Redtail Rise onyx

for the future, for a concept which mountain boulder might not have been able to articulate. his greater strength now might be taken by tomorrow's jaws. the years had scoured his ambition down to protectiveness. in one moment he had wanted wealda and would have held it for the sake of moon runner's surety. 

but it had been for her, for new snow, for flame stalker and the young ones. mountain boulder had seen red woman lead and fall. he had seen the pack almost split over ancelin and ameline; indeed! it had ruined many things. he had been there when blood eyes disappeared and tall man too had faded, twice. and now he had watched blood star walk away with what he knew remained of thorn caller's life in that small child.

for the future. it must be night eye. the final choice: two things was the man named mulherin. he was the redtail who remained. the redtail who had returned and retaken. for red woman's heart in his chest, and mountain boulder responding to that same pulse, the same brutal reminder in microcosm which had given him the much lighter wounds today. it was theirs to earn in blood, and blood had been drawn.

but more than his legacy, night eye had borne the weight of those deaths and those abandonments. he had bound himself to one only to be forgotten for a higher aim; he had sought another and when loss shattered again, he had searched and searched and searched for those missing kith to whom he held a loyalty despite their existence elsewhere. and he had seen this final turning of a sister's back, and still he had stayed; still he had not thrown away this land which had demanded so much in its time.

when the rise shook, mountain boulder had watched night eye falter very little. even now the berserkr might have been prepared for capitulation on this day before moon runner. but that had been before blood star and the child left. now the victory's remnants had soured in his own mouth.

now for what did they fight?

his tail fell finally to his heels. the saliva-slick ears swung backward.

wealda. 

if the teeth came again, if this was too great a concession and no victory at all for the noble young berserkr, then mountain boulder would meet in clashes. he hung there, between the tradition of their bloodsport and the great realization that his challenge had been rote, requisite, while the young man's own had been a forceful reality. night eye had taught his children of their places among the rise; his defense was fierce. his hunting was skilled, his guardianship passionate. if teeth rose against their land, that blood spilled then would be rightful. night eye embodied more of red woman than perhaps any of them had known, but it was the young man's own strength in which mountain boulder saw those pillars of iron, to which he conceded now.

that iron had bound him here; the huntlead knew it for those lacings held him also. did night eye sense some fearless distant thrumming? the boulder's blood shed by fighting teeth had soaked into the land, and now the land sang for the warrior.