Redtail Rise the thousand-and-second tale of scheherazade

Avicus had been withdrawn since returning to the Rise from Bearclaw Valley.

she hunts alone, feasts alone, sleeps alone. she dreams fitfully of Astara, and Merrick—the two of them reunited!—and of Aventus and his strange new mien. 

she is ravenous when wakeful, as if every pound of flesh consumed will bring her family together again.

she vomits up whole portions, and wanders dizzily away from the steaming pile.

today, the Wealda lays in a shady corner of the rendezvous, gnawing in idle fashion on an old shin bone. her heat has passed, and there is no indication that she's filled with life as that vixen had been.

everything and nothing had changed.

she should have killed Laurel when she'd had the chance.