Totoka River teeth like kindling

there’s something to be learned in how the starveling does it. if nothing else, atoztli admires his ability to grift total strangers.

she pulls back the kill as the swarthier of the two commands them both, seemingly endeared to this guise of helplessness. back at home, she might bow her head gratefully after he spoke. but out in the wilderness she is a changed woman, indulging in freedom and under no man’s thumb.

taking kill between teeth, atoztli catches the tail end of the wastrel’s smug grin.

she could do him one better. knowing a spell or two to cause unwanted erections and early, misfortunate timing, atoztli decides this kills serves a better purpose than sustaining her.

after the pair leaves she measures the smaller man’s pawprints, laying down her pronghorn pelt and placing upon its auburn surface clay imbued with his scent. two stray hairs she coaxes from the ground and packs into the damp clay.

then, swinging the kill atop it and carrying it all wrapped in the pelt, atoztli sets out in search of a turtle.