With so many hands pulling together, it was no wonder that Dawn Shadow Hold, set in the Heart of the Mountains, was soon on its feet. With a legend-bearer wed on the first night of their holding to a living legend himself, the omens were prosperous for the life yet to come. And though the dead still stalked the mountain paths, they had lost the Heart and the demon that had claimed it generations before. The living souls of the Mountains had breathing room to adjust to the newness of being two holds, rather than one. There were hunts to be completed, storehouses to fill. The new hold needed to set up the school for its children, not to mention reconcile the heavy responsibility of having a Light-Bringer in their midst. But they accepted that responsibility happily, for Aiden Shadow-Walker's sister was a quiet, humble sort, who needed their protection despite the awesome power she could wield. And Aiden himself, though the bearer of a title long since believed cursed, was a welcome sight among them, with his unique skill with a bow.

A skill that his newly-mated wife was curious to learn. "So ....how does this work, exactly?"

For a man who was not accustomed to living among so many people, Aiden Shadow-Walker was quite a popular fellow, especially when it came to giving archery lessons. It had come as a surprise even to him that he was actually good at it and he was slowing winning the clan's respect, not only as a fellow warrior but as a teacher and as their leader's chosen mate. A leader who was as curious and eager to learn the bow as the rest of the clan, and though Aiden was not certain he was a good teacher, he would not deny her or any of them that knowledge.

"Very simply," he replied, demonstrating himself with bow in hand. He made it look simple anyway, the way he pulled back the string and let loose the arrow to let it fly swiftly toward the target, which was currently a tree some short distance away. Of course, it was anything but simple, especially for a novice, but he had complete faith in her.

Katla was not the sort to invite the snickers of her clanmates, which was why her lesson was taking place outside the hold, in a clearing not very far from the stockade that surrounded the mountain opening. She tilted her head, not convinced that her mate was right about this being simple. "As simple as throwing a spear, for example?" she asked in amusement.

"Would you say throwing a spear is simple?" he asked, without pausing to look her way. He nocked another arrow before pulling the string back to let loose a second arrow, which lodged itself in the tree, right beside the first one. He had a point to the question; it wasn't rhetorical.

"No, I wouldn't," she chuckled, pushing out of her lean as he loosed another arrow. "I couldn't hand you a spear and see you throw it with the same accuracy and force that I can. So no, I don't think this archery is as simple as you're pretending it is, Aiden." His name on her lips was still a new sound for them both, after days of his being lowlander and nothing more.

"Ah, but you did not ask how it is done, but how it works. And as you can see, it is not unlike throwing a spear in the way it works." He let loose one last arrow, which somehow embedded itself between the first two, before he lowered the bow and turned to face her. "Come. I will show you," he said, offering her the bow.

Laughing, Katla moved toward him, wrapping her fingers around the grip on the bow. "How does this work for me, then?" she asked, altering her question slightly. "How do I do this?" She made an attempt to mimic his stance, tucking her fingers about the string to draw back.

"Like this." He came up beside and behind her, reaching around her so that he could guide her fingers to where they should be and help her pull draw back the string. There was no arrow yet; that would come later. First, she needed to learn what the bow felt like and how to properly handle it so that she didn't injure herself. Drawing back the string was a challenge in itself, but he was confident she could do it, or he wouldn't have agreed to teach her.

Newly-mated as they were, being this close was always going to be just a little distracting. Rippling her fingers against the grip, Katla made a distinct effort to ignore the broad chest against her back, utterly failing to hide her grin, and concentrated on the fingers guiding hers about the string. "Surely just holding it with my fingertips means I'll lose my grip?"

"That's where strength comes in," he replied, not to mention practice. One did not master the long bow in a single day any more than one mastered a sword, after all. Well-practiced at archery, he didn't seem to be having much trouble holding the bowstring taut, but even if would have trouble if he held this position too long. "You should be able to feel it in your arms and back," he told her.

She snorted with laughter. "So I need strong fingers now as well as a strong back?" she asked in amusement, concentrating fiercely as she relaxed the string for a moment, pulling it back once again to her jaw. "I can definitely feel that," she added, teasingly rolling her hips to remind him that she could feel something else, too.

He smirked at her teasing, though he knew she was serious about learning the bow. "Strong arms, strong back, strong fingers. Steady hands and a good eye," he added, pausing a moment to look over her stance. "Would you like to try an arrow?"

