Moonsong Glacier If we run into red full speed

They looked to each other almost at the same time. Dutch laughed, his breath misting, and then lifted his muzzle to croon a low note toward the high reaches of the dome. The ice seemed to him around them.

He stepped closer to her, sitting back on his haunches and lifting a paw in invitation.

"I will keep you warm," he offered, a bright spark in his burnished gaze implying a second meaning. But his smile was coquettish, almost — and still just a little shy. They had spoken only in hypotheticals, so far as he could tell. It would be embarrassing to presume she would choose him for this task and find he was only a contender. But, if he was a contender, he wanted to show himself a strong one.

He sang to her, soft and low, the lyrics of a song that lingered always somewhere on the border of tender and profane.