Hurried pawsteps, golden nape standing to meet them, and... a boy. One who was decidedly not Van.

Marigold blinked. She knew better than to show her surprise and instead watched him flinch as he rounded suddenly into view with a blank, almost bored expression. Then she watched with a curiously raised eyebrow as his turned immediately hostile. He spat at her and she reflexively let out a derisive "heh", making a show of sizing the two-toned boy up. He was big but Vanguard was bigger and she was confident in her ability to wallop him.

I should be asking you that, Pretty Boy, she scoffed in the tones of her Gladiator, tail swishing lightly at her heels. But then there was a second voice, markedly older, and her arrogance shriveled, turning to suspicion.

If it was an ambush, the other wolf likely wouldn't have announced themselves, but one could never be too sure, especially seeing as the boy didn't seem particularly concerned. Marigold shifted, making sure to keep both him and his approaching guardian in her line of sight as her ears flicked back. You hungry, he said. Hardly. She'd just met the guy, what if he'd shoved wolfsbane into it? Zora had done something similar, once. The poor bastard died choking on his own vomit.

N— She started to snap, before her stomach let out a near comical growl. Heat clawed its way up her neck, wrapping its grubby little hands around her throat and choking off her words with an embarrassed grumble as she quickly averted her eyes.