She relaxed once again, enough of a warrior to know when not to strain her body holding a stance. "It is the only way to find out just how much practice I will need to master this," she pointed out in her matter-of-fact way, glancing down at her fingers on the bow string. "Though I am uncertain just how I am supposed to hold an arrow and the string."

"You don't hold the arrow," he told her, tapping her on the shoulder to indicate that she could relax. "Here, let me show you," he told her, moving to take the bow from her hands, so he could demonstrate again.

She gave up the bow easily, blue eyes sharp as she observed the way he nocked the arrow he held. "How long did it take you to learn this?" she asked him curiously, aware that it was the younger men and women of their new hold who were progressing the fastest with this new method of fighting.

He'd been shooting a bow for as long as he could remember and could practically do it in sleep. The same could probably be said of her with a sword in her hand. He shrugged in answer to her question. "How long did it take you to learn how to ride or to wield n axe?" he countered. Aiden nocked another arrow, locking the odd-colored arrow against the string before raising the bow. "See how it stays there without having to hold it?" he asked, indicating the arrow with a nod of his head.

She circled him, studying his stance and how the arrow rested between his fingers at the string. "I see," she nodded thoughtfully, her own hands mimicking the stance without a bow to hold. "And the arrow always flies" It doesn't fail to leave the bow?"

"So long as you have your arrow nocked correctly and pull back far enough on the bowstring," he assured her, though there were multiple things that could go wrong if one wasn't using the right form. As he pulled back the string to demonstrate further, he could feel the muscles in his right arm tense with the pressure, but he was so accustomed to the feeling that he hardly noticed. With the arrow nocked, his left hand fisted just beneath it to hold it steady, and the fingers of his right hand clutching the string, he aimed once again for that tree. "You want to make sure you always hold the arrow in the same position," he instructed further. As for himself, he was holding the arrow just below his chin.

"And that's for aiming, yes?" she asked, still studying him as he demonstrated for her. She didn't mind him taking his time - the more of the theory she knew before beginning, the better her shot would be when she finally tried it for the first time. "I would assume that everyone aims in a slightly different way."

"Aye," he replied, not moving a muscle, not even to nod, as he stood there with the arrow poised to be let loose. "Look down the arrow toward your target and ..." He let go of the string, letting the arrow fly toward the tree to embed itself in the trunk near the arrows he'd shot there a little while ago.

"Then it is in the hands of the Gods," he said simply, lifting her chin to capture her lips with his, kissing her slowly and thoroughly, as if it was their first kiss or their last. He had trusted the Goddess all his life; it was the Goddess who guided his life and had led him here to Katla and her people. If they were to have a son or a daughter, it was in the Goddess' hands.

First kiss or last, it didn't matter. They had both waited long enough to experience the connection they shared, suffering separate tragedies that had made them the people they were. Katla had trusted in her gods all her life; she firmly believed Aiden had been brought to her by their hand, and she would not be turning him away ever again. Callused fingertips brushed his jaw as he kissed her, as she answered that kiss, her lesson in war forgotten beneath the shadows of the canopy above them. They were not expected back too soon; she could indulge herself while the sun still shone.

The trees were shelter enough. For years, they had been his only home, walking among them and living among them, while he hunted the dead. It was as good a place as any to start on her promise to give him a son, if she would have him. He pushed his fingers through her hair, cupping her face in his hands and kissing her again and again, hungry for her kisses, now that the lesson was over.

And for once, for perhaps the first time, his fierce warrior of a mate did not fight him for dominance, or even wrestle to take control. She offered herself up, answering each suggestion in his touch, in his kisses, surrendering in a way she had not allowed herself to before. Perhaps it was because, out here, there was no danger of prying eyes, or innocent ones, catching a glimpse of how much she desired her mate, how much she was tender with him. Or perhaps it was simply that she was learning that this pleasure, this joining, need not be a fight, as almost everything else in life was.

He drew her gently down to the forest floor, there in the woods, with only the Goddess and the wild things of the forest to bear witness. He showed her more than told her, with tender kisses and caresses, just how much he had grown to adore her. And there in the forest, he made love to his wife and lifemate - the woman who had claimed him for her own and in claiming him had won his heart.

