Totoka River tomorrow will be kinder

@Coelacanth

He'd travelled far, but not far enough. If Ishild had still be able to find him, he had a long journey ahead of him. There were other reasons for travelling this way, and he knew them well, but pain clouded his mind until he could see no further than a few steps ahead of him - past that, there was nothing but the white heat of the blistering sand. He'd closed his eyes to that heat long ago, unable to stand the pressure, but he could not make the heat leave his body alone.

Succumbing to the heat and to the pain in his shoulder, Marbas fell where he stood. The tide soon came up to cool him, still favoring him even after his needless violence on another sea-dwelling pack. She was alive, whispered a sorrowful voice, somewhere in the back of his mind. She was alive, but you meant to kill the other.

Such thoughts became wordless but meaningful murmurs in the back of his mind, their whispering in perfect time with the swelling and receeding of the waves. All the world became hot sun, cool water, and white, shifting, blistering pain.

Marbas slept.