Mount Apikuni dark vine

they came.

smooth wind. red stain. their femaleness awakened sun eater to possession, and it was on this first he spoke. "saatsine walk until children come. we stop for — eight-week. stay. then we walk again. in sun. in rain. in snow. we follow." often this proved too fatal for lanzadoii pups, and so it was in reality that the decision must be made. only those fierce-born would proceed on the caribou march.

"not take man who is not saatsine." sun eater did not feel the necessity of force to marriage in this. ice diver and ridgeback had chosen one another. the clan's ghost talker was young and perhaps would have no interest until the spring to come. that left only grey man as a choice for now. best that one marry lanzadoii and bind himself into the saatsine further, but again, the chieftain did not need to enforce that.

the penalty lay in implication: falling pregnant by a man with no investment to their ways meant sun eater would not recognize those children in his band.

before they hunted, he would hear; his eye moved between their faces in expectant silence.