Qeya River And it all ends with a kiss.

The irony of Anselm’s situation was that by a bizarre twist of fate, a family member he’d long hoped for renunion had been his den-mate the duration of his sickness. But now that the fever was gone, his memory of those hours were hazy: he remembered @Ilse’s presence only as a fellow bunker mate weathering out some sort of injury. He was unaware of Yikaas’ involvement.

Under no delusions that Yikaas was kind, Anselm hadn’t connected his history of cruelty, either. To Anselm the man was simply pragmatic. He did not lie; he wore his hardened skin like a shield for the world to see - there was no disillusionment, no questioning just who Yikaas was under that gruff exterior. He worked with a brutal efficiency to ensure his survival, and that, to Anselm, was admirable.

His mind these days was a jumble of convoluted thoughts. He supposed this out-of-water experience was a result of the hard knock his brain had experienced; maybe the matter up there was residual soup — maybe things had been so sloshed around all that remained of connective tissue was a limp and sodden strand. He wondered — at times with bitterness — if Heda had ever looked for him. He had no idea where Amadeo had dragged him, and no idea how Yikaas had even found him. He supposed he owed the man more than a life debt, and it was this obligation that kept him tethered to Yikaas — now Sun Eater’s — side as the summer whittled away into a sleepy autumn.

Picking his way gingerly across the dried floodplain, Anselm let his mind wander freely. He hoped Ezra and Gideon weren’t too scared — he hoped they were eating okay, and growing strong even though their daddy wasn’t there. And he hoped that they would treasure his memory rather than curse him for his keenly felt absence — their faces bolstered his healing more than resting did.

Hungry but still sore, Anselm parked by the river and listened for any sign of prey.

time now to put a second thing to rest. grey man had come back and fit himself into saatsine as if he had always been. his charcoal counterpart was scarcer, but sun eater had not searched overmuch for her as he healed.

today he watched the gunmetal shadow drift across the riverland and sat with a lolled tongue and a hard eye. he did not know how where to put the man, and so remained wary.

he had not missed the heavy step that day of victory.

and now he summoned @Gideon, and turned his head to watch for the two-tailed boy and his dispersal from the shadows where sun eater had told him to wait.

today they would all see if the goldcoin matched.

The events of the past few days were a snarled tangle, and Gideon worked still to unravel them as he was summoned out of the shadows by Sun Eater. He couldn't begin to understand why the man had taken this land from the resident wolves, though he was glad to be on the winning "side" of the conflict. He could not understand why those whose land was claimed had chosen to remain.

He comprehended little, and grew more aware by the day of how sheltered and kind his life had been up until now. Gideon refused to admit he was afraid. A part of him understood his was a situation in which even God had no say, and that made him feel very small and very alone, but another part of him understood the primal ways as well. The strongest and most capable wolf stood atop the heap where familial bonds and charity failed, and Sun Eater had proven himself to be that.

Gideon stood before the caribou hunter and canted his head to the side in a silent question, but already he was learning his place in this new dynamic. His eyes were respectfully averted and his tails hung low, something he had never felt compelled to do in Rivenwood. For now, the object of Sun Eater's interest went unseen.

Anselm’s thoughts scattered like hares startled by buckshot as a howl fluted into the air. His torn ears turned, and as he stiffly rotated his neck he saw the assured crouch of the caribou hunter.

Thinking the summons were for him, Anselm rose. He noticed each time he moved his body was a little more compliant — like balance had been restored to him and the malaise of his injury was but a phantom lingering on the cusp of banishment.

Something moved to Sun Eater’s flank; a young boy that had Anselm’s heart ache, for at a distance he reminded Anselm terribly of Gideon. His expression wrinkled as he parsed the uncanny resemblance, mourning his separation from his sons with a fistful of hurt nursed in his chest.

A few more steps and Anselm’s troubled expression shifted to belated realization. Heedless to the ache in his hip and head, Anselm gasped and began to run as 

”GIDEON!

Anselm bellowed with a heartsick cry. He limped, he ran, he galloped with arms outstretched — embracing the improbable and in that moment forgetting the austere presence of the man besides him. He pulled the boy to his chest with a sob, buried his head into the goodness of his son’s silver pelt, drank the scents that braided into his hair, and then pulled away with tears lacing the wide-eyed concern of his gilded stare. I thought I lost you — vhere is your brother? He looked past the two, into the dark thicket — hoping that Ezra too would be along shortly, followed by the laughing and warm image of Heda trotting after. But he knew as he looked that this could not be true, and the solemnity of his gaze slid back to Gideon with silent pain.

jealous grief curdled chokingly inside sun eater. he had remained silent when the boy came to regard him in quiet obedience, silent when the greycloud had changed his trajectory in attunement with the new river chieftain.

and now he was silent, deathly so; sun eater drew away from the emotional embrace of father and son, staring with such malevolence toward moontide, as if he might blot it from the shoreline with his very thoughts.

son. father. sun eater ran his tongue over the ridges of his teeth and listened, seeming to ignore the pair as they reunited.

as he tied the grey man deeper to the land.

Anselm did not see the change in Sun Eater. 

He was preoccupied with his son. He managed to extract a buckshot picture of how Gideon had separated, learning that bizarrely, some sort of heist had befallen Rivenwood?

If it were not for his one son still in peril, Anselm might have felt savage vindication to hear this. He imagined Amadeo might regret certain choices very soon, if he did not already. 

Noting the disheveled state of Gideon, Anselm turned to Sun Eater and excused them both, but not before a silent look of gratitude. He did not realize now he was deeply tied to the caribou hunter — a tether he may never have the strength to break.