The back of Atrius’s neck went tight.  “no,” he replied quietly.  “I take better care of my friends than that.”  He stepped in front of the two girls and rolled his staff three times while eyeing the half starved looking mutts.  “You two should go somewhere else,” he told the dogs in a conversational tone while wondering if they’d respond to the commands he’d use on a trained animal…<br/><br/>After a moment he thought better of hit.  Atrius carefully dropped his pack.  He smoothly crouched and dropped one hand form his pack.  Not looking away from the dogs, he fished around in it for tow pieces of dried goat, hoping he could get them out and toss them to the poor beasts before they did something stupid.<br/>