Blacktail Deer Plateau people let me tell ya bout my best friend

good old times, my arse, adi thought. the frown on engel's face had suggested otherwise. but he didn't argue--it was obviously a painful memory for the older man, and he didn't want to bring up anything his friend didn't want to talk about.

"only once?" aditya asked, puzzled. obviously dawn had been more scarce than he thought. "would have thought you'd run into her a few times by now." then again, i thought i'd be seeing her more often, too. the closest they had ever been was on the scouting trip. perhaps they could take another, in the spring.

that romantic thought filled aditya with warmth, and he smiled. "she's fine, i think," he said. "we've both been busy."