Dawnlark Plains Tûnuck

for a long few moments, tuhin watched and waited. he had stated his purpose, and the man seemed more intrigued by her. he did not mind this; it suited him just as well to take the time to judge the tension here and to take in what was offered, that he might make use of it later.

tension he did find; in the chieftain's shining grin and the slow sweep of his eye. tuhin scented the air, ignoring the deersblood, and tasted only threads of pine and glacial ice and riverwater. it did not speak of numbers, and tuhin did not know as a certainty whose he searched for- but the purposeful slowness of his movements did not signal goodwill.

he stood silent and motionless over the deer's steaming body, and dipped his head to ayovi.

"i am tuhin, of darukaal. we make our home upon the glacier; we have no designs upon the mountain." further promises than that he did not make; not because he did not know faust's plans, not because he was a stranger to lying, but because some part of him cautioned against revealing anything that might be understood as weakness to the eye of the caribou hunter who still watched them- as offers of peace often were.