[ragged ears tilted to hear fa'liya's quick steps behind him, the snap of jaws, the churn of snow; experienced mind wove a picture of what was happening at his back even as cen dodged another swing from the cow's antlers and darted forward to savage her foreleg. his daughter had descended upon the calf and cen was free to pursue its mother over the sloping snow, down into a gully of drifts. there she made a final lunge, more for the hunter than to regain possession of her doomed offspring. tongue dripped with hot saliva as he watched her go, then cen spun back to the stomped ridges where fa'liya grappled with her own prey. cen did not intervene. he did not help, he only kept himself on a slow circle of the place, keeping eye lifted for the unlikely return of the bereaved caribou. his daughter must do this alone, and he believed true that she was able, even if a hoof should bloody her.]

ragged ears tilted to hear fa'liya's quick steps behind him, the snap of jaws, the churn of snow; experienced mind wove a picture of what was happening at his back even as cen dodged another swing from the cow's antlers and darted forward to savage her foreleg. his daughter had descended upon the calf and cen was free to pursue its mother over the sloping snow, down into a gully of drifts.
there she made a final lunge, more for the hunter than to regain possession of her doomed offspring. tongue dripped with hot saliva as he watched her go, then cen spun back to the stomped ridges where fa'liya grappled with her own prey.
cen did not intervene. he did not help, he only kept himself on a slow circle of the place, keeping eye lifted for the unlikely return of the bereaved caribou. his daughter must do this alone, and he believed true that she was able, even if a hoof should bloody her.