Lost Creek Hollow my light

!!!

cold was shadowynn, its land inhabited by winds of frost which keened with empty bellies. sun eater stood alone, watching the ever-moving parade of caribou with noting eye while his thoughts whirled and coalesced.

in time he walked, traveling for thicker trees and the surprising presence of emerald grass not yet eaten by deer or scorched by frost.

he should take suliya, muradoii blood or not. their children would be lanzadoii, and spirits forbid she attempted to teach them of love for the monsters of the great ice. if he took her to wife and grey man was bonded with meleys, every pup born would be a caribou hunter by immediate blood and birth.

it was nonsense to think otherwise, to imagine — no. he did indeed hear the footfalls of light step against frozen snow, and he turned, a jetstone silhouette against the lighter sky of the small morning hours, dawn not yet lightning the hour.

morwenna had not taken off the hide, sun eater noticed as almost automatically he began to walk toward the creek woman. those soft folds of fur and skin had conformed around her slender shoulders, and she carried something more of the caribou.

the single eye waited, his tall frame poised beside her own. wind rose to howl about the hollow, and he turned to block with broadside its icy teeth, a step bringing him close, close, their pelts mingling in the unwarmed morning.