Firestone Hot Springs i'll check in tomorrow if i don't wake up dead

He stood back, watching silently as Pema examined the girl. She was so gentle, so calm and kind. He found that he enjoyed watching the healer with her newest patient, looking for various cuts and bruises. The young woman had relaxed, though kept a wary eye on Shale throughout.

"Yes, of course. Red flowers, black centers," he recited obediently, nodding at Pema. Red flowers, black centers. Red flowers, black centers. A sudden image popped into his mind. He had seen these flowers before, in a den. Red flowers, black centers. Where?

He spun slowly and took off at a lope, his long legs reaching out across the frozen ground for the nearest meadow. Red flowers, black centers. Into the maw. . . Red flowers, black centers.

"It hurts."

Lucy's voice, near to him as if her muzzle hovered just beside his ear, brought him nearly to a standstill. Despite his heaving chest, the tears that leapt suddenly to his eyes, he kept running, for Pema's sake.

And for the girl. The girl who could have been Lucy. . .or their daughter, for that matter. Shale swallowed a lump that rose suddenly to his throat.