chakliux was preparing to leave once more. one day he called a halt to
@Raiyuk's training and took them both ashore, back to the lodge of tullik where marina now also lived.
"this place, it must be made larger," he explained, stepping back to measure the lodge with his eyes.
"this i wish for you to do while i am away. tullik will help you. but you must bring the things that are needed."
mud, stones, pine boughs, birchbark in large curls. the lodge was situated in close-set, strong trees. chakliux felt another space could be accurately added.
"each time a new person comes to live in a lodge, we must give another place. this way, good emotions can be maintained inside when we are trapped by snow, and must live together all day."
a pause.
"build a place also for matteo, a sleeping place. have him help you."
chakliux looked at his son with a gentle eye for a moment.
"i will be gone much longer this time, raiyuk."
He had a new job to do, which felt like an addition to what he had been doing prior. His training was put aside first to watch the women while Chakliux had been busy on his hunt, and now to build upon the lodge as a man should. Raiyuk was thrilled to be given this work.
Knowing the lodge was growing to include Matteo as well, a lodge-brother, gave him pause - and he was surprised, and glad, to include the boy.
But his father would be gone. To hunt the stranger, he presumed. A look shared between them. I could go with you. I could hunt the man too.
His head up, chest puffed; he felt more like a man every day and wanted to again prove this to his father, the great teacher.
"you could! i have seen your teeth in the water, my son. you are like the orca. and i have seen your speed. even a caribou would fear."
his eyes glowed. "that is why i need you here as a protector. tullik is strong. she will have teeth to defend. marina needs healing and peace. so there will be three of you here to keep that for her: you, your step-mother, and matteo. a war-band."
he felt that he knew what words would inspire raiyuk; he wanted to praise his son also. such reinforcements were why boys went happy to their hunt; fearless in delight even if fear did rise.
The praises worked their magic on him.
Raiyuk would keep close eye on all of them. He would strip the trees of bark and find the strongest pine boughs, and do the work without complaint.
He would teach Matteo, and together the boys would protect Marina. Raiyuk would make a point of escorting her places if she had the need, to give her added safety.
All will be well here, father. I will protect the lodge.
He nodded and stood proud. And when you return, we will feast for you.
Since returning from the show of Muat-Riya, he had thought of the feasting there, the dancing, and Seal.
"feast?" chakliux repeated, knowing the word but not its meaning in this way. the idea of being welcomed once more was a novelty; his turn to feel praise suffusing through his spirit.
"maybe you will visit moonspear while i am away. i take a portion of my kills to the ulaq of sialuk." he used the sunshine word; he did not elaborate.
"if you cannot do this, i will not be upset. your focus is here, the lodge. moontide. the leadership of heph and rodyn."
I can! I will!
He insisted with a boy's eagerness; to Moonspear, to Sialuk... yes, he mentally added to his list of work to be done. He thought again of Seal; and he would find a gift for her too, on the way.
How long... will you go? Where will you go?
He trusted that his father would succeed and now as Raiyuk thought of this time apart from him, he wanted to know what to expect if that time passed with no word.
"i do not know which direction i will take, but it will be away from the sea. inland. and i will be gone more than ten days."
he reached to clap his son's shoulder gently. "and if the cold snows come before i am home, i will put down my hunt and come back to moontide. the monster is not the only thing that matters," and chakliux said this also for himself!
"you are a good son to me. i know this lodge will be safe while i am away."
He was glad to know there was a plan to return, and trusted his father's greatness; he trusted that Chakliux would find the man and the justice deserved by Marina, and if he were to fail he would come home, which itself was a good thing to Raiyuk. It might take longer to find the stranger than Chakliux knew and in that time Raiyuk would mind the lodge, train, and become strong enough to help after the snows had gone, if that was necessary. He was confident in his father and in himself, because of his father's influence.
I am only good because of you.
He answered, genuine in his affect. He thought suddenly of his mother and how different he might have been had they been a whole family; but Raiyuk had put so much of his faith and energy in to his father's ways, he could not fathom any different. Whether you find him or not, come home. I will be stronger, and we can go hunting!
For seals, or for the monster, together.
chakliux shook his head. "no man can make another good. i can show you many things, my son. i can teach you many others. but to be a good man, that is a choice, the same way it is to be a monster. you are good because you choose to be, raiyuk."
the scarred face now beamed with a smile. "wahow! i am filled with excitement for all our hunts, to return to moontide when this is over. i may sleep for many days!" he jested.
