Honeyed Pasture beta

The panther waited for word from Moonglow. He gazed often toward the spine, willing a figure to appear on the horizon. He was there today, exhausted after a long hunt, still sore and still healing. And then, from the wrong direction, a figure finally appeared. Dutch watched it trudge across the pasture, feeling a certain sense of kinship with the weariness apparent in every step.

Gradually, he realized that the kinship went beyond that.

"Aditya," he hollered, and then he set off at an aching lope to meet the older man. He might normally have been eager to reconnect — but Aditya grimmer than usual, and the panther was wary of what bad news he might bring.

"What are you doing out here?" he asked, breathless as he drew near.