[Liem watches curiously as Akua conducts her own inspection of the area, sensing for something he can't begin to guess at. Although he possesses the means for various kinds of aura detection, magic has nevertheless always been secondary to more mundane forms of knowledge for him, in all aspects of his life. He doesn't have the ability to use magic for anything but the most specific of tasks, whereas his knowledge of survival, tracking, and tactics has served him flexibly and well for the century or so during which he's nurtured it.

Which is exactly why he's leaving the spellcraft to Miss Sahelian.]

Based on the weather we've had today, ["today" meaning the last forty-eight hours,] I'd guess within a few hours of sundown.

[He's been having to adjust to the day–night cycles here; tracks age a little differently when the sun stays out for twenty-four hours at a time. It's been a learning experience.]

It would be about four hundred pounds; between [— he takes another glance around the track, assessing the surrounding trees and brush —] seven and eight feet tall. That would be consistent with the claw marks on the recovered corpses, as well.

[He's definitely seen bigger monsters, even just in Alenroux itself, but Liem knows from experience that smaller creatures aren't always less dangerous. Raw power is only one kind of threat that a monster can possess.]