"Walk this way," Zoe suggested, jerking her head towards their left. It would take them back to their sponsor, in a round-about fashion. "Take the perimeter on the way back. Don't think that roar was anywhere close 'nuff to bother us jest yet."

And she suited actions to words, moving along the path she'd worked out in her head around the clearing where they'd been accosted. "What era you from, again, anyhow?" Small talk wasn't really her forte, but his surprise at her profession made her wonder.