Moonspear And the chickens how they rattle chicken chains

bronco reacted quite curiously to the woman's question, but kukutux found herself endeared all the same. yet he spoke a word she had not yet heard; her ears swept forward as a curiosity piqued upon her lips. "what is 'girlfriend?'" on the mountain, there was hyra and dirge, alya and nikai, jarilo and herself. husbands and wives. 

therefore it was a curious thing, and moreso that the boy seemed to imply this was something that came before a wife. and mother's mate? so not the man who bronco knew as a father. there was much to be gleaned, for the young warrior was open and docile in his revelations. he had not yet felt the edge of manhood, she supposed; still finding his way.

"that was ..." the duck searched visibly for the word to describe what she had taken from the particular silver-shot pine. or how to convey its properties in the only tongue she shared with bronco. "amigak." a roll of her slender shoulders. "i do not know the name of it. but it came from the spirit of a very old tree."

"i am glad to have helped you, bronco," the snowdrop murmured softly. "but you must not seek to annoy bears after this," she teased him, flexing her small paws in the mud along the edge of the water. "mending a bone is more painful."