Snowforest Taiga black blood

it did not fit.

sun eater had not immediately found recollection of how he had asked that his wife not be told. in the waking and the fading, he had believed that was why she had not come. she had not known. sulukinak's story challenged the belief to which he had clung. he knew his niece had no reason to lie, but was made angry by the fact he had no way to know.

pensive breaths swung through his chest, each bringing with it a bite of pain. 

"someone — brought medicine." he did not think he would be alive without it. sun eater searched through memory for the scent of the young woman, finding only that star eater and the milky scent of newborns had clung to her fur.

sulukinak jerked and snapped beside him, and with effort he turned his head against the earth, narrowing single eye in something like worry. "you are here. i will not send you away. you are — needed." 

bloody. "what blood?"

no panic? but that could be for many reasons. did not he himself know shock?

why did sulukinak tell this story?

why had star eater been away from their children? why had she returned as if she had been gone? a headache added its vibrant radiation and sun eater hissed in frustrated pain.