Redsand Canyon vultus

and he could not bear to know.

he stared at fennec and realized that a kernel of something like love grew in a desperate sprout below his breastbone.

she had been the first to listen, the first to see all of him.

and she had not turned him away in anger.

now she offered a second chance.

to reach out and take it meant first that he must leave.

that insistent green moved in a gradient.

his voice was a croak, "as long as you are here i will come back." there was no reason for fennec to believe him. but he had not abandoned his post yet and would not now.

not if she meant that after this she could move eastward.  with him. with killdeer.

he thought wildly of the cloven stone.

"i will go." silence fell.