Duskfire Glacier ptah spoke

“speech”

Njal had disappeared, and Larus, and Tuwawi had soon followed. The family that had so bravely surrendered their ranks at the Creek and founded the pack upon the glacier had fallen into ruin, leaving behind Jokull, Valtyr, and Maera. Hatshepsut did wonder where they had gone, and knew Danica even now searched ceaselessly for the little boy, but the Egyptian was cold. Too long she had beheld death, destruction; she was inured to such things, and to the thought that the Sveijarn pair and their son had found their end elsewhere.

A hawk soared through the cold air of early dawn; her lazuli eyes watched the avian closely, a prayer to Horus brief and faint upon her lips. Whatever their fate, the Duskfire wolves would prevail; Malachi was at their helm, and she assumed he would appoint one of them — Danica being the logical choice — to rule alongside him.

For the present, Hatshepsut prostrated herself in the hawk's wheeling shadow and began her morning rite of prayer and humbling.

Photo by Daniel Lee