Herbalists' Cache ivory flute

aw! sun eater is hurt & i may play infection roulette for him! has assorted cuts on face, ears, and a huge wound in his left shoulder torn wide in different directions <3

he did not go to the snow shelter. he would not bring this curse of blood and saliva to his children, to stress star eater. grimly he steeled his voice, limping into a fringe of trees opposite the birthing den.

he held himself up by one trunk, managing to call briskly with the last of his strength for @Kekoa.

sun eater collapsed only when blurring eye brought the form of another, insensate with puddling red; "curse gjalla. curse blackfell. not tell star eater."

he faded close to unconsciousness now, hovering.

he could not die. he would not die. sun eater's lips moved, whispering lanzadoii to the spirits, weaving in and out of his presence there in the world.

at first she follows gjalla, hidden against the snow as blackfell has taught her. she remains downwind and does not make a sound-- even when the wretched fighting reaches her ears, and she fears for the hunter woman's life. only when sun eater has fallen and the blue woman has gone does she rear her head, lip curled in a fearful snarl. the man is a liar, a coward, and she can smell gjalla's blood on him.

"monster." she hisses, turning with tucked tail and fleeing for star eater. she will leave him there in the snow, to suffer.

she had gone from the maplewood and found a scent trail which piqued her interest. the desire to seek men continued; but this time, as she recognized the scent, sulukinak felt a fluttering in her chest. unaccustomed to true worry, she wound after that path until it became ripe with that of blood...

the trail led to a marshland, and there she found the black, bloodied mass that was uncle.

a pale figure vanishes over the snow, illusory from the start, and moving quickly out of range for sulukinak's eye; although she looked now to the body and the blood, fully focused.
her heart hammered in her chest.

nosing at him cautiously, then with insistence—
uncle, uncle! her eyes dart; she looks for help, or signs of danger, and does not know what to do.

Sun Eater calls, and though he does not want to the Ghost Talker comes. He is not the first to arrive, a she-wolf familiar to him stood next to the Chieftain, nosing his limp body.

He stands at a distance. He waits. Though he has remained in Saatsine for many moons now he does not yet feel comfortable among them, not with so many new faces. He will only move when he knows why he was called; he feels sure that someone will tell him.

The thought crosses his mind that Sun Eater may be dead, something he pushes away as quickly as it arrives. If Sun Eater is dead then he no longer has a place here; he needs to live.