Arrow Lake velut

it would be very easy to disappear.

germanicus carried the bleak and treacherous thought with him upon an extended patrol.

he stood at the lake he had visited many times and gazed at its crystal surface. he walked its cold edge and watched a single falcon fly reflected in the unmoving shallows.

and for a moment he wished he was that high and fierce hunter, yellow eyes watching it until it soared across the sunspire and was gone from sight.

arsenio's words burnt in his chest. fennec's dedication to these unseen forces or so he still thought, it chafed him.

the loneliness that had set in with crowfeather's loss now moved to drown germanicus.

and ruenna.

and his children.

until he sagged, shoulder to the good stone of the mountain, facing out over the great expanse but no longer seeing as grief twisted his features.