He could try all he want, but that was one of the things Hawke would be able to see right through. She knew competent people when she saw them. She was often underestimated for any number of things, and they were carefully cultivated into her arsenal. Like recognized like. "You made an excellent call to hitch yourself to my cart, Reyes. Surviving is one of my very best skills." She squinted her eyes. "Oh, except for the whole part where I'm dead, but that wasn't due to lack of survival skills. Just a terrible, terrible conscience."

She dropped comments about her death like she was commenting on the weather, and moved right past it without missing a beat. "I can teach you, and you'll always have meat provided as long as you live here. I've been keeping the storage steady for the village." Hawke liked being useful. She was far better at this than she was at attempting to be a leader in a city that hated its leaders.

She tilted her head to the side curiously at him. "Why did you walk? You didn't take the pod? That only takes a few minutes." Odd choice, but then she snapped her fingers. "Probably because of the swimming. It isn't the best time of the year to swim even for a few hundred feet, I suppose. But in the future, you should know there's a little thing that takes you here from there in five minutes. When the water isn't freezing."