That tenderness drew out a rarely seen side of his fierce mate; the gentle woman she had hidden away years ago, when her life had become a pawn in the power plays of old men and their ambitions. But for Aiden, it was there, waiting to be coaxed out, eager to be seen and loved. In the warmth of the late summer, she lay tangled with him on the soft bed of moss and grass beneath the trees, heedless of her nudity, trading kisses that burned far deeper than any wish or dream. This was real.

To be fair, they were only partially nude, clothing fumbled loose in a frenzied hurry to have each other, but now that the passion had cooled, they lay tangled in each other's arms, dappled sunlight shining through the trees he so loved. His fingers played her hair as she kissed him, smiling through those kisses and feeling happier than he could ever remember being before. "Do you think Siv will be jealous if we have another child?"

Katla laughed softly, tilting her chin to brush her lips to his nose. "I think Siv would be happy not to be the youngest any longer," she admitted ruefully. "You've seen the way she is with Cat. Imagine that with a baby."

"You can explain to her that we are not naming our child Boy or Girl," he teased, smirking as she touched a kiss to his nose.

She rolled her eyes. "Cat did have a name once," she admitted in amusement. "Unfortunately, everyone's forgotten it. Siv has a very straight-forward approach to things." She smiled, laying her head against his shoulder. "It is a joy to see her so happy. She adores your sister."

"I'm sure my sister shares her feelings," he said, though the smile had been replaced with a small worried frown. The subject of his sister often put that look on his face, concerned as he was for her happiness.

Katla gently prodded his side. "I can feel you frowning," she informed him. "Elin is settling into the clan - slowly, perhaps, but she is finding a place here. Not everyone can call a new place home and family within days, Aiden, and we should not expect it."

"It is because of me we are here, and I worry that she is happy," he explained, though his sister had given him no reason to think she wasn't happy. He had taken her away from her life in the lowlands, from everything and everyone she'd known and loved, or so he believed.

"She is with you, you have found her a home and a family," she pointed out, lifting herself up onto her elbow to look down at him. "Are we so poor in her eyes that she would not see us as the friends we wish to be to her?"

"It isn't that," he countered, meeting her gaze and lifting a hand to touch her face in an affectionate and reassuring caress. "I only worry that she will never find someone to share her life with, as you and I have," he tried to explain.

Her cheek tilted into his touch with a soft smile gracing her lips. "If that is what she wants, Aiden, then it will come to her," she said with absolute confidence. "The Lady does not punish those who do Her work, and a Light-Bringer is the greatest gift She could have given us. Be certain, dear heart - Elin will not be left without love, if love is her wish."

"I do not know her wishes, but I worry she is lonely," he admitted further, though he was not so worried as to become matchmaker. If Elin was to find a mate, she would have to do so on her own. He'd thought there might be a few young men interested in her among the clan, but up to now, it seemed they had only become friends.

"I wouldn't mention that to Sigrun," Katla chuckled softly, dipping her head to kiss him with a brief touch of lip to lip. "She would leap at the chance to be a matchmaker for your sister. She delights in pushing people toward the chance for love, even if she is completely wrong about it."

"She did push us together," he pointed out with a grin, even as she kissed him, his fingers straying to the braided blond hair away from her face. That statement wasn't entirely accurate, but Sigrun hadn't discouraged their relationship either.

She laughed against his lips, dropping down to his side once more. "I love Sigrun, but I wouldn't trust her to find a mate for your sister with any hope of accuracy," she warned him in a fond tone. "Far more likely Elin would be wed to several men for as many years as knots they undid in the ceremony, in the hope that she might like one of them."

Had they been talking about anyone other than his sister, Aiden might have laughed, but the matter of his twin's happiness was no laughing matter to him. "I would prefer she find someone to her own liking," he remarked, stating the obvious.

"Which is why you should never mention to Sigrun that you're worried about Elin being lonely," Katla pointed out with a smile. "Trust me. Siv's got more chance of finding Elin a good match than Sigrun does, and she's five."

"Which is why we need to let her find a match on her own," Aiden said, despite his worries about her loneliness. Though he'd never admit it and hardly recognized it himself at the time, he'd been lonely before he'd met Katla. Only now that they were together, did he realize just how much he'd been missing.

"The Lady will provide for her," Katla assured him, certain that the gods would not abandon someone so blessed. She, too, had known loneliness, but tempered by the presence of her daughter during the years she was most aware of it. To have Aiden by her side was a gift she would not soon forget.

