Swiftcurrent Creek waiting star

a man answered. sun eater watched him with no submission, only a respectful lowering of his own defenses on what would be neutral ground for now. the creek wolf's greeting was punctuated by the arrival of a great mountainous warrior with a closed expression and then morwenna herself.

to see her inspired a birdlike fluttering in his chest that was disallowed from display upon his face. ice diver to one side, morwenna upon the other, the lanzadoii man nodded brusquely at the other males. "i sun eater, chieftain of the saatsine. ice diver, she is my war chief," he further went on, addressing her as such for the first time.

"others of clan, they wait near." it was not a threat — but it could be taken as such, and the single slate eye left to sun eater flicked between the dark-coated pair, and the words he chose with caution became laborious sentences through which he persevered with his thick accent. "i bring caribou hides and meat. but i come for morwenna. she say she will be wife to me. but first, she say we speak to her chieftains."

finished, he did not glance toward the star-marked nor the saatsine war chief; he kept his gaze even between these men, one of whom was akavir.