he did not let @Keda from sight of his face. the gathering then was by way of a loud call which rose sharp and commanding on the frozen air. every moment of the next several days were his own. the clan would return to the qeya river and prepare to depart again when the caribou left the bracken wood in some weeks.

a longer time, but thousands of the tall antlered creatures still strode in waves over the land. there would be good hunting, and perhaps some caches for the spring.

had it not been for her fragrances tightening sensually around his conscious mind, sun eater might have disliked returning so quickly. as it were, he could hardly wait to have carried several hides back to the riverland, unceremoniously dumping them into the snow before he caught his starwoven with a laugh and a nip, chivvying her up into the icehoned reaches of the qeya as if they were truly a pair of caribou, dancing alongside those spirits for a time without seeming end.