Bramblepoint Sunblind

Foxfur was an apt name. The mundane symmetry to it was calming. He was not a superstitious man, but he could imagine and entertain the possibility of being named Tagtaa* instead of Khenbish. He had always thought he looked like one.

I'm from mountains.

He paused at the flight of a crow overhead. Raucous calls rang through the forest, met with listless answers.

Called Tavan Bogd. A mean place. In my language, it means five saints. I've never seen no saints and I lived there for many seasons.

He did not miss it as much as one would expect a man to do so for his motherland. To the hunter it was only a mark on a map, a small swathe of geology in the cradle of other unknowables. He had left both his gods and his family behind, untethered in the world.

*tagtaa - dove