Starglow Basin And now to sing this lovely ballad,

the name verapaz had come to him one day as a joke. high above the chaparral plains, soto licked his wounds and laughed bitterly to himself. welcome to verapaz, he had said to no one but the air around him -- the place of peace and truth.

it was funny to soto, because it was the very opposite. war followed him and his posse like slavering hounds starved for weeks in a kingdom crypt.

a new silence envelops them. soto moves off with a rough scrape of his paws -- a ritualistic and masculine thing to do that says this is mine; saya being the new playpiece to verapaz's steadily growing ranks.

he leads her up to the stone quarter where most have made their dens. sangre's cell is separate, and he decides he will keep the two women separate from each other for now.

he tilts back his head in a howl only loud enough to infiltrate the immediate area: it says we have a new recruit -- so saya may walk among the verapaz without being accosted.

once ensuring she's settled in, soto waves her off and climbs stiffly to sangre's den. he says nothing as he stalks past the red woman, settling stiffly on the lookout besides where she slept, his gaze trained on the milling forms below.

verapaz grows.