The Bracken Woods [m] marrow sliver

at times when cen looked at red leaf, it seemed her eyes were ancient. gone was the laughing girl she had been, the one who had traveled with him over the glacier from the valley of the sharadoii.

she was quiet now, no less beautiful but without an inner fire. cen observed this openly and grunted. red leaf pleased him immensely in many ways and infuriated him in others. she would learn. she was learning.

when cen came back, he ate again and settled in the skins. "i only want you to be careful." curled against her back, his paw slipped down to the flat belly of his wife. "the sooner you are pregnant, the sooner the lanzadoii hunting spirits will know you," cen murmured against the back of one ear. "then you will have more protection from these flesh-eaters. do not speak to them. do not look at them. not until i have told you it is safe."

the caribou hunters had one more camp to make. then they would be in the world beyond the bracken. red leaf must understand now how to act as a lanzadoii woman in the face of vastly new strangers to them both.