"now come, we will stop working for now; we will go and eat clams and i will tell you how your grandfather waking shark got his name."
His father was pleased! The boy grinned to him and moved alongside, eager to be done with their work.
Tell me!
He wanted to know everything his father knew, and more. He wanted to make his father happy and learn of those that came before them.
The boy wondered what could earn someone such a name; but more importantly, he wanted to spend as much time with Chakliux as he could, while he could. There was no way to alleviate Raiyuk's deepest fear, that his father might not survive his hunt, and be lost the way his mother was lost now; and so the boy was fixated on this idea that his father was impervious. That he must learn all that he could, and make important all the things that his father deemed important.
"when he was a boy called red shell, he was told to watch the sea for the long fin of sharks. seals are butchered on the edge of the sea. their blood draws up the great teeth from the deep."
"it was his first seal hunt. he was ready to earn his scars that day."
chakliux paused, and for a moment only the sound of his paws in the cold sand could be heard. one clam and then another; he cracked them between stone and jaw until the rich piece of salted meat could be seen.
both for raiyuk. he began to dig up a third.
"that day, a seal carcass floated free, back toward the darker water. a hunter left his group and came after it. the sharks woke. your grandfather shouted, but he was not heard. he shouted again! but the hunter did not hear! and so the boy jumped into the water, and swam with all his strength so the man would not be lost to the shark."
chakliux lifted a pawful of wet sand and drew his claws carefully across his right eye. "the hunter did not die. your grandfather earned his scars, and his name. the shark took his eye and gave him a story to be told a thousand times. that is who is in your blood, raiyuk. waking shark. his teeth will be yours on the seal hunt."
The story was inspiring.
As it was told, Chakliux found and offered little treats for Raiyuk, who took them but did not immediately consume them. The story was a piece of his family history and he wanted to remember it; he knew it was important, and beyond that it was a curious story about hunters which he was very invested in.
He nibbled at some things as he listened, mouth agape when he heard of the waking sharks, of the dangerous hunt, the loss of an eye, the earning of scars. Raiyuk looked now at his father's scars with a renewed focus. Did he earn the scars for saving the hunter? How did -- yours, how did you get them?
He wondered if his hunt would lead to scars, or if he had to do something else to be worthy.
"it was the shark who marked your grandfather!" the seal hunter elaborated. "he did not need to be marked after this." but for him; "i hunted in the usual way and received my scars from my mother, your grandmother. the shaman k'os."
she had not been warm not maternal; her relationship with waking shark had been tumultuous to the point that it was not certain whether or not chakliux was blood-child to the man. but this did not matter to seal hunters. waking shark had been at his cradle and had taught him to hunt, therefore he was father.
There was more than one way to earn the scars, then.
While Raiyuk listened, he wondered about K'os, who his father spoke of often enough when reciting the lineage. The boy did not think there was a shaman here in Moontide, but he did not know exactly what it entailed, except it sounded like a woman's job and that immediately put him off of it.
Then if I am scarred in the hunt, I will wear it proudly. If I am not... Who will give them to me?
Maybe there was some way to bring K'os here to them, so that Raiyuk could have the same honor. He thought of Heph, of his father's wife Tullik, and was slightly dismayed.
Moontide does not have a shaman.
"no. we do not."
chakliux watched the shape of a bird overhead; he looked back to his son. "rodyn's grief is great. at first i though he only needed time away or a woman for a night. but perhaps his sorrow makes him ready to become this, even if he does not know. his wife was of the sunshine people. their power is strong. maybe it came into him. it is among the sunshine women that i will ask. perhaps sialuk. perhaps kukutux."
These were things Raiyuk had a hard time wrapping his mind around.
He accepted what was said, and was silent as he thought of the women as they were named.
Raiyuk was eager to be a man. He felt nervous for the pain, but held firm in his belief that he could handle it. He would train until he was as strong as his father, as fast, as wise.
had waking shark been so nervous? had k'os feared for her son?
chakliux did not think he was alone in this fear, the terror shared by seal hunter mothers and fathers when it came time for their sons to take the seals.
their people were strong for many reasons, and chakliux knew raiyuk had twinblood in him, two norths. wherever nasamik had gone, she had been a good wife. for this reason, their son would remember her lineage and pass them down to his own children.
"come," he said finally. "we will hunt a last time before i go."
Contented to work alongside Chakliux, the boy was glad to put aside the recitation and focus on more physical things. They would hunt; he would learn, they would eat, and in time he would prove himself.