Luneshale Pass I deserve it, don't I?

these days soto ranges the borders obsessively. leto's young compel him to do this; it is as if he is waiting for the other axe to fall.

it doesn't come, though -- and as the days soften and the sun's rays grow longer, he reins back his compulsive patrolling, turning inward to drink from the thin stream that houses verapaz's main source of water.

he sees leto from across the bank. motherhood suits her, though he notes her sides have become slab-sided with the demands of her children.

three of them, in fact. what was that she had said about her siblings? big and beautiful. soto expects the same of her young.

leto. he calls from the bank's shore, leaping across it to flank her. como te sientes? he recalls -- with some reluctance -- the distance in marciela's eyes those short days after whelping.

if only he knew then what he knows now.