open to anyone in the various camps!
she weaved away from
the hunt across the plain, back towards the groups of women and children which were camped in clusters, and felt the thundering of her heart begin to ease. no longer faced with the giant beasts of the earth, or surrounded by so many people she did not know.
there was a cluster of bodies upon a rise,
some big and some small; she eyed them as she passed, and seeing children there, felt that same panic rise up again, and sulukinak hurried again.
she did not know where to go. inevitably sulukinak drifted near
the scent of women but she did not know why; as if she might see her loving mother there among them, when she knew nukilik was not there, and would never be with her again.
earlier, kukutux had sent a bundle of dried meat and bones and twig-toys up to the rise, for chickadee and
@Inkalorë to pass among the children. she did not want boredom to rise while the hunters readied themselves. another healer had carried it, as moonmother knew she must stay in camp.
already the bison were stirring.
a dark young woman slunk against the ground. she was not known to the eyes of kukutux, who called out in a voice of greeting.
dark as she was, sulukinak knew to be silent in her steps and quick upon ice, and could go for weeks without being spotted by any living thing. this was not the same place; but she saw herself as a watcher of things, rather than the target of eyes. so when a call reached her ears she was alert to it—and surprised to find eyes catching her shape.
she moved closer, pacing like a stray animal ready to bolt again. her eyes checked one way and then another, and another, seeing that there were other women here and they were at work, and no other eyes had taken pause upon her. only this woman.
sulukinak made the decision to get closer and seemed to duck in to the camp, although there was no reason to make herself small; she only felt that way for how out-of-place this situation made her feel.
the woman remained wary, her body a curved shadow among the soft voices wavering in the oak-glen.
moonmother prepared a meal of duck fat and the last of the dried fish brought from moonglow. no more would be prepared until the bison had been felled and the butchering had begun.
this camp then would be filled with gristle and sinew and singing voices, she hoped, as they scraped the hides and soaked them in the river behind.
she piled these things upon bark; she offered them to the paungak. "you are one of ariadne's?" kukutux asked politely, turning her eyes away as not to be thought staring.
the smell of familiar foods came to her nose and sulukinak felt intensely homesick.
the woman was preparing something; when it was laid out it was placed before sulukinak as if to tempt her closer, and by that point all was lost. the girl ignored any of the cues that alerted her body to be nervous and was zeroed-in on the food. she came to the bark and with one look at the woman (as if to ask permission) she was eating.
the woman asked about ariadne, who sulukinak did not know. she felt as though she should know this name; but also, the morsels of food had her distracted. she flashed her eyes to the woman again and licked her lips, but did not answer, and ate another thing, and another.
after, she sniffed the bark as if there might be something hiding there, and relished the scent of the fats and the meats. she licked her lips, and settled, and then while peering around the space she saw many things piled or arranged, and wasn't sure why.
the shadow had an empty belly. there was more fat but not meat. she gave of the soft white freely, adding more to the plate.
"i am her anaa, kukutux," moonmother went on in greeting, now watching the young woman carefully. of course, they were all animals of the wilds, but this one seemed as if she had never left it to live among others.
"this is moonglow camp. we will also be the healing camp for the hunt." did these words have meaning for the silent and hungry icewolf?
for each thing the woman told, there came also a piece of fat for sulukinak. she took both eagerly. her lips became slick with the fat and she licked at them between morsels. when the woman said the word anaa her ears gave a twitch—she knew this word.
her eyes finally lit upon the woman with something like curiosity. still, it felt taboo to speak her name. but these people were different from her mother; the man dutch had given his name to her once, and when the hunt was being made there were names flowing from everywhere.
quietly, then. sulukinak.
i am sulukinak.
to remind herself.
this one had a name she recognized!
kukutux grew elated, a quick smile touching her mouth. "feather knife woman," she translated, though this was not the full meaning of sulukinak's name, as some of the sounds were unknown to her. "my daughters and i, we are sunshine people. moontide holds seal hunters as well."
to find another northernwolf was always a moment of delight.
