Redsand Canyon tametsi

constant touch by ruenna had revealed to the imperator how starved he had been for it. his was a world of men and hard days. there was little reason to reach to another. each man nurtured or repressed himself. it did not fall to his fellows to support him, only to enforce that he be alone.

germanicus was warmed by the efforts of his wife. her gaze was velveteen upon him, and his cheek brimmed with softness where she had kissed him. the imperator was only a man, but he heard the answer to his own silent question offered in her tones. 

so there would be children. this time the thought did not make him balk so much. the eagle had followed and followed the root of his reaction down into its tendriling wires. he found now it had dissolved. perhaps it was her dutiful nightly care with him. perhaps it was the fact that she had slept in her bed and he is, all these weeks between them.

he did not speak. his eyes observed the cast of her jawline, the way her timidity showed itself in a small and beautiful way. he looked at the juncture of her neck to shoulder, how she lay beside him. how eventually the twining heat of their bodies formed a small cloak in the closeness.

his cheek still seemed to ache. germanicus shifted his weight to bring them closer, kissing her forehead softly. it became more; the tracery of one ear, his lips at the corner of her mouth, the lingering press of his muzzle at her collarbone. it was a man realizing that he was allowed, after all, to touch his wife. "ruenna," the eagle murmured quietly, voice slowly stirring with want, "will you come to bed tonight?" 

they had time enough for the planning of mereo. it was endless. this was something to be explored.