Redsand Canyon You've only known the ones who leave at dawn

with children would come sleepless nights, as the imperator had found the evening that preceded this day.

and with their birth something new had opened inside the eagle, something inexorable and wholly unlike any before-felt sensation. he found he could not stop looking at the tiny bodies carefully tended by ruenna. he found he could hardly fathom his contribution to their existence. each moment felt at once both as if it were a millisecond and an eon.

germanicus would not slacken in his duties, though for the next eight days he meant to keep from long forays. training did not cease simply because newborns moved and wailed inside the chambers he shared with ruenna.

upon emergence, the imperator rolled his shoulders and headed for the waterpool bordering the tablinum. a drink and a wade would set his muscles right. 

but the eagle found his steps stilled as a low call carried briefly over the high red walls of mereo. the sound was as inherent as it was recognizable, as relieving as it was impossible.

for a moment of insanity germanicus considered allowing another soldier to answer the call, but in his soul he knew it must be him. already the long dark legs were moving in that direction.

in the next handful of moments germanicus stood before crowfeather and was only silent, limned in surprise and all the unutterable things he had pressed down inside himself. the yellowpaint eyes flickered upon the tired sungold brilliance of the shadow who had wasted almost to nothing.

"did you receive my message?" germanicus said, and it was not what he wished to say. and yet it was all he could speak before silence once more dawned.