They looked beastly.
There was little other way to describe them. Primal, animalistic, beastly men and women observing him with with their wild yellow stares, all of them simultaneously more shaggy and graceful than anything he'd ever seen. None of them were groomed as far as he could tell; though they looked clean enough, the men and women alike all had long, unkempt hair trailing down their backs and over their shoulders. Made sense. It was cold up here in the mountains, and who would have shears for hair up here? Any primitive blades were probably reserved for skinning and preparing dinner. Hair cutting wasn't essential to survival, after all.
That was another thing: the sheer singleminded drive to survive. It was neither desperation nor panic, but calm drive, a knowing, casual willin
