Qeya River blood skull

sun eater limped, openly tracking @Senka through his land. in the afternoon the man had rested again, waking to drink and eat what he wanted from small caches.

his ear ached; his nape felt white-hot with pain, and agony lay in his shoulders. 

but he was driven now to find her as he had sheep killer, to assert himself once more while they all healed, to ensure each was truly prepared to follow.

she had retired to the frigid caverns. not for the illusion of privacy or safety, but for the coldness of the walls within. her back had been pressed against one when she fell asleep.

she did not know how long it had been. she did not know of any conversations that occurred or if anyone checked in on her when she slept it all off.

if sun eater wished her dead, it would happen. regardless if she slept or not. he had told her to heal or die, though. she figured rest had to be the first step to healing.

perhaps she was being forced to become a medic, for herself if nothing else.

when her eyes opened it was to a figure shadowing. the scent of him thick with the masculine and the wounds. she did not move from her laid position. she was not yet certain if she had the energy to.

a low chuff in her throat to bring him inside, to bring him closer. she had not forgot that he had asked for her after he won. maybe through all of the cruelty was something she could cling to. she might be forced to find a reason to like him even if only to adapt, to survive.

sun eater did not like to be here. it was unnatural to be so far beneath the earth, huddled in frozen domes as if she were a vole or pika.

a clump of mud riddled with some oozing plant splattered to the earth beside her nearest paw.

he detached from the curled shadows and limped to some place along the rock wall. "put on."

this was all he knew to do, his mouth smeared with its remnants. "what you do here, before?"

the splatter of a mud paste. she had no wariness of it, but she felt only an indecision on where to apply it. some spread along her muzzle where both his and the dead woman’s teeth had scored. along the hind right leg where the ache still roared. she did not think it was because of a wound, but she hoped it might help all the same.

they were not so different now, were they? she looked at that one eye and wondered what all it had seen.

guardian. she had thought she might be a ranger too, but she had been forced to be within the river before too long. yet she had clearly not been able to guard it as needed either.

could not guard against you, though, hm? it is not disrespect that warms her voice but the dying embers of humor. she tried not to think about how different this might all be if the woman had focused her teeth only upon the true usurper. but what good does it do to question the dead?

caribou man shifted closer, inching upon the stone floor. he reached out and put the muddy salve where she could not reach, his touch coarse and unpracticed.

and he pulled away when it was done. "no one stops me." not rodyn. not heph. not red leaf. not tullik. not the great power of the moon wolves and their terrible teeth; the pain of that lanced through him, remembered!

slowly he turned his gaze up to look at the stone roof. "why here?"

she did not recoil and she thought that her tiredness might be her biggest strength right now. too tired to rebel, too tired to retreat. what reasons could he have to be angry if she gave him none?

his question flicked around her mind and for a moment she wondered if he meant this cave or the river. her own gaze had not followed his. she did not think he wanted his words guessed.

the river or the cave?

both; he could have said it.

a long stare came instead. the man shrugged with deliberate slowness. did it matter? he wanted only an answer, to gain some piece of her cut from behind this stone of pain.

of them all, her wounds were greatest. sun eater flicked his eye over her leg. "stand?"

he shrugged. a roll of one of her own shoulders nearly returned the gesture. the cold, for both. she craved it when she first arrived and now it was the only thing that kept her tethered to consciousness, away from the pain.

it was not a demand he spoke next. it was a question.

she wondered it herself. he was not far, but she gestured him closer. that way she might be wedged between him and the wall. if she was careful, if she balanced, she could get back up. yet already she felt nauseous at the thought of settling her weight upon that leg.

it might not be fully broken, but she imagined it could very easily become such if she stressed it. the woman had been direct and violent in her assault, followed by the challenging of this man as well.

the bone had been assailed; he saw the catch of the dead woman's fangs in this one's flesh.

sun eater was not certain she would live, and there was nothing for him to do. they had no healer. now she might die, a fate escapable if only she had capitulated on the borders of the riverland.

but could she have lived after that with herself?

sun eater, yikaas, cen — none of these men or these names would have bent. he helped her to sit down again, close enough to see the etching of each scar. "where get?"

some were old, some were from nothing other than disobedience. perhaps her history had become her present. there was something softer in her gaze now, through the tired haze of pain.

you are not the first raider i know, she told him in a voice that might suggest secrecy. but what did it matter? who cared of grim pasts if it was their futures now? not the first challenger, either.

i come from harsh places.

disgust welling up in her gut. frustration at herself, at this life.

"first to win."

was it so? had she fought the others? had she given up?

sun eater wanted to know what sort of fighting-spirit crouched here in these caves of cold snow.

"stone crier." it dangled on his mouth, a talisman. "this is what i call you now." guarded even in pain, her words willing for a moment to open.

first to win.

but perhaps sun eater was cunning and that was why he had won. he had not sought to challenge the claim of a more boisterous place. he had seen weakness. how quickly the river had fractured when she had been labeled no different than him.

stone crier.

i will answer.

she had no other choice.

"i bring healer here. ask them. drag them."

his teeth flashed in a feral, unhumored grin, yellow moonlight over stone spires.

"stay here, stone crier." the lanzadoii was as cleansing water to his throat. sun eater clambered from the cave and was gratefully gone out into the sunlight.

of course he would.

she did not doubt him now, when pressed under that feral moonlight of his grin. his voice rolled overhead like thunder. in a way she did not understand. yet the message overall felt clear.

she allowed her eyes to flutter shut and drifted back into silence.