Bearclaw Valley can you still sleep, the way i used to?

she was in fact sitting beside her boulder.

oftentimes she felt as if THE DARK MAN who haunted her dreams and constantly lingered on the edge of her conscious had an EYE formed with evil and the sacred things it stole from innocent beings. it was hovering and omni-present.  it could see for miles and miles and miles.  its gaze filled her with the same fatal dread that thrums in a doe's heart as the wolf latches its jaws around the yielding, tender flesh of the throat.

there were two places that THE DARK MAN could not touch her; one was in the damp ground of her whelping den and the other was here at her rock.  he was blotted entirely in the hallowed earth of her den, but here at the boulder he could see her. and though she hated it she gripped tight to her sanctuary with gritted teeth and watchful eye because she would not let him rip another thing from her grasp.

so it did not surprise her when a growl ripped through the night and she felt the EYE's scorn focus on her; burning, teeming.  but it was not him.  it was her.

the redleaf sisters had not slipped from her mind entirely but they no longer occupied its forefront; she did not see them as a genuine threat and in some sick way reigi knew she had won (although to her xan was not a game).  it was proven by the swell in her belly and the title of wife.

reigi remained undetected, tucked delicately between the curves of her stone and the borders.  the night could have gone by without incident.

but.

the hysterical, accusing tone of the redleaf guttersnipe drew the raven to her feet.  she materialized next to her mate, and meets the petulant girl's frigid stare with a dreadful calm.  precious few of her words had spurred recognition in reigi and for that she was lucky.

she no longer had the patience to tolerate them soiling her homeland, ruining the only thing she'd ever had the chance to build for herself with their unquenchable desire to stir the pot.  reigi had been gracious thus far; she had reacted precious little to their self-assured posturing but indra had made the mistake of challenging xan and oh no, that would not stand. 

god help those innocent puppies; god help those redleaf bitches. if reigi had it her way, she'd kill them all.  she would be their DARK MAN.

but she had been instructed to play nice.  she met indra's grotesque posturing with that of her own and ghosted forward on stiff legs every time indra dare take a step towards alexander.

she could challenge reigi all she wanted.  she could rip the roundness from her belly with bared fangs and make the snow bleed the colours of sunset — she doubted indra had the wherewithal to follow through.  but the redleaf could never challenge alexander.  and reigi would be sure of that.