Sunset Valley Pǎnakär

And you a beast.
How casual his approach, as if he had not nearly cost her life to a test of ego. The forested eyes are deep and fathomless pits that gauge her implacably. She could not read his mien; she never could.
“You’re healed,” Ayovi speaks at last, “as am I.”
She lifts a paw to show the new, pink underside of flesh, and to prove she wasn’t so helpless a creature now. Her chest swells with a breath, shoulders squaring; a kootsin ready to ward off her predator if he dared to grab for her. The amused face from moments ago masking in ice.