Shimmering Sands sun conch

he shook his head, chest swelling with a strange emotion. he did not understand it. perhaps it was the honesty of this pending union. there was no need to rush, and yet there no longer was any reason to wait.

any sentiment of heart.

it was decided. some lanzadoii men had more than one wife, but kusax̱asaa was disinterested. sivaak had proven herself and he had earned her esteem. it would be an ongoing challenge from such a wife, that he display over and again what it was to keep her.

he should have never strayed from marrying among the caribou hunters.

he shook his head. "it is your right."

hers to kill, to cull, to snap among those children not her own. only c'ede' mattered among the first, as much as it killed him inside to think.

sivaak too must understand that any children born to land and sea would not replace those morwenna had taken.

he rose, loomed above the monster woman for a moment; he took her ear between his teeth in a light pulling pinch, a ragged sort of caress; "you will not marry a wounded man," his breath burnt along its inside. "let me heal and then we will go to the cold sea."

unsaid was the breaking of this agreement should kusax̱asaa find himself unable to provide. this would be a disservice to sivaak, disrespectful if they were to be united later. he must be able to run, to hunt, and to fight at the day of such ceremony.