Verdigris Ravine ~Seeking the sun, feeling the sand….~

S'ari is skippable for the remainder of this thread, but please forgive me if I have her jump in every now and then.

S'ari lay down at the mouth of the den and grinned at her cousin, watching silently. Watching her daughter play with Ko'a, interact, speak in her broken, dragged-out way, making vowels long and lingering, like the sun's heat baked into the sand.

Ko'a would teach Chisa to hunt, perhaps. She spoke up then, past her daughter, to Ko'a herself. Be sure she understands that the snake is prey--not a friend. It was her only warning, for she did not wish Chisa to think that a snake's rattle was a happy, fun thing. Snakes were common in the desert, and dangerous. The sunlings would have to learn early that they were not to be played with--unless they were, of course, dead.