Mature Content Warning

the last cold morning in the bracken woods dawned at last, fingertips of peach and rosewater seeping into a frozen horizon.

the sharp trees stood gilded in winterlight, and for a moment cen was almost sad to leave it.

but the snap of caribou in the woods and their lowing refocused the man. he see them rush out into the open land, and his heart twisted with the lanzadoii ache to follow.

cleaning gristle from a back tooth with his tonguetip, cen helped @Red Leaf to roll their sleeping skins and pack the caribou teeth, their dewclaws, the last of the meat.

as usual, red leaf would carry most of it. but cen’s new role now was to break the snow before her, to trek out and form a path more easily traversed..

by turns he was peevish and teasing, waspish and forgiving. the remembered ardency of her slim body filled cen's mind, and they were delayed longer until he found himself satisfied.

the caribou flocked before he and his woman, and within the hour, he and she quit the bracken woods for the open taiga.