walking around. "They can fly, but they don't all the time." She was talking about ladybugs. He didn't see how they were fascinating, but she kept on talking, so he pretended to be interested. It worked most of the time. "Uh-huh?" She nodded eagerly and continued. "And when they're just babies they don't have any spots at all, they're just all without them. And they get the spots after a while." Conor had probably been reading to her from a book or something. Or maybe she was clever and found one of them with pictures in it. Conor had a big book with pictures of lots of animals in it, it could be that one. Emwe didn't see how it was important, but Vesle liked it, and Emwe didn't hate her, so he would try to make her be happy. That way she didn't cry. "Nice. Sort of like how you can probably shift soon, but you couldn't when you were a little puppy." She frowned at him. It was completely different! Of course it was. It always was.


The pair traveled at random, south-east was a good direction today. Emwe liked to show her around, in case she hadn't seen all the places before. It was important to know the place that you lived in, even if it was a little bit away from where you slept at night. Their conversation halted, and Emwe looked back to find that Vesle had lagged behind, standing on the edge of the big scar that cut into the hillsides. They liked to call this place Demon's Trail, because the scar was so deep; it was pretty dangerous. Emwe was clumsy, and he'd nearly fallen down there once, so he knew it was no good. "Vesle! Get back from there!", he called out while moving towards her. He wasn't stressed, but he moved swiftly, decisively, with authority. Those that did not know him too well, those that had only ever seen his playful side (which was, in truth, his only side, really, except when this kid kept following him around), would have been surprised at his demeanor right then. Her form was still, as if she did not acknowledge his presence. She sometimes did that. It was annoying, too. But when she didn't move, even when he was right by her, his attention synchronized with hers, and he followed the line of her gaze, to look at what she was looking at. And then, for a while, he didn't look away, because he wasn't sure how. The little child stood petrified, and finally Emwe set one of his legs in front of her, real close to the edge of the cliff, and forced her to back away. Staring would do no good.


The girl said nothing on their way back, nor did Emwe. It wasn't as if he hadn't seen someone dead before, but it was the state of her that had surprised him. He wished the child had not seen Mew's body at the bottom of the crevasse, but he could not undo what had happened. He wanted to whimper! but he didn't. He kept very still, and wondered how he should tell Alexey and Conor what had happened. At least now they knew where she had gone. That, in itself, was perhaps a relief, but he doubted Vesle would see it that way. He doubted she would ever see anything the same way.