Bramblepoint Choke the chicken

he had intended to travel to moonspear, to check upon wildfire and see if raven had joined her there. he did not fault the dark redhawk for leaving donnelaith -- she needed to be with family. the initial grief of casmir's abrupt departure had faded, for he had not been surprised. and unlike constantine, for whom the druid pined each day, he felt that the younger of the pair was very much alive, perhaps in the south. casmir would not have gone to the coast, not with all that had gone on.


yet as the familiar spire of the mountain came into view, taltos shied aside and loped along his chosen path, choosing in that moment not to worry himself with the red she-wolf -- surely she fared well.

the springlaced sunbeams fell in bars across his sable fur as he passed 'neath the proud boles of a forest; the tang of blood came to his nostrils, but it was the desperate hacking of a wolf that caught his ear.

and though he dreaded it, taltos drew swiftly forth to see the vision of his former lover, murderer of his niece, abandoner of the plateau. but without thinking did lasher dash forward, eyes widening with horror at the dogs'-head spectre of looming death that threatened peregrine, and he struck at the man's side firmly with a rushed shoulder, hoping to dislodge whatever sought to choke the devil.