Porcupine Ridge fīf

their specters grew, and muskrat knew it was soon time to seek a raiding.

so far, the terse alliance with viskani had held. no war parties came for them; no invasions threatened. in fact, that elegant woman kept to herself as much as muskrat would have liked.

in pleasure she trailed her shadows, finding the newest ahead of her on one trail or another.

backing into the nearest spill of blackened overhang, the sentinel prowled noiselessly alongside the creature. a dog. healthy enough, it was her foreign nature alongside her femaleness which provided potential threat to muskrat's wolven goals.

she did not yet show herself, playing the same sort of game with the dog that she had played with nutu; filling the air with pressure until she was acknowledged.