Totoka River [m] fire dancer

when cen returned, red leaf was weeping there. 

no camp had been made.

swearing in lanzadoii, he stalked toward her bent frame in the melting snow and wet grass; he moved as if to punish her again.

and then he realized.

he saw.

she was not fat, she was —

"by the raven," he grunted, steps slowing. cen stooped in front of her and reached out to tilt that peerless tearstained face upward. "so."

and a grin spread across his face, terrible and far too brilliant; "so lanzadoii seed takes hold in sharadoii land. ha!" cen was elated! he straightened; he spun away from her, and danced in the spring-touched earth.