Nodding to him as he slipped out of sight, Katla deliberately turned her back on the sound of approaching feet, resuming the conversation as though he was still with her. Only a warrior would know that she was tensed to fight whatever came out of the trees toward her.

Aiden had his bow out almost at once and silently nocked an arrow in readiness for whatever had been tracking them. He was not fool enough to believe it was an accident, as he and Katla had been making no secret of their whereabouts. Several tense minutes passed before the crunch of boots was heard among the trees, and a tall, hooded figure came into view.

"And I would stop there, if I was you." Katla turned, buckler and axe ready in her hands. She might be smaller than most men, but she had a stance that suggested she'd killed more than her share in her lifetime. "You might be able to rush me, but you'd be dead before you got within arm's reach. Why are you following us?"

The hooded figure stopped dead in his tracks. Though the face inside the hood was too shadowed to tell for certain, his size and movement were too masculine to be female. He raised his arms to show he was carrying no weapon and meant them no harm, gaze fixed on Katla, though he had clearly heard two voices, one distinctly male. "I mean you no harm," the figure said in a decidedly masculine voice. "I need your help."

"Show your face," she told him, not relaxing her stance for a moment. Though her battles had been against the dead, she knew men could be harder opponents. She wasn't going to be tricked. "What do you want with us?"

Aiden remained where he was, hidden among the trees, but with the arrow aimed at the man's heart, just in case he did not mean what he said. The hooded figure very slowly moved his hands to pull back the hood, revealing a young man's face, barely old enough to grow a tuft of blond fuzz on his chin. There was something not quite right about the color of his face though, as if he was ill, and there was a glassy cast to his eyes. "My name is Bjorn." He cast a wary glance around the clearly. "I know you are not alone."

His name, his coloring, drew Katla's interest more than his insistence that she was not alone. "You're Amarri," she said, not a question but a certainty. "How" For generations, Mountain-Hawk has been the only hold in these mountains. The dead almost destroyed us."

From the look of him, he'd been traveling for some time, though it was uncertain if it had been days or weeks. He was ragged and unkempt in appearance, as though he had not bathed or eaten a proper meal in some days. "I am ....was ....from Stone-Bear Hold on the other side of the pass. There was an attack and ..." He trailed off, his voice breaking, as much from grief as from weariness. Did he really need to tell them the rest"

"Stone-Bear" Shadow-Walker, get down here!" Slinging her axe and buckler at her hip and back, Katla was quick to move to the weak man before her. She knew that name - a hold that had been assumed lost when the dead rose, but not confirmed, for no one had been able to cross the mountains to reach them.

Aiden was already on his way, appearing from out of the trees and joining Katla in the clearing. He had already returned his bow and arrow to his back and was quick to join her, in case either she or the stranger needed help.

"Shadow-Walker?" the stranger who had named himself Bjorn murmured, looking to Aiden with wide, glassy eyes. The Shadow-Walker was clearly not Amarri, dark-haired as he was - nearly the opposite of the clansmen.

"Aye," Aiden confirmed. "It's a long story."

"One for the hold, not out here," Katla pointed out. "You're injured, Bjorn. How?" The real question was implicit - had he taken any of the dead blood into himself in this attack that had driven him so far across the mountains" If he had, there was only one thing they could do for him.

"Claws," the injured man replied, raising a hand again as if to indicate behind him. "My back," he added, in a ragged voice.

"How in the Nine Hells did you find us?" Aiden asked, stepping forward to sling an arm beneath the man's shoulder to help him walk. The look he gave Katla said it all - the man needed a healer and soon.

"The augur will be able to deal with your injuries," Katla predicted, meeting Aiden's eyes with knowing understanding. "We're not far from our hold." But Halleth might not be able to remove the corruption without Elin's help, and that meant revealing the existence of a Light-Bringer to an unknown.

"I saw a light ....from across the mountains," the young man explained in a strained voice, grunting a little as he let Aiden take some of his weight. The arm pressing against his back was painful, but he was too far gone to care.

"The Heart of the Mountains has been cleansed, Bjorn," Katla told him, tucking herself under his other arm as the two hale warriors marched him toward their hold. "We reclaimed it for our people - it's Dawn-Shadow Hold now."

