Ouroboros Spine salumaruk ⇑

raimo seemed to grow more peaceful. no. it was not peace. the barkgold burn of his eyes scorched her, stole the breath from her body. she felt pinned beneath his gaze, held down against the thawing spring ground while he slowly stripped her white pelt away to expose the muscle and bone beneath. her gaze serrated, cooled, burned again with residual anger and at last the hunger and need sharpened greenleaf behind her stare.

she did not want to say it. she did not want to satisfy raimo with 'yes.' he would see it in her eyes, full upon him as the tightened pale lines of her body loosened despite herself into something warmer. it was not yet her time. a conscious choice, one made in desire rooted solely in herself and not the fiercer pull of those forces outside her figure.

perhaps this would mark the end of her grief. perhaps she needed it only to be chased from her flesh, the last char of moonspear and all she had lost.

kukutux waited for raimo to move. he was close, and her awareness was filled only with him, even the pleasant spring birdsong drowned out again as she imagined, this close, she could hear his own heart. did it run as elk over the plain? or was it assured, unmoved? 

she held his eyes. the warning ache in her mending ankle softened enough to be ignored; perhaps; perhaps;