Redtail Rise XIX

her small paws dug. his massive ones joined her. and for a while there was only the sound of their excavation and the birdsong twittering overhead in the hot air.

something primal here, something evocative of man stirring dirt into den for woman. he reached to push his earth-stained muzzle against the side of new snow's ear, leaving a faint mahogany print.

when the femur was mostly exposed, augur stepped down into the little hollow and wrestled the bone out, up onto flatter ground where new snow could investigate it.

he stood close, kicking clods of earth from his paws, ears perked as he swept the horizon for danger.