Bjorn felt a strange mix of wonder and grief at that news. It was nothing short of a miracle, but a miracle that had come too late for his own people. "Dawn-Shadow," he echoed quietly, almost as if he could hardly believe it. Whether they were of different clans or not, they were both Amarri. That neither of them could deny. "Then, I am home." He might have said more, but the wounds and weariness and grief finally got the best of him and he surrendered himself to the darkness, a dead weight against their shoulders.

Katla paused, adjusting his weight over her shoulders. "I didn't think that would make him pass out," she offered by way of apology over the bowed head between them. "Not far to go?"

"Not far," Aiden confirmed, not bothering to point out how lucky the young man was that they'd been there to find him. Or perhaps it wasn't luck at all, but another gift from the Lady.

"Right." It was just as well they were in the condition they were, or this last mile would have been far more of a struggle than it was. The hold gates were opened at the first sight of them, Thane's men coming out to take the burden of the man and bear him into the hold. "Take him to our quarters, and call Halleth," Katla ordered, turning to Aiden. "I need to tell Svarn. You find Elin, take her to our quarters. She might be needed."

Aiden took no offense at being given orders, but only nodded his head and hurried off to find his sister. It was something he would have done without being told anyway.

Finding Elin was a task and a half in a busy hold, though. While, yes, she was usually engaged in teaching the children one thing or another, there was no way to tell just where the lesson of the day would be taking place. It was only the sound of shrieking giggles emanating from the water-house that was used for laundry that pinpointed her in the end - she and several small children were apparently attempting to wash blankets together, and getting much wetter than the blankets ever did.

"Elin!" Aiden called once he'd found her, the urgency hard not to miss in his voice and on his face. He glanced at the children and frowned, not wanting to alarm or frighten anyone. "I would have a word, if I may," he told his sister.

As the sound faded, taking the Light with it, Katla dared to open her eyes, glancing back toward the door. She didn't get a chance to open it, however, before a familiar little voice announced itself.

"I heard the noise, I heard the noise!" An equally familiar scruffy bundle of ginger cat came streaking down the passageway, closely followed by a very enthusiastic Siv. "Mamae! Papae! I heard the noise! Is Elin doin' the magic" Can I see?" The five-year-old threw herself at Aiden, certain in the knowledge that he would catch her.

He didn't disappoint her, catching her as she launched herself at him and lifting her easily into his arms. "It is already done," he explained to her, having a hard time saying no. "Can you be very quiet?" he asked, lowering his voice to a whisper himself. "As quiet as a mouse?"

There was a yowl as Katla caught Cat and sent her back the way she'd come. Siv giggled, wrapping her arms around Aiden's neck as she nodded. "I can be really shush," she promised in what was quite possibly the loudest whisper she had ever produced.

"There is a young man inside who needs all our help," he explained to Siv, as gently as he could. "And that includes you," he told her, poking a playful finger at her tummy. "He comes from another hold, far away, but he is one of us. He is Amarri."

The little girl giggled at the poke, her big eyes wide as he shared that pertinent detail about their visitor. "He's like us?"

Katla smiled. "Yes, sweetling," she told her daughter. "From a hold a very long way away. He's come a very long way to find us."

It was to his credit that Aiden was counting himself among the Amarri now. They had taken him and his sister in, accepted and welcomed them, and made them theirs. The least he could do was return the favor. "He's very sick, so we must do all we can to help him get well," he explained further.

"Is that why Elin did the magic?" Siv whispered hopefully. She'd heard all about the Light-Bringer, seen the eyes marked on her new aunt's palms, and was desperate to see the magic in action. The fact that watching would turn her blind was beside the point in her young mind.

"Aye. She only uses it when it is truly needed," he told her. And since the Light-Bringer had used her magic, that in itself spoke of the gravity of the young man's condition. "So, we can take a peek, but we must be quiet, so we do not disturb them." Either healer or patient.

The little girl nodded, clamping one hand over her own mouth, much to the amusement of her mother. As Katla pushed opened the door, it was to find Halleth coming out of the second sleeping chamber. The augur looked shaken and pale, but she nodded to the group.

"He is hale and whole," she reported quietly. "But sleeping."

"Is something wrong?" Aiden asked, noticing Halleth's state. Perhaps it was only the intensity of Elin's power that had shaken her, but he had to be sure.

