(( This is being copied over from the old Grim site so that I can link it in my bio. Feel free to comment, but the story is long past. ))
Hidua put his hand on Yichimet’s forehead. The secrets the old bull had kept from his pupil and friend seemed to push up from his lungs to his throat, where they made a knot. Yichimet’s milky eyes made a brief, darting appearance as the young Shu’halo mumbled in Grimtotem and another language that Hidua did not recognize. He touched Yichimet’s sweat-spotted snout and then pushed aside the tent flaps to walk into the thrashing wind of the Needles.
His braids whipped his face. The list he had assembled from the parchment and kodo hide replies of his elders was hidden in his robe. The thought of its contents turned his heart stone-gray for a moment.
Swallows Rats Whole had taken the message that Hidua was ready to Snowfeather’s hands, and she had gathered the Grim, that much he could see from this distance. The faces of orcs and trolls and Forsaken and Shu’halo, almost all in the black and red tabard, all turned to him as he walked up. He heard Mohan say, “Here is the one who can answer the questions.â€