Sunset Valley zwischen

where had she gone? mahler felt his hardened frame straining in the open direction of the taiga realm he had never explored, or had not in some time. out there upon the wild slopes housed the place she had gone. the man tightened the rein upon his impulse, a sideways shift in balance the only hint of an inward struggle.
yes, he wanted to say. but why unveil himself at all? yet in the veiling he would deny astraeus, and he refused to do so. "yes," mahler answered, feeling himself grow helplessly suspicious of the stranger's motivation for asking. "my son." voice as it was, demeanour maintained. "ve vere traveling across the landscape. so i mean to go back and look for him in it." humilation, self-deprecating glint in the stare he pulled away from her, as if he might catch sight of a small smudge of beloved shadow upon the horizon, coming back to sagtannet and back to him.