Verdigris Ravine flank

as the evening dropped into the desert, zoug sought @Sari, carrying two hare ears in his mouth.

he had not seen talisman in some days, but assumed the young man was off to do as young men did. 

zoug saw this as a way to reestablish himself as their only male, and dropped the ears gently before s'ari when he found her. but he said nothing for now, only settled near with a gaze upturned toward the growing moon.

S'ari saw Zoug's approach and wondered what he had in his mouth. When he dropped the hare ears before her, she did not begin to eat them right away, but instead put them between her paws and left them there. Normally talkative, she merely sat and looked at him as he stared up at the moon, wondering why he had come. Her illness and recovery had made her quieter than she had been before, and she wondered if she would ever regain her previous energy. It was a worry that nagged at her often, but she pushed it back and ignored it most of the time, as she wasn't sure there was much she could do about it.

She lifted her head and stared up at the moon with Zoug, waiting.

ironically, there was nothing zoug meant to say. he had provided for the tribe a long while now. he and candle would bolster their numbers with young in the months to come.

but s'ari was their leader no matter what role she took among them. 

and he would come to her if she called him.

"storms of sand will come again. we go to cave?" zoug asked, thinking of the small shelter toward the back of the ravine where the tribe had brought s'ari to heal.

We go to cave now? S'ari asked, lifting her snout and smelling the air, searching for the signs of an impending storm. Or when the next one comes? She stood, willing to follow his lead if he did mean now.

Your common seems better, she said. S'ari should make an effort to learn your language, as well. She was going to, you see, and then she fell ill. The coyote frowned. Her illness had taken months of time from her, time she would never get back. That thought still bothered her, though she wasn't sure why. She was young. It was not as though she would keel over dead in a year's time. But... time was all she had. It was all anyone had. And she hated to waste it.

zoug was pleased that she asked this decision of him. he paused for a moment as not to give an answer in haste.

"we move now. still safe to be in ravine, under sky. for now."

s'ari spoke of his tongue, both the tribewords and those of clan. he grunted in continued interest. "candle teach me many mouth sounds. but i will not be able to make them all," he added, lifting a paw and slowing his gestures in emphasis, so that she could see it.

zoug pointed to the hare ears. he made their sound, a swallowed, low tone. and then two taps to his chest, to count. once, twice. and then the third time with the speed that each needed to be, not recognizable as a word or gesture unless one was searching.

S'ari knew no embarrassment when trying new things. She watched with rapt attention as Zoug spoke and gestured in his own language. It was clear that he was trying to teach her the words.

She did her best to repeat the strange sound and gestures, tapping a paw against her chest the way he had shown her. Say the word again, she requested. The gesture was easier; the sound had been difficult to make out. She wanted to get this right.

twice more he made the sound, holding the tones long on the second time so that s'ari could hear how they flowed into one another.

then for the third, he said the word at its proper speed and made the gesture as well.

he did not smile, reserving those for rare occasions, but zoug's interest was clear in the jut of his chin and the tilt of his ears.

Some assumptions here. LMK if I need to change.

S'ari listened to the tones Zoug made, hearing them clearer when he repeated them at a slower pace. With confidence, she repeated it, first slowly, then at the regular speed, and made the gesture, as well.

There now, she said, in her regular tongue. How was that? Teach S'ari another. Once she and Zoug get inside, yes? She began to walk towards the cave, then turned to see if he was following. The wind shifted then, hitting her in the face, and with him slightly behind her, she caught his scent full in her nostrils.

Candle was all over him.

Interesting.

all good!

"good," zoug grunted, following behind. he did not notice s'ari's expression change, for he was considering what word he would next teach.

zoug gestured up at the dome of the entrance before they had passed through it. "cave," a louder grunted sound with a lifting paw to demonstrate an archway. 

he showed s'ari with three exchanges once more.

S'ari repeated the new word. Cave. She repeated it again, trying to get the flow of it. Well. Was it a word, the same as the words she spoke, or was there another word--haha--for it? She wanted to ask Zoug that, but wasn't sure she could properly explain her question. Instead, she asked, Zoug's language... does it have a name? What is it called, what this one speaks?

She would not bring up Candle's scent on him, or perhaps she would, but not now. It made her happy, though, and she smiled at him a little. Of course, she was always smiling, smirking, sly-faced. Perhaps he would not notice the softer look in her eyes, the affection for him. Not affection like Candle's, no. But familial.

"no name," zoug gestured. "just — clan words."

zoug did notice how softly s'ari regarded him, and wondered if she was interested in the way his mate was. a further inspection said no, it was only friendliness.

the coyote looked up toward a single cloud trundling across the sky. there was no word for cloud, only a gesture, which he made slowly and deliberately; two rounded movements in the air.

S'ari nodded, wondering. S'ari's people of the Tribe--the one far away, she means... She thinks we must have had another language at some time, for we speak in these strange accents and patterns. But if we had another language, we have lost it to the desert winds, and if it had a name, no one alive remembers it.

She copied his gesture for cloud, then did it again, committing it to memory, or trying to. Thinking, she asked, What about desert? What is your word for that? If there was one word she wanted learn above all, it must be that, for the desert was her lifeblood.

zoug made the sign for desert, a gesture that seemed to rub two paws free of sand.

a softer light came to his single eye.

"we teach both to tribe children," the coyote said with effort, feeling compelled in the face of how welcoming to both he and his ways s'ari had always been.

We teach both to tribe children, Zoug said. Both languages, the one of Tribe and the one of Clan.

Yes, S'ari replied with a soft smile. Yes, of course. She made the word for Desert with her paws, rubbing them together. It was an apt way of signing the word, as if to dislodge the sand from one's paw pads.

She only hoped Zoug would still feel that way when he realized that her sunlings were half-wolf. She would tell no one of her tryst with the wolf from the mountains, not until after their birth, and perhaps not even then. Perhaps her children would take to her size and not their father's. There was no way to tell except to watch them grow.

She fell silent, thinking of these things.

it remained to be seen.

un-tribe did not mean wolf. only wolf was wolf. if tribe blood mingled with wolf, then tribe must prevail.

each in their own thoughts, they enjoyed a companionable silence as the evening melted to night and the tasks of the darkness called.