Summer faded, though the sun followed after the trader as he journeyed—the trees becoming gilded as the days went on and on, alone but surviving. He did not hunger because he could hunt efficiently enough, and he knew this coast, these forests; the only thing he missed was the company of others, and perhaps that was what drew Kilgitsuk towards the mountains.
He climbed, resting in the early evening as the stars came sprawling out as his only company. For a time Kilgitsuk counted them. Some nights he was in good humor and would trace shapes with his eyes, even make up stories to go along with them. There wasn't that same playfulness in him at the moment; not when he was in such familiar surroundings.
A plume of his breath was briefly visible as he steadied upon the earth, having made his camp and scraped out a sleeping place for himself upon a ledge of dry grasses and moss. The air was getting cooler in the evenings too, which was bracing, but nothing compared to the far north where Kilgitsuk had been for the previous long, lonely months.
The man would not sleep. His mind was drawn to nostalgia and the glimmerings of guilt instead.
chakliux meant to search for
@Marina's children as soon as he had found they were missing. he had gone to
@Heph and to
@Rodyn, to see how long he was able to be away.
and then
@Ariadne had been brought
back to moonglow, and chakliux had discovered the cottongrass man lived.
now he went out, both in search of the missing moontide children as well as hunting, accompanied by a still-stubborn search for the place where ariadne might make her own village.
near to moonspear was a place of dazzling cold which drew the seal hunter at once. his breath was a plume; his eyes bright with something like delight. he came to the glacier's plateau and found he was not alone, that another man with scars and pale fur had too found respite in this place.
"do you belong also to the moon woman?" his voice was teasing despite the tension he felt.
Kilgitsuk was watching the sky when he sensed the presence of another being. Whether it was the sound of footfalls or a more instinctual awareness is unclear to him, only he twitches an ear and then his shoulders brace when a voice reaches out. As the trader turns his attention, a look slips through his usually warm gaze, something of a shadow, briefly.
Belong to? No, but, we are of the same people.
It has been a while since Kilgitsuk has seen another person, let alone someone who speaks his language. Another moment of unnerving familiarity. He licks his lips and drops his gaze, having studied the other man long enough to see the scarification upon his face, judge his build, his age—if he is a threat, Kilgitsuk gives no indication that he is worried.
You come from the coast. What do you know of these mountains?
how did this man know where he came from? chakliux shifted his weight and watched the stranger with a pleasant enough look. that he knew the moon woman was enough, but they were still unknown to each other.
"the moon woman has a village, and three of her daughters made their own. i know mountain, sea, and forest."
who was this wolf to the moon clan? chakliux felt his interest building. the man was physically impressive and carried an air that promised pain if crossed. he was the look of what a hunter should be, and quietly the seal hunter wondered if ariadne would consider him.
The man lingered.
Kilgitsuk did not immediately answer in any way except to breathe and seemingly, to think. The knowledge he now gleaned from the stranger brought to light many feelings. Pride, of course, as Kigipiak had been a creature of such pure focus, and guilt, and yearning. All of these he swallowed. He was a man of the ice now, almost entirely.
The tide, and the spear.
He remembered learning of some things while living in the village, and other things gleaned from strangers during his trades and travels. The man adjusts his weight, reclining further, looking more like a battle-tested polar bear or some such beast than a wolf.
I am a trader,
he admits finally, which perhaps would assuage any misgivings of the hunter who has found him, and explained how he knew these things. I have visited moon woman's village before. It is pleasing to hear that her family is thriving.
the man was ursine. he spoke lightly of the moon villages, which immediately intrigued chakliux, while piquing his sense of curiosity. "they grieve the death of a daughter now," he said quietly, considering samani.
"her sister wishes to found her own village. a man known to the clan of the moon would be welcome by a daughter of kukutux."
he moved now for her. "come to moontide." he was brazen, inviting; his eyes shone with the challenge of it, and he flexed his paws in the good cold earth.
A death? This was a shock, of course. This he displayed with the shifting of his ears and a flash of knowing in his eyes, that shadow slipping over his gaze again. Loss was a possibility for all things. Kukutux knew this, and was again reminded. It was sorrow that flooded Kilgitsuk now; but like the rest, swallowed and buried.
The prospect of being matched made him smile that old smile, though. A youthful quality imbibed to his scarred features as temporary as the sadness had been. Ever the matchmaker. She does not need others to make those connections for her.
But it was a grand idea, and the lonely man could not help but entertain it, even for a moment of jest. It was stupid, to allow himself to fantasize about anything like family after everything.
Buried beneath the snow of his heart, then.
I may come to your village—but as a trader. If I find something of worth.
That was the most he would agree to. These places he had once visited, the life he once lived, felt so far away from him now.
"i know another trader, alaric. his home is moonspear, led by sialuk. and i know man who is pathfinder. i will introduce you."
he meant to be hospitable to the man who was both young and old, was scarred and yet untouched, was boyish and yet manful.
he reminded chakliux of a seal hunter not yet elder, but commanding in his presence and with full knowing of what he wished.
the man turned. "i am chakliux."
Kilgitsuk did not know this name, and pocketed it. He knew that Sialuk commanded the mountain; but these tidbits that the stranger shared did not rouse much from him now. It wasn't until the name of the man, which Kilgitsuk accepted, that he finally felt compelled to speak again.
Should you see the moon woman, you may tell her...
A pause; he was not sure what words would suffice. A great swelling of guilt threatened to overwhelm him. The muscles of his jaw tense as he clenches his teeth, as if to force down bile—but it is more complicated than that. Sakhmet's face flashes in his memory; Kivaluk, Akkuma—and the intensity of his failures, like a phantom limb flaring to life.
Hawk-in-snow sends his regards.
Kilgitsuk.
hawk-in-snow. "i will tell her this."
if this man knew the moon woman, then he would know there was a high chance she herself would be lodged in moontide with two daughters now, one passed and one injured.
but chakliux would not say this.
he led the way down from the glacier, making for the sea.
Kilgitsuk did not move when the other man did, not until he was a distance away. Then he turned to regard him; he saw such familiarity in the way the hunter carried himself, the way he spoke, even his scarification—not a mirror of himself but something so similar.
When he turned back it was with a weight to his spirit, one which pulled his chin down across his extended paws. Eventually those eyes would close and the trader would slumber for a handful of hours—until he felt the desire to roam again.