<span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua'">"Honest." the woman assessed quickly after hearing the stranger list off all his belongings. Most people wouldn't. They'd be scared of losing something important to them, or would try to be sneaky to get the upper hand themselves. This man seemed to do neither and it seemed to earn him a point of respect in her book, or at least the lifting of some of her suspicion. <br/>
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"You've got two good hands," she said as her eyes moved over him in appraisal.<br/>
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She looked to her friends then and they all seemed to have a moment, then consensus.<br/>
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The more talkative of the two men spoke again, "A days work for a night with a roof over your head and good food in your belly. After that, you're on your own.<br/>
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"He'll come with me," Maia was fast on the heels of Vass' words. "If he wants to go north, he'd be an idiot to try it alone."<br/>
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She looked back to Jack and held his gaze for a long stoic moment. She was assessing him again, and while it wasn't overt, it wasn't hidden either. Honest and travelling alone; there couldn't be two things in the world that were more naive than that. He looked fit, but not master survivalist fit. He spoke like an educated man and had more the manners of one than some of the more rough kind of people of the region. He had an accent, maybe Midwest, but Maia hadn't seen enough of the States to really tell. She just knew it wasn't prairie or west coast. He was marginally interesting, maybe he could be useful. The Wiyots would be done with him after he helped them out with whatever Vass was thinking and then he'd want to go north.<br/>
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She nodded to herself in her mind's eye. She could take him north. She had a tenuous trade relationship with the MCs. She always provided them good useful things, but neither group liked that she dealt with the other and that made relations tense. The stranger would see what it was like up there and be glad he didn't go alone.<br/>
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"I'm going that way anyway," she concluded after the long pause and leveled gaze.<br/>
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Mohigan and Vass were used to Maia's strange ways and odd demeanor so the exchange, or lack thereof, didn't surprise them. In tandem they turned their horses to head back up the bluff to the Table and Mohigan waved behind him for Jack to follow. Maia didn't move until she saw whether or not the stranger was going to accept the offer.</span>