He thought of his brother, who had
taken a mate, and wondered if she was yet with child. Perhaps it would
be a boy, like Shama, who would not mistrust him, but look up to him in
friendship. He thought of the wolves, now led by Akar, his noble
friend. Surely he did not mean for them to keep Alaska forever sundered
from the pack, or from himself, who would need a mate. And last, though
far from least he thought of Avatar, who would always be free. And for
a time his spirit ran with him, through the heart of a forest five
hundred miles deep.
Was a compromise of worlds possible, he wondered, some meaningful
coexistence between the hill-people and the colonists? He tried, but
could not imagine it. And what did it matter, if he lost the only woman
he would ever love? Again he felt the sudden, sour turning of his
stomach, and the debilitating flow of unused adrenalin.
He wanted just to go to her, and take her to him, and tell her he was
hers alone, and always. He felt the longing for her touch like a hole
in his chest. But what could he do, when she would not let him near
her? He had not been alone with her for two days, which seemed an
eternity, and she showed no sign..... Anger and jealousy hardly seemed
the signs of love.
He could not work it out, and was soon too weary and sick at heart to
care much, even for something that touched him so deeply.
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