so long as you're ok im ok

he watched, pleased that luke had accepted the meal, and beamed fondly at his wife as she bustled onto the scene, her kindly and skilled healing undertoned with her lowly muttered words. she tended luke carefully and lasher knew that the herbs she used would bring solace to the wounded man. he himself slipped away to dip a clump of moss into the plateau's stream, returning some time later to lie it beside luke's foreleg.

"drink," he invited, pausing to kiss the proud curve of blue willow's neck once. "this is the willow, my mate, mother to my children. this is luke, darling woman," he continued, glancing fondly between the pair, one pale, one dark. "he is my lover."

though blue willow had professed her contentment with their arrangement, apprehension briefly flared in taltos' heart -- how would she receive the news, now faced directly with the other creature whom lasher was coming to love?