the rose girl with the sea eyes was dead, and for it chakliux resented rodyn. it had not been the man's fault; who knew when a woman might die? to bring forth children was to undergo a danger no hunter could understand.
and yet, the grief and frustration found their scapegoat.
chakliux kept far away from the death ulaq and the chanting of the moonwoman. these were strange ways to him, unnerving. the sunshine words were not his.
he would have set her adrift upon the sea with seal bladders of oil and good blubber, spirit-food on her journey.
but kukutux was her mother, and the seal hunter respected this also.
glowering, he kept to the edge of moontide, hunting, patrolling, listening in pain to the voices crying ouy for samani.
<3!
He could not bear to stay near the gathering for long. Not that he didn't care. Far from it. It just elicited too many clashing emotions within. Like the raging waves of an angry sea. Guilt. Paranoia. Fear. Self-resentment. They may come for him. For his hide, to strip him down to the bones.
Mauruk sat away, facing out towards the great span of the ocean. A silhouette of dark, alone. Nearly colorless, save for the sand tinting his nape. He was happy to be closer to his mother once again. But not like this. And, would things ever be the same between them? Would he ever be welcomed into the inner circle of her family?
There was so much he had to learn. To understand of the culture she lived and breathed by. Though every inch her son, he did not speak in her tribal tongue. Did not actively practice the rituals she partook in, time lost due to his absence. Making him pliable and open.
His sea roots ran deep, like the blood of the ancestors within him. It was why he sat here now, as if calling to them. Seeking their light and guidance. He inhaled deeply, as if the salty air might clarify his mind. Calm his nerves. Instead he returned to an old memory. Sedna's jaws had drug him under and away once before. He looked at the scarred grooves on his leg. Reached and opened his jaws, to begin carving out a new notch for what he believed to be his sin.
there was a familiarity about the other silent man. his green eyes connected him to the moon-family, for they bore all shades between them. but while the daughters of kukutux were fair, this son was a shadow.
blood. tearing flesh.
"i will make a mark for you, friend, like my own," chakliux grunted, passing a trail before the stranger as if to encourage teeth away from self-flesh. why did this one shed blood? perhaps he truly was related.
the chanting rose eerie; his hackles rose in a thrust of pale spiking, and he straightened.
"come. her sister gave birth not so long ago. the others will sing. we will hunt in saltshore."
chakliux did not know what to do with himself, and so wished to go for a time, to hunt, to be away from this scene of death.
he had brought
@Tullik down from the mountain and placed her in that elegant, silent
ulaq once built for nasamik. the seal hunter expected his wife to make a return for moonspear when she had recovered, but for now — his bright eyes found the unknown man and he grunted once before turning away into the darkness.
He did not find himself in a social mood. Not like he usually would be. His opportunities for that had been limited since his return. For fear of being cast out, turned away. The pale man approached, beckoning. His teeth hovered over his marred limb a moment longer. Eyes fixed, lips quivering slightly.
He accepted Chakliux's silently. He spoke of the lost woman's sister. Of a hunt. Normally, he would have been thrilled. Eager. Instead he pulled himself up, as if with a great effort. Slowly he followed to join the Seal Hunter's side.
Mauruk's voice was quiet. Distant. Heavy. "Do you even know who I am?" A weighted question, from a near forgotten first born son.
the man moved with great effort. his voice was low thunder. it reminded chakliux of the pain that the little warrior quennell had carried.
"i had the thought you were a moonwolf," he said of the northern family now spread through three packs. "but truly, i do not care of your past. now we are here. now we must help."
and so he trotted off into the darkness, keeping mauruk at his side.
"do you know their words?" the black wolf did not speak in the sunshine words, which made chakliux again doubtful he was one of them.
"I was, once." His voice drifted. As the seal hunters words reached him, his steps ceased. He did not care of his past. Should it matter? It did to Mauruk.
"Only some. I never had the chance to know them well." His eyes found the distant glimmer of the sea. "Time was lost to me, then." He moved away, apparently disinterested in a hunt with the pale man.
"My given name is not spoken. The spear was the place of my birth. I am her first born son."
the man was somber.
kukutux had never spoken of an older son. chakliux knew only of the boys who lived in the village moonglow and called her mother.
"why did your name change?" but a hot claw of awareness thrummed; he knew. he knew.
and yet he must hear it.
He wanted to know why. Why the change of his name. He faced Chakliux, but his sea glass eyes hung towards the west, where the mountain of his birth stood. "The scars on her mountain tell part of the story. Tragedy."
Then, he allowed their eyes to meet. Mauruk almost looked haunting, with the contrast of his bright stare amidst the dark canvas of his face. He answered the seal hunter's question with his own. "Do you believe in spirits, villager?" He asked in a weighted voice.
a knife of fear lanced through chakliux. he strove not to show this. "every man fears spirits. it keeps a hunter humble."
it was a joke, but the moontide man did not smile. "one daughter came down from the mountain. a son did not."
his voice hung heavy between them.
He kept the wince away from his face, as Chakliux said spirits were feared by men. If it was meant to be a joke, he did not see it. For to him, there was nothing more serious than the way in which he was laying himself out.
"You would be right." He commented. "But not truly lost. Only taken, whisked away." His eyes peeled away again and back to the soil. He found little point in explaining he had been born of Kukutux's first husband. Chakliux would deduce that easily enough.
"I was considered not only lost, but dead. A literal ghost." He gestured to his scarred leg. "I bear the mark of Sedna's jaws, whilst I was pulled beneath the raging waves of my ancestors. I do not know why she returned me to this place, but only Moonwoman has recently accepted me as Mauruk."
the more he heard, the more he dreaded.
"do the others know you were spirit?"
even now, did mauruk truly live, or did he walk between the lands? chakliux had not heard of a dead man returning.
he wondered what the moon woman thought now of this man.
"I do not know. I only can say with certainty that Moonwoman and her husband, Sialuk and and one other boy of the village were there when I returned at Moonglow's borders." He tried not to shudder at the thought of himself.
"For her I shed my own blood, to prove I live. Even after, I cleansed myself in the seas of the ancestors, to be born anew. It was then I returned to her, cleansed. She was satisfied, and renamed me Mauruk."
He sighed. "I do not know what the others think to this day. If they are as accepting as her." An intense flash of his eyes then. "Do you too consider me damned, villager?"
he had given much for the moon woman not to speak of him. mauruk was careful, severe. and yet chakliux understood, and felt a kinship with what had been sacrificed.
"i do not," he said, with meaning. the pale ears flicked. "so. will you be a sunshine man, as your mother and sisters? or will you make your own way? i like to travel with a band of hunters myself."