Overture Downs winds of east

that grave wound would fetch the bull low before the hour was out. their quarry knew its death, keeping just ahead of the pursuing wolves. sun eater did not press his speed, slowing to eat bites of the bloodstained snow.

cold metal and its flavor taunted his belly.

he kept after their bull, letting the creature's bulk move in and out of the thinning trees; his gait ate away the ground with knowing trot, and he jerked his chin from time to time in the direction of widening crimson splashes.

death came on limbs winnowed to honed strength. he was pleased to be in the companionship so quiet and apt; it streamlined the act of hunting not to shout words during its middle.

they passed between oaken branches woven into those of evergreen, and beyond that was their meat, fallen to his knees in a small clearing. even as the hunters moved into view, haunted old bull shouted a ringing sound of iron challenge.

he would die well and his spirit would flow to join the ancestral powers which guided the caribou on their great march. sun eater took a long breath to ready himself.