Neve had expected someone like the leopard tribe warriors.
Loud and confident, like the kind of person who walked into spaces like they already owned them. Based on the size of Aldric and the way he had stepped through the snow, Neve had braced for that energy.
What he got instead was a large man standing close to his sister with his eyes on the ground.
Neve stared at him.
His sister grabbed his hand and shook it. "Go on, brother. Don't be shy!"
Neve remembered the bears at the zoo.
Not the aggressive ones people imagined. The actual bears. The ones who heard him coming down the path on cleaning days and went immediately to hug a tree. They were not running away exactly; they just suddenly became very interested in bark, keeping themselves very busy with the tree. They could not possibly acknowledge the zookeeper right now since they were very occupied.
