Qeya River And it all ends with a kiss.

Anselm’s thoughts scattered like hares startled by buckshot as a howl fluted into the air. His torn ears turned, and as he stiffly rotated his neck he saw the assured crouch of the caribou hunter.

Thinking the summons were for him, Anselm rose. He noticed each time he moved his body was a little more compliant — like balance had been restored to him and the malaise of his injury was but a phantom lingering on the cusp of banishment.

Something moved to Sun Eater’s flank; a young boy that had Anselm’s heart ache, for at a distance he reminded Anselm terribly of Gideon. His expression wrinkled as he parsed the uncanny resemblance, mourning his separation from his sons with a fistful of hurt nursed in his chest.

A few more steps and Anselm’s troubled expression shifted to belated realization. Heedless to the ache in his hip and head, Anselm gasped and began to run as 

”GIDEON!

Anselm bellowed with a heartsick cry. He limped, he ran, he galloped with arms outstretched — embracing the improbable and in that moment forgetting the austere presence of the man besides him. He pulled the boy to his chest with a sob, buried his head into the goodness of his son’s silver pelt, drank the scents that braided into his hair, and then pulled away with tears lacing the wide-eyed concern of his gilded stare. I thought I lost you — vhere is your brother? He looked past the two, into the dark thicket — hoping that Ezra too would be along shortly, followed by the laughing and warm image of Heda trotting after. But he knew as he looked that this could not be true, and the solemnity of his gaze slid back to Gideon with silent pain.