Qeya River briar hearts

pika's screaming brought the night. sun eater closed its life with a merciful bite and tossed the body into a cache nearest stone crier's high cold caverns.

he was restless; he went after the night down into the ravines and bathed himself in icy water until his senses all sharpened with a hard gasp.

if this isn't ok, i'm happy to remove <3

she did not know if her soul would mend as her flesh had begun to.

it was not just sun eater who stirred with restlessness. she could not sleep through the pain anymore and the desire to be free of the cavern for just a moment was too grand. she had sorted through plants and dared to test them for herself. the first had wrought an ache through her abdomen.

the second brought sweet relief that warmed her more than any fire ever could. it gave her the belief that she could do anything she had the desire for.

like walk among the clan.

fresh pika had captured her attention first. she did not know why sun eater kept her fed, brought a healer to her abode. she thought if the man wanted her to march this badly then he must have seen something beneath her skin. she did not think of how that thought scared her more than death.

nor was there much thought in how she followed his scent now. it led her to a further relief in the form of icy water. she thought she saw him out there like some kind of vodník. yet there was no fear in her to see him now.

she slid within the icy waters and found herself punched by a gasp, too.

ur always welcome!

seeing sun crier down beside the river, her tall frame gilded with sunlight, satisfied the caribou man. it meant he had kept his word; it meant that she would live, despite her pain.

but would her walking continue? could she hold the abilities of his clan? 

still sun eater did not question overmuch. it was a day to be celebrated in good, contemplative silence. he felt they had a better chance now to leave before the first hard frost.

ghelan! his heart leapt. sulukinak searched for truth among ash and the man who might share blood. but perhaps he did not need to wait so long.

he lifted his head. "ugheli dzaen, stone crier," he greeted her in partial lanzadoii. time now also to shed the unpleasant common, though for now he spoke its bulk only with sulukinak.

she finds his voice warm in the ice of her brain and the chill of the waters. perhaps she only finds its warmth for the fact that he sounds like him. there was no pretend.

she tried to say it back. started and stopped twice. on the second time she licks her lips and laughs dryly at herself.

you will have to teach these words. only then can i greet you as you wish.

she wants to dive beneath the cold waters. she knew she was not strong enough yet. all of it tasted bitter on her tongue — or maybe that is the bile from the first plant matter she had tried.

"i say 'hello. it good day.' hm? say words to your ears. over. over," sun eater explained. "you learn. when you learn, i say more." one day these lanzadoii sounds would mean things to all those in saatsine.

then he could not speak so privately unless he spoke in sharadoii, and he refused that outright. the loss to concealment was worth being able to at last speak directly.

still, he admired stone crier for her ability to bend. to learn. to comprehend that this was her new way.

he was a hammer. she had known this from the start but it seemed he meant to only forge them. do things over, over and over. again, again and again.

u-gheli d-zae-n. she said and found it was still rattled against her tongue. again she said it but this time she relaxed herself. shoulders dropped into the cold water. a long breath.

ugheli dzaen. not perfect but... better? there was no jest or joking in her voice. she wanted to know if her progress was worth anything.

a fair approximation was made of the lanzadoii. sun eater's one eye flared with a tint of approval. "good," he grunted, lifting his chin. "good to hear."

these attempts at learning he wanted to reward. ravens winging the sky; saghani. the wide spread of grass; tl’ogh. wind in the trees over the taiga land; łts’ii.

she was reward with more words, breadcrumbs to feast upon. she did such without shame. tested each new word along her tongue.

saghani, she exhaled and found she rather liked it. it felt deeper than just the ravens that had cut through skies. she should climb free of the water but instead only continued to paddle and bob —

word for river water? she dared a bit of a stronger paddle, to send droplets around them.

"ts’itu’," sun eater offered without hesitation, but now his single eye rested contemplatively on stone crier.

innately suspicious, he wondered what she wanted with this knowledge. to teach others? to spy? to rebel? he closed lanzadoii behind his teeth and swam with powerful strokes away from her, into the current before he looped back.

she echoed the word with a passion now. learning, enriching herself. if she melded herself to these new ways first, then he would not have to do so in such a harsh manner.

yet he was gone.

off into the current with a strength she had not yet come to possess again. if he held suspicions, she held jealousy. suddenly she was making for land again. tired. the warming fires of whatever plant she had ingested seemed to not be able to combat this mood.