Qeya River fear the light, fear the breath

she had caught herself a rabbit; more importantly her path aligned with one of the strangers to the qeya, the one that her uncle called ash. sulukinak was not keen on burying her prize — she had learned to covet her kills after her time spent with the caribou hunting men — but she was here now, and she saw an opportunity.

as quiet as she was, sulukinak did not know her uncle's claim as finely as she knew the deepwood, or the taiga of the everdark. she did not creep upon ash as well as she could have, with the rabbit swinging from her jaws; and when she was near enough, she threw its fat body forwards, and watched it land with a wet thump near the girl's hocks.

she licked her lips and stared, but said nothing yet.