So Bull is...or at least was friendly with the locals. Something must have changed, and abruptly by the sound of it. Maybe something to do with Bull smuggling women and girls out of the village? But if things really were as suspicious-- if not outright bad-- as Eskel was starting to suspect, then surely that wouldn't be a bad thing? Then again, it's not like Eskel didn't know how quickly a human could turn on a nonhuman, usually to protect their own ass.

"Suppose some of them don't care. I don't know what motivates some to let the men go--damaged but alive with some hope of recovery-- and some to take from their prey until the body gives up and the human dies. But they do talk to them first, obviously. Get the guy to agree to go away with them. Don't just jump them right there in the road against their will and all that."