"Because it would not survive," she says with the ease of one who believes fully in what she says.

"Maybe not in a generation, maybe not in three, but it will whither and die if it is deemed so. That is the way of things. That is why I know to watch the land and see the things that grow and the prey that eats the growing things. So that we may know what to kill and what to leave to breed more prey for later."

Raptor shamans have a powerful innate sense of the ecosystem and environment, and it comes naturally to Sharp Tongue to notice these things.