It had been a stupid decision.
But she had to do it.
So she went to the deadfall where the other girl had fallen, using a mix of shreds of animal pelt and rocks to mark places where the ground was likely to give way. In this, the mountainwalker would ensure safety for her packmates. She had done this all morning, picking along the mountainside until morning turned to afternoon, then to evening, then to the dead of night.
And it was then disaster struck her.
Rock, sharp and unyielding, had failed her. In the end, she was lucky to get away without her neck being snapped. The raw, exposed muscle on one shoulder and the wretched pain across her ribs was an afterthought. Tullik had seen worse mountaineering injuries in her time, but it didn’t make it hurt any less.
She limped for the lodge by the light of the moon, eyes squinted against a headache, blood twined with her fur.
when chakliux visited the mountain, he did not depart it without spending some time with tullik.
with the birth of this child, the seal hunter decided he would stay close for a longer time, and this he sang out to
@Samani and to
@Heph and
@Marina, saying he would hunt a while between their two villages.
eagerly thereafter, he trotted along the familiar path toward the first lodge, stopping to whisper a prayer of love over his buried children; the scent of blood struck him and dragged him into a fierce speed.
"tullik!" wounded; he helplessly hovered beside her, then crossed to his wife's better side, offering the support of his shoulder.
"did the mountain change beneath your feet, rock-running-woman?" some humour. mostly terseness.
Like the moon rose every night and the sun rose every day, Chakliux came to her side. She raised her head to offer him a rueful little smile and a shaky chuckle.
I appear to have become overconfident.
She threw her nose over her shoulder to indicate the peaks.
The mountain almost claimed a life, not long ago. A newcomer tested her mettle, and the mountain did not like her confidence. She fell. I went to mark the places where another accident may occur.
And now look at her. Tullik’s little huff was self deprecating, less of a laugh and more of a tired sigh.
I ran out of markers. I was done for the night, and I misjudged.
Her confidence had done her in, she was sure.
his mouth soured. his face was downcast. he listened and he saw the shame tullik must bear, for falling after all that had happened.
but into his mouth came words, which leapt; "come back to moontide with me. return when you are ready."
chakliux was long lonely; but he wished also for her health, and now he knew he wished to tend her through this.
Her eyes turned to Chakliux, a worry lying at the heart of her gaze. She opened her mouth to respond, as if to indicate she should stay, lay more markers.
But she didn’t. Instead, she closed her mouth, the conflict visible on her face. She could not walk the mountains like this, especially with the confidence she walked them with shaken to the core. It was dawning on her now, as the slow roll of adrenaline out of her system left her shaken and pale with pain, that this could have been her end. Never to see a litter with Chakliux, never to watch them grow.
None of it.
She slowly nodded.
That..I will do.
Tullik looked to her husband shakily.
I have never been to the sea.
And what conditions to visit under.
she did not protest; chakliux let out his breath and held her closer. "we will go there together." he did not wish to make her travel so soon, but she could not be tended so well here as she felt he might beside the sea.
chakliux was not a healer, only a desperate man, now stooping to clean the blood from the exposed flesh, reaching for cool grass which he knew vaguely to wrap into a kind of bandage.
"tonight. rest, first." he could place her in the new lodge at moontide, and still fulfill his hunting for sialuk between the sea and mountain.
She hissed through her teeth at the touch to the wound, but she did not flinch away. Her tired eyes looked up to her husband’s scared face, and she reached out to touch her nose to his forehead.
Will you rest with me?
Tullik’s voice was soft, less a question and more a helpless request from a woman who was more scared than she ever let on.
"i will not take you from your numbers. keep your moonspear name. only come to be wife in moontide for a time."
but he nodded; he gathered her close and settled them there on the path, counting the stars as he waited for her strength to restore. they would be off, and then tullik could rest.