The Tangle She will be mine

winter was closing in, and val began to worry.

it was not unlike the children of the sea to wander — but now astera and sobeille had been missing almost two weeks, with temperatures fast receding.

he elected to do one more comb-over of the tangle. the going was rough, and on more than one occasion val was thwarted by a sequestrum of knotted thorns.

a scent prevailed, accompanied by the occasional tuft of dark fur on a bramble tooth. val began to follow it, wondering now if this stranger had seen either of sapphique’s wayward girls.