"Go avay."
"No offence meant. "ere, I heard tell wolves mate for life, right?"
"Vell?"
"Wish I could."
Gaspode froze as the she-wolf"s muzzle snapped an inch from his nose.
"Ver I come from ve eat things like you," she said.
"Fair enough, fair enough," muttered Gaspode, backing away. "I don"t know, you try to be friendly and this is what you get..."
Nearer the fire the humans were getting complicated. Gaspode slunk back and lay down.
"You could have told me," Carrot was saying.
"It would"ve taken too long. You always want to understand things. Anyway, it"s none of your business. This is family."
Carrot waved a hand towards the wolf. "He"s a relative?" he said.
"No. He"s a... friend."
Gaspode"s ears waggled. He thought: whoops.
"He"s very big for a wolf," said Carrot slowly, as if filing new information.
"He"s a very big wolf," said Angua, shrugging.
"Another werewolf?"
"No."
"Just a wolf?"
"Yes," said Angua sarcastically. "Just a wolf."
"And his name is... ?"
"He would not object to being called Gavin."
"Gavin?"
"He once ate someone called Gavin."
"What, all of him?"
"Of course not. Just enough to make certain that the man set no more wolf traps." Angua smiled. "Gavin is... quite unusual."
Carrot looked at the wolf and smiled. He picked up a piece of wood and tossed it gently towards him. The wolf snapped it, dog-like, out of the air.
"I"m sure we"ll be friends," he said.
Angua sighed. "Wait."
Gaspode, the unheeded spectator, watched as Gavin, without taking his eyes off Carrot, very slowly bit the wood in two.
"Carrot?" said Angua sweetly. "Don"t do that again. Gavin isn"t even in the same clan as these wolves, and he took over the pack without anyone even whining. He"s not a dog. And he"s a killer, Carrot. Oh, don"t look like that. I don"t mean he pounces on wandering kids or eats up the odd grandmother. I mean that if he thinks a human ought to die, that human is dead. He will always, always fight. He"s very uncomplicated like that."