Copper had a unique tang to it, a smell as much as a flavor, hot and living and liquid as he swallowed it down. It was a taste that changed as it cooled, its sharpness dulled as red darkened and the pulse that drove it faded to silence.
In the autumn warmth amid the changing leaves the blood was easily lost beneath the fallen pages of Rae's books, the stories of life writ large in the Woodlands as the sun filtered between those that remained above. The owner of that crimson fall was already gone, traveling limp and cooling in the jaws of a leggy white fox who trotted through the trees and back to the place and person he called home.
Jigano paused at the edge of the woods, looking out over the farmstead spread out below. Hair as gold as the ripening wheat gleamed from the porch, bent over a hound of white and grey, and a laugh rose to where he stood, a sound that lifted his heart as he bounded down towards the back of the house, dodging a stray goat as he slipped under the fence and rose on two legs to open the back door. Dropping the autumn-fat rabbit on the counter to clean for stew later, the fox-eared man headed to the porch to join his mate, settling gracefully to the ground beside Rory and resting his head on the farmer's knee as the hunter played with his hound.
For this one golden moment, all was right with the world.
In the autumn warmth amid the changing leaves the blood was easily lost beneath the fallen pages of Rae's books, the stories of life writ large in the Woodlands as the sun filtered between those that remained above. The owner of that crimson fall was already gone, traveling limp and cooling in the jaws of a leggy white fox who trotted through the trees and back to the place and person he called home.
Jigano paused at the edge of the woods, looking out over the farmstead spread out below. Hair as gold as the ripening wheat gleamed from the porch, bent over a hound of white and grey, and a laugh rose to where he stood, a sound that lifted his heart as he bounded down towards the back of the house, dodging a stray goat as he slipped under the fence and rose on two legs to open the back door. Dropping the autumn-fat rabbit on the counter to clean for stew later, the fox-eared man headed to the porch to join his mate, settling gracefully to the ground beside Rory and resting his head on the farmer's knee as the hunter played with his hound.
For this one golden moment, all was right with the world.
