Sleepy Fox Hollow trübsinn

still wary of whatever had caused him to not only spare zarya, but treat and recruit her, mahler nevertheless kept silent. had he known her thoughts, he might not have understood them — his pound of flesh could be exacted in other ways than blood.
motioning that she should sit down, mahler set to digging up the frozen half-carcass of a wood pigeon. it was little, but he nudged it toward the woman all the same. prey was beginning to filter back into sunspire, and though this spring might not bring with it a great profusion, he was hopeful for summer.
"vhere did you come from, zarya?" the general asked softly, testing the still-new syllables of her name upon his tongue.