The augur shook her head. "No, I am well, Shadow-Walker," she assured him. "The spirits gave me the power to heal what I could, but they take their price, too. I need only rest."

Katla leaned down to help her onto her feet. "Come, then," she told the augur. "Let me see you to your chamber."

"Thank you and be well," Aiden told the augur, before glancing briefly at Katla, as though some unspoken understanding passed between them. Her departure left him alone with Siv to peek on Elin and the newcomer.

Siv, one hand still wrapped around her own mouth, leaned ahead of Aiden's progress, wanting to be the first one to see what was going on in the sleeping chamber she usually shared with Elin. No doubt she was profoundly disappointed to find Elin gently covering the man with a warm blanket, sinking down into a seat by the bedside.

Aiden's first glance and concern was not for the wounded man, but for his sister, needing to be sure she was well - weary but well. "Halleth said he will be well?" he said in a low voice to his sister as they entered the chamber, more question than statement.

Elin seemed just as wan as Halleth had, but Aiden had seen her in that state before. She just needed time to recover, that was all. "He will," she assured her brother, her face lifting in a smile for Siv. "It took a little more than we were expecting. He's been carrying that wound for days."

"It is good he found us, then," Aiden replied, without bothering to mention that it was nothing short of a miracle. He leaned over to place Siv's feet on the ground. "Remember what I said," he warned her quietly. "Quiet and only a peek," he told her before letting go.

"Amazing he made it, really," Elin murmured, watching as Siv tiptoed over to the bed to lift the blanket and look at the man sleeping there.

"He's like us," the little girl whispered in awe. It was one thing to be told; another to actually see it for herself. "Did the eyes open and everything, Elin?"

Elin's smile softened. "Yes, little one, they did," she assured her niece, letting Siv open her palms to inspect the now closed eyes marked there as she looked over at her brother. "What will happen now?"

Aiden glanced to the sleeping stranger, marking the improved color in his face and the expression that was no longer strained, but seemed at peace for the moment, before looking back to his sister and daughter. He shrugged lightly before answering, as if she already knew the answer to that question. "We will find those who did this and have our revenge, but we will do it together."

"We know what did it, Aiden," Elin told him wearily. They wouldn't have needed her for simple wounds. She glanced at Siv, unwilling to say anything more explicit in front of the child, who was quietly imploring the eyes on her aunt's palms to look at her.

He would say nothing more in front of the child either. He knew, in fact, that he'd said too much already. He nodded an acknowledgement again at his sister, saying more with that simple nod than he could with words. "You will stay with him?" he asked, though he knew she was tired.

"I will," Elin promised. "I hope you and Katla made the most of your time alone today, because you will have company in your bed tonight."

Hearing this, Siv looked up with a strangled squeak, only just remembering to keep her voice down. "I'm sleeping with Mamae and Papae tonight?"

"It would seem so, sweetling," he confirmed, as he looked to the girl. "Give Elin a kiss and we'll leave her be. She needs to rest," he told Siv, suddenly weary himself, but it was more of a weariness of the burden that had been thrust upon his shoulders. At least, this time he and Elin would not be alone with such a burden.

"Yes, Papae." Swarming up onto Elin's lap for a moment, the little girl hugged her dark-haired aunt tightly, pressing a loud kiss to her cheek before slithering back down once more to seize Aiden's hand.

"We will talk in the morning," Aiden promised his sister, bending to touch a kiss to her cheek as Siv gave him her tiny hand. He had a feeling he and Katla weren't going to get much rest tonight, but hopefully Elin and her patient would rest well.

"We will," Elin promised him, brushing her lips to her brother's cheek fondly. "Don't worry so much. I'm fine, and so will he be. Try to rest yourself, too."

"Aye," he replied, though he doubted he'd get much rest tonight. There was much to discuss, and he wasn't sure it would wait until morning. And then, he and Siv were gone, leaving Elin alone with the man who was a stranger to the clan and yet clearly one of them.

Left to her vigil, Elin rose, removing her belt and boots, wrapping a warm shawl about herself before curling into the chair by the bed once again. "Goddess guide you, whoever you are," she murmured softly. "Come back to your people with the dawn. Please."

The sleeping man made no sign that he'd heard anything that had been said while he lay there, quiet and still; and yet, there could be no denying that his color looked better, no longer gray, and his breathing was no longer labored, grown soft and even. If he made it through the night, it was likely he'd live.