make me feel brand new

After transferring the clay into the skin that Poem had offered, Sparhawk took it in his mouth. He slung his own supplies over his red and charcoal shoulders and, at her question, they went upwards and back towards the light of day. It took a little while for his eyes to adjust to the glaring light of the sun, but, with a bit of squinting, he was soon okay. The man brought his attention to Poem, making sure that she was okay before sitting the skin full of clay down. Opening it, he gave a soft hmmph sound. "Looks blue to me." He would let her inspect the clay before they began their departure.

It seemed that a song was never far from Sparhawk. As they walked, he hummed along to some nameless tune. There was pep in his step. He'd slept very well nestled up against Poem all night. As he'd thought many times; he was fine being alone, but he preferred to have someone to curl up beside at night. Maybe Poem would be that one. Surely there had been some connection there. It hadn't all been the drink. She was pretty and charming and intelligent. Poem was a larger woman which he also liked very much. So far, there was no down side to her.

In time, the wolves arrived at a river. It was moving lazily along and didn't seem to be terribly deep. Even so, Sparhawk picked his way downstream a bit until there was a raised area where the rocks were clearly visible all the way across. No risk of drowning here. Since he was covered in dried clay and muck up to his elbows, the red man shrugged out of his pack. It was time for a swim.

Wading into the water, Sparhawk began to wash the muck from his tree trunk legs. The water around him ran with muddy blue murkiness. Since he was already here, he began to give the rest of his body a wash too. The man submerged his face, blowing a few bubbles for the hell of it before surfacing to rub his paws over that face. Water sluiced down his redwood and charcoal coat. It never crossed his mind to ask Poem to join him. He assumed that she was already clean. She certainly smelled clean.