"how did you come to village moonsong, sulukinak? if you will say. if you will not, this is all right."
her voice was motherly, her eyes turned out once more upon the bison and the hunters.
sunshine people! that was a name she did not know, but it fit also. seal hunters were varied, and she had never met one, but her mother had spoken of such things sometimes.
the man, dutch, brought me.
she answered in her quiet way, and then was thinking of where she ahd been; she would not have called that a place for sunshine people. to her, home had always been one thing. i am from the everdark.
she had liked her place there. her life was calm and simple, and she was never alone. i have brothers,
she began to say, and looked to the next morsel of fat as if she spoke to it and not the woman. agakiggruk, and tuvittugak. we -- left, the everdark,
she did not want to say they had run from it; as she had learned with the man dutch, that would bring on more questions.
my mother was anatkuk.
now she took more of the fat and ate it, mulling over memories.
"the names are beautiful and very strong," kukutux murmured, though she did not comment upon a shaman as anaa. in her experience this was very difficult to do; a mother bonded to the spirits moved with them, not for her children.
it was for this reason that spirit-talkers often sought no lover all their lives. to fall pregnant or to father children would have distracted their hearts from the purpose chosen by sedna.
the mention of dutch brought a smile to her face.
the talk of the everdark took it away again.
"the long dark. our hunters would go into the blackness on the sea ice. so many did not come back."
this similarity took the duck's breath away, and then her voice for a short time.
there was understanding. first of the everdark, then of dutch, and sulukinak eased little by little. she felt the shifting of kukutux as she spoke of the place that was once her home, and of the hunters, and wondered how many of the hungry men that came to the island had been wayward sunshine people; of course they would be sent into madness without the light, she thought.
i had lived there all my life,
she said when disquiet became too much, even for the mostly-silent sulukinak. it was always my brothers and i, and ice mother; she taught us of holy names. of... tootega.
the girl flinched when she said it.
sometimes we would hide away from kiviuq. my mother nukilik would -- trade with them, and allow them to leave gifts for us, but never could we meet.
silence from her, now. mulling over an empty plate.
she thought this girl must have been raised very roughly. her hunger was deep and did not end. her eyes were darting, her mien one of fright.
"tooteega is known to us. the old woman. the old one who brings advice for the young woman, the mother, the one who has lost."
but to sulukinak, tooteega represented fear.
and she did not know others. her mother had hidden her.
"where are agakiggruk and tuvittugak, paungak? why have you all left the long dark?" and her voice was seeking, maternal.
Her words of Tootega were opposite what she knew. She shook her head, at first acting as if her tongue would not betray her, she would not speak; but the compulsion came and Sulukinak let the words flow.
She is the dark one. The shadow in the water. She brings the fish and the seal, but she takes, and takes, and...
Her words did fail her. Mention of her brothers brightened her a moment before she thought of them in the everdark, heralded by the calling of ice mother.
This telling of Tootega was not right; but her story was mixed with one other spirit, one other story, and Sulukinak could no longer separate them. Spirits were evil things and that was all.
We... ran. There came a storm, and after I do not know.
sedna.
but for the sake of this frightened shadow, she would not speak the name. unto the sunshine people as well there was softness in this goddess, gratitude in their worship of her.
"i am glad you have made your way here. stay in this place as long as you wish, in this camp. if you have the want to help, i will give you work."
kukutux was still greatly curious over who exactly she was, but would not press. "the long dark is not here."
She went quiet again, but a calm quiet. A respectful look away, to the last of fat, which she plucked and slowly worked upon her tongue. The invitation made Sulukinak feel welcome enough to relax some, and while she might linger here or around the camp, she would not fret so much.
kukutux offered sulukinak a smile and returned to her work; she did not ignore the younger woman but left her to pursue what she might, glancing up from time to time.
the tending of herbs took focus.