Valeska eyed him over, and it was hard to tell if it was a scrutinizing gaze, or one to cut daggers into him. But she flashed him a cold grin anyhow.
"You've earned at least one steak," she told him through her teeth. "And if you prove useful, farm boy, you might get seconds."
She gave the subtlest gesture for him to follow, before she began to walk down a nearby alley.
"You'll want to drop the whole starry eyed thing if you want to survive in this town," she told him bluntly, still walking and not bothering to look back to check on him. "Pick pockets and thieves will smell you for miles away. And most of them are wolves."
It was then she glanced over her shoulder at him.
"You've already made an impression on them, and one to earn you bad marks."
She grinned. "But so long as I'm your escort, the wolves will only howl." She gave a bit of a sigh, as if feigning boredom. "They tend to have more bark than bite without their fearless leader to command them at his beck and whim."
And it was here she stopped talking as she looked up at an old wooden sign that creaked lightly in the wind.
"Well, here we are. The place ain't great, but the food is cheap as piss."
She moved to roll he shoulders as she cracked her back and looked him over.
"You think you can handle a simply thing as table manners when we get inside?"
She looked him over, then looked down to the thing on his arm.