Mount Apikuni ◊◊◊;

elk charm's ears pinned quick as a mare when geirmundr stepped behind. tail tucked in instinctive worry, and she focused only on the slipping shale beneath her paws.
did he think he — 
her eyes squeezed shut, thinking of blood bear. he had come to the wetu over and again, waiting. girls entered a special hut when the time came for them to be women; blood bear had wanted to catch her on that path.
but womanhood had mercifully delayed itself for elk charm. even now she existed in some caught-between state, delayed after all her peers had gone on to conceive with loving husbands. 
a deformity? a curse?
she had never asked the spirits to heal her.
a rock slid from beneath her paw.
elk charm cried out, falling backward into open space.