"No one claims these lands," she whispers to Skellig just before a handful of men on horseback burst into the clearing. They're heavily armed, with long, bronze tipped spears and a few with bows. (One MIGHT hunt boar with such weapons, bears, or even larger beasts.) The way they move, the way they carry themselves, their ease with their weapons, these are not bandits, not untrained thugs.
The horses and the dogs are fine beasts, well kept, and the glint of gold jewelry among the men confirms that they are wealthy and almost certainly nobility of one kind or another. (Only nobles have time to spend hunting like this or train consistently in the arts of war.)
One man says something to the dogs that Skellig doesn't understand, but must be a means of calling them off, as the dogs stop barking and circling, go to him instead.
All of the hunters are watching Skellig and Kreyu. Two in particular are looking at Kreyu with an expression that is only just shy of a leer. One of those men makes a comment to the other tone in a tone that suggests a ribald joke or comment of some kind, and the other of the pair laughs.
The hunter wearing the most gold approaches Skellig on horseback. (He SHOULD dismount, Skellig knows, as Kreyu has taught him some of the etiquette of this era. Clearly, the man considers himself so far above Skellig that he has no fear of being rude.) He speaks, his language the one Skellig knows from their village but accented as if the man doesn't speak it very often. "You must have the scent of what we hunt on you strongly, for the dogs to react so."
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The horses and the dogs are fine beasts, well kept, and the glint of gold jewelry among the men confirms that they are wealthy and almost certainly nobility of one kind or another. (Only nobles have time to spend hunting like this or train consistently in the arts of war.)
One man says something to the dogs that Skellig doesn't understand, but must be a means of calling them off, as the dogs stop barking and circling, go to him instead.
All of the hunters are watching Skellig and Kreyu. Two in particular are looking at Kreyu with an expression that is only just shy of a leer. One of those men makes a comment to the other tone in a tone that suggests a ribald joke or comment of some kind, and the other of the pair laughs.
The hunter wearing the most gold approaches Skellig on horseback. (He SHOULD dismount, Skellig knows, as Kreyu has taught him some of the etiquette of this era. Clearly, the man considers himself so far above Skellig that he has no fear of being rude.) He speaks, his language the one Skellig knows from their village but accented as if the man doesn't speak it very often. "You must have the scent of what we hunt on you strongly, for the dogs to react so."