Sleeping Dragon some nights you ache to believe in God

She halfway feared rebuke for her hot words, yet none came. Thuringwethil only cradled her and Wildfire sighed deeply, once again letting her weight settle into the commander's warmth. For several long moments, they just stayed like that, pressed together, warm despite the subfreezing temperatures. All the gnawing, aching hollowness that had developed in the Bandrona over the past two or three days filled again.

Eventually, she drew back a little and noticed the weary look on the Heda's face. "Stay here," she said softly. "I'll be right back." Without another word, Wildfire reluctantly withdrew and trotted away through the geyser field, disappearing behind a screen of wispy steam as she headed in the general direction of the nearest cache.

When she returned a quarter of an hour later, there was a stiff dead squirrel trapped in her jaws. She set it gently at her mate's feet, then snuggled up close again. "First, you eat," the Bandrona said, all commanding gentleness, "and then you tell me where you've been the past three days. You smell like the ocean," she noted even as she slipped her smudged snout into the longer fur at the base of the commander's spine and began to affectionately groom it.