Redsand Canyon pario

By some great stroke of fortune, the elk avoided stomping Atreus to death or crushing him when she stumbled. He took a couple hard knocks, mostly from her knobby knees, but she hit the ground on his far side before quickly recovering and cantering away to rejoin the fleeing herd.

One of the blows had knocked the wind out of him. Atreus struggled to sit up, then stand, but when Germanicus rushed over to question him, he could only shake his head. I told you, he wanted to say, though he supposed he was glad he couldn’t. With great difficulty, he also kept the indignation off his face.

But he shook his head again and sulked off to safer quarters. Atreus had let down both himself and his comrades, he knew, but they’d let him down too. Miraculously, his wounds were superficial—and more to his spirit than this body—though he still wanted to be alone to lick them.