Emberwood water keeper

"too many? ha!" sun eater's haughty shout rang over the land, running the length of branches, flicking upright the wary ears of caribou who had been chased and then killed by the saatsine —

"see how many? i kill five in one day, does not matter." they streamed even now across the smear of mountains, down into this valley; they had begun their first forays back into the taiga, thousands of moving fawn bodies.

"caribou are forever," sun eater grunted insistently. "leave when hard snows come, drive back to long forest with pointed leaves. stay. have young. move again when sun move."

his teeth glinted. "good wolves fear."