Hoshor Plains mothersea

when he left ariadne, chakliux meant to find raiyuk. yet he found himself straying near the moonglow camp where the moonspear wolves had also come to gather. he wanted to catch a glimpse of dutch, to assure him all was well.
but he also longed for the golden eyes of sialuk to be upon him, to know that he still had her favor in any regard.
what he found were many children, and for this reason he kept to the outskirts of the camp.

not yet old enough to be a hunting woman, but not quite small enough to be coddled at her mother's bosom. during her time in the plains, maggak took to chasing small prey; feeling vibrations beneath the snow and pouncing on voles as if she were a vixen. a girl with boundless, determined spunk she was!
her wandering took her further from the crowds. it pleased the starlet to get away from the noise and the warm bodies, the strange smells and the even stranger faces. maggak owed only her own people the time of day; a trait passed down through generations, given to her by men who were only ghosts now.
and so it caught her by surprise when she caught the scarred face of a man who looked so much like her, and yet not at all. she is confused until the distinct stench of seasalt snakes through her senses. she knew him, even though she didn't.
you're from moontide, she says matter-of-factly, approaching with a sway to her billowing tail and a heavy footstep. aren't you?

growing forlorn and restless, chakliux was preparing to simply leave and return another time when he was appraised by a small form which had detached itself from the main body of healers and visitors.
not expecting to glance down into the moon woman's own eyes, chakliux blinked several times. "yes. i am from village moontide."
returning to his hunker, the seal hunter regarded the child. "and you are from moonspear."
some awareness was sweeping over him; chakliux resisted it and waited for her to confirm his assumptions.

i am, a toothy, proud little grin began to spread from cheek to cheek. the mountain, her mountain; her birthright. you probably know my mom, then.
surely it was obvious. she was the spitting image of anaa in miniature, save for the eyes of glittering emerald which now narrowed in uncertainty toward the seal hunter man. she takes another set of steps toward him. are you a hunter?

yes; chakliux saw; yes, he knew, for the silvering was sialuk and the bearing as well. he did not allow his heart to shine through his eyes. the starwoman had taken more than one lover; chakliux could not be sure.
and what was more, even if surety had been his, no child of the mountain could belong to him.
"yes," he answered, unable to fight the curling smile as he took up the dialect of the sunshine people. "i am chakliux, a seal hunter. and i know your anaa."

seal hunter? maggak parrots, voice squeaking with the onset of changes she did not yet understand. i don't think very many seals live around here. are they common in moontide, or something?
the strange man with the red eyes intrigued her. there are marks along his face and sprawled across his shoulder, and immediately she found her gaze drawn toward them. she reaches out a paw to gesture toward them, oblivious. are these from seal hunting?

"it is the name of my clan. they are the seal hunter people." 
they are your people too, maggak, and his heart hurt within him.
toward his scars she reached. "when a seal hunter boy is ready to become a man, he must kill a seal in the water. if he succeeds, the spirit-talker of his village makes these marks. his brothers and cousins hold him down. it is great pain. horrible pain. he must not cry," chakliux explained. "it is tooth that cuts the marks. then we blacken them with water and crushed abalone shell. more pain. but when it is over, you do not feel it, for now you are a man."
"once you have been been beneath the sea, the pain is not so great. once you have seen that huge fear, and fought it, you are no longer afraid of pain."

fascinated, maggak soaked in every word from the mystery man's mouth. he speaks the tongue of her mother, and automatically she is impressed by this!
you must be pretty brave, she chirps. i think i'm pretty brave too. maybe i will get my own seal hunter scars one day. do you think they would let a woman get them?
she thought of how anânsiak had told her she was already a hunting woman. her brows knit together quizzically. how do you find the seals, though? i have never seen a seal.

"seal hunter woman receive their own scars. secret scars," chakliux grunted, for he had never before seen a woman with face and shoulders scored by tooth.
but perhaps it had happened before.
maggak had commented on his bravery, which he acknowledged with a warm look.
"perhaps in the spring i will take you to village moonsong. there are seals in that place. though they are different from the ones in the sea." he took a long breath of air. "once you have known the smell of seal, you will always know it."

i would like to see the sea, one day, the girl responds thoughtfully. maybe i can become a seal hunter and get my own scars. my anaa may not like it very much, though.
moonsong has its own seals? isn't it a village on a glacier? apparently, there was much of the world maggak had yet to see or know about. her eyes glitter as she leans up close to chakliux's ear. anaa says one day i will spend time in our sister villages. to study with them. but i do not want to go to one i don't like. seal went to brecheliant, can you believe that? what on earth does moonspear have to do with brecheliant? they aren't like us.

"why would your anaa not like this?" chakliux laughed. "she is a woman who chooses her own way. she will raise you to do the same." already maggak turned her eyes toward the seal hunters.
brecheliant. seal. his ears lifted in interest. "i do not know this place." chakliux considered for a moment. "but if your mother has sent seal there, then it is a village to know, even if it is not a moon village." his teeth dazzled. "yes, there are seals on moonsong, yes, you will look at the sea, one day. and do you want to know something about the seal who went to brecheliant?" he inquired, voice lowering as he prepared to speak of her potential-brother raiyuk. "you must not say that i told you this. there will be embarrassment," shame in the seal hunter gossiping like an old tern.