Herbalists' Cache sweet smoke

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sun eater rallied, struggling through another hour. the bright glinting of the death spirit hung in his single eye. roused by the herbs which ishmira had administered in haste, retreating once more to where he did not know, nor see.

he spoke in sharadoii.

"@Meleeys. she lives still. they will come. they will come." a hard swallow bobbed his throat. "they will believe my children their own."

another harsh straining sound in his throat. "do not let it happen." he did not know star eater had gone to the glacier, nor that she intended to ally in full with her kith. but he knew in some way that she had not come. he had not wished for her to see him.

but now as the darkness pressed its advantage, sun eater wanted her, saw his wife's absence as a curse lodged against his soul. 

he stared at his sister, trying to keep from fear. "nagruk is tartok, not lanzadoii. strong. has her own wants. but it was what i must do."

he began to slip then, grabbing for her paw as though he were a small boy again and she the sibling he had always known. "fa'liya. ghe'naya. caan. c'e'de. they are your blood."

he began to fade again, back to the line of sleep and unconsciousness.

Meleys did not know these things, these herbs. Meleys felt herself mighty enough to challenge any wolf and if she were to die of her wounds by the caribou, then so be it. Meleys offers a hard eye (did she have anything else?) to the healer as she shuffles out of the way as Meleys makes her approach to the voice of her young brother. 

He spoke as a valley hunter. Words not used among their camps. She would do the same. 

They will not take them... A murmur on her lips. There would be no peace, never, if they did while she still drew breath. 

Sun Eater had lost his first son. His second nearly drowned. Meleys had lost all to the long march or the caribou themselves. They could not loose more. Meleys would take them, raise them along her brother's side, if she must. 

Sun Eater spoke of @Nagruk. She had left. Let her kill them then, if this was her wish! Less to battle later. He spoke the names of his pups. His dull claws pressing into her paw. He began to fade. 

Your sheep become wolves at the first sign of weakness, brother. Her words strained, holding her worry back, a hitch in her throat. You must rise and quickly. She urges, but he has already fallen to sleep once more.

"they are lanzadoii children. they will belong to the caribou spirits forever."

when he opened his eyes again, meleys remained. "you did not know gheli. sometimes i think all of my love was buried with her beneath the snow." rambling now, drifting in and out.

but it was honesty, and so long as he believed he might die, the words fell as shell beads.

"maybe i have been dead, meleys, since i put her into the ground." gheli; goodness, and maybe what was good of cen had been interred as well.

Four children. Boys. Girls. She can envision she and her brother running with them in their adolescent years, the strength of Lanzadoii only growing in these lands. They could give her what she was never able to have with her own. 

There is a rumble in her throat, then a click of her tongue on the roof of her mouth. Love... Her head tilts and then she looks out of the den, hidden in bramble and darkness deep in the forest. @Dark Fang surely not far. 

Love. In all her years with Sotah, in four years of offspring, she does not think she has ever felt such a thing. Cen's love had been buried with Gheli. Meleys never had any to give.