Hearing Wolfnine and Elder Earthwolf’s words, Martin scraped a bit of the dark mud from his hide shirt and tasted it.
It was salty and bitter— and surprisingly close to the coarse salt he’d once eaten back in the Wolfteeth Tribe.
So this really is the raw material for making coarse salt? he thought.
“Martin, think carefully. Where exactly did you pick this up?” Elder Earthwolf pressed again, voice tight with urgency.
Martin frowned, then replied, “It got on me inside a cave…”
He briefly explained how the golden python had dragged him away. The blackish dirt clinging to his hide— he remembered now— had come from when the serpent coiled him up and hauled him into that cavern.
The others tensed as they listened. Even hardened tribesmen like Landwolf and Wolfnine broke into a sweat at th
