backdated to ~dec 31 - jan 1
they ran.
throats burning, legs blurring;
@Dutch and chakliux found themselves in the snowy spread of a meadow outside an oddly shaped valley.
he coughed; the taste of the monster and the reek of the bear was in his nostrils. but he turned sharply toward his companion now, berrybright eyes surveying the wounds that dutch had gotten.
"sit. rest. we need to mend this."
Dutch was fine. He was fine, right up until Chakliux said the word wounds. Then, reluctantly, Dutch had to acknowledge the way his body was screaming at him. He moved gingerly, turning his head to sniff the slashes on his hip. His tongue darted out to taste the blood there, and he decided, "It'll heal before the wedding," in a voice that had gone gruff and thick with pain.
He turned his eyes on Chakliux, investigating him in turn.
"And you?" he asked. "Are you harmed?"
chakliux was filled with adrenaline and concern. "i have no wounds," he insisted, dancing in a tight circle before the eyes of dutch so that the other might see he spoke true. now his own gaze returned to the man's cuts; he looked hard at the hunter and stalked away.
the seal hunter was no man of medicine; he did not know so many secrets. but he returned with a glob of mud and chewed comfrey.
"the wedding?" he mumbled, not thinking of anything else then patching the cuts. "be still, spine man."
Dutch did not relax until he had reassured himself that Chakliux spoke true. He was unharmed — which gave the panther leave to feel just a little bit irritated with him again! This low simmer of poor sentiment was fueled only by pain, however, and it did not cloud his opinion of the man.
"It's what my mother says when she's feeling too kind to say, suck it up, buttercup," Dutch replied, smirking in spite of the insistent throb of pain.
He was still, as asked for, while Chakliux worked, only turning his head to watch with narrowed eyes. The ritual was then observed only briefly before he lost interest and let out a little sigh.
"I am not fit to go chasing, now," he said, aggravated with himself.
at this the seal hunter gave a little snort; he finished his ministrations in good time and eyed his work before glancing back into dutch's face. "do you feel that, in the air?" the wind had changed and from oil father's throat now came particles of ice, to fling against their faces, their coats. "the long snows are not far off. we must go back. i will call out to these other packs, but — moonsong will be your healing."
he wanted home. he had gotten his prize and it would satisfy him. for now.
Dutch did not like this. He couldn't help feeling that he'd failed the other man. Now they were forced to quit not just by the turn of the weather, he suspected, but because of his own foolish injury. Dissatisfaction shone in his dark features for a moment, but then he accepted defeat.
"It is as you say," he agreed, dropping his uninjured hip onto the ground to relax.
He could not help thinking about how Moontide had not been mentioned. The plan had been to visit visit Chakliux's lodge before returning to his own home — but he was no longer sure that was realistic. Worse: he was no longer sure that this was in the offering. He gazed at the seal hunter with frustration swimming clearly in his burnished gaze.
ah; a man! he did not think of the things that had been said before; he was focused only on returning dutch to his people and to the herbs ariadne might have for him.
dutch was stirred, angered; chakliux understood this. "if you will be still, i will look around for another healer, hm? so you do not need to wait so long."
so that dutch did not return injured, but in recovery. secretly did the seal hunter think that if he brought the man home to his lodge, he might wish for the other to stay indefinitely.
The panther could hardly hold onto his pique under such tender care. Amusement warred with his frustration. He did not like to be coddled in this way. Or perhaps he did — but it was not how he wanted Chakliux to see him.
"The cold will keep it," he said, standing once more just to prove that he could. "If we are to return home, let us go at once. Your family is waiting for you."
He made to limp stubbornly onward.
"and my family would not wish to see me return with a dead man's skin, foreshaft!" chakliux said gruffly, coming to stand beside dutch. "you need a day of rest and meat, and warmth, before we choose what we do."
the berrybright eyes were firm; teasing wreathed his jaws. "i can take care of you, spine man." his laughter was warm.
Exasperation lanced through him. Valiant did not argue with him like this. More often, a sullen raincloud would shadow him until he next found rest — and that had always suited him. Chakliux's concern was not unfounded, of course, but the insistence was new. It was on the tip of his tongue: I do not need to be cared for. He was grown, and he had not relied on anyone else to keep more than his company since he had lived upon the spine.
He huffed.
"Then I won't deprive you the opportunity," he replied, his tone waspish but a smile curving his mouth. "Where will we find this meat and warmth?"
"i am going to hunt. i think, ah," and he pointed toward the outside corner of the valley, thickly forested there with evegreen as if it were heavy pelting upon one's shoulder. "i will leave you there, hm? i will not be gone for a long while. then we will cross the mountains again."
that would put them in sight of moonspear and moonglow was tucked beneath it. healing could be sought before they came to the glacier or the coast.
he looked to see if dutch agreed to this.
He did agree, although there was a dubious cast to his features that suggested their time might be better spent elsewhere. Even so, he was content to humor the other man. What was one more day?
"If you're gone too long, I'll come after you," he warned, but soon enough, he sank gratefully to the covered ground to rest. He remembered to issue a heartful, "Thank you," before he found his eyes drifting shut. Sleep would not find him for some time, but he would gladly play the lump on a log for a little while.
the seal hunter made a joking pah! noise at this, but it seemed dutch would settle where chakliux had chosen.
"i will be back." even if dutch did not know all these words, he would. their hunt together had bonded them.
without another word, the seal hunter stepped easily into the blowing snow outside the interlocked boughs and was gone upon his hunt.
Dutch found no rest. He was wary of being tracked down by the bear or its harbinger, and his ears swiveled uneasily each time the wind clattered through the naked branches above. A chill had snaked its way into his blood, and curled into an uncomfortable ball and then shivered still by his lonesome.
What kept him up, though, was the bitter taste of failure. The more he thought about it, the angrier he was with himself for allowing the man to get away. And it made him angrier still that he couldn't decide what he should have done differently. Someone needed to be blamed, and despite his pique, Dutch knew that it was not Chakliux. Perhaps it was not him, either, but the barbs of his fury sought the closest available target.
Long hours seemed to pass. The panther watched, listless, as the world beyond the thicket blurred white and blue. He blinked when a red-dashed figure appeared out of it, and then thumped his tail against the ground when he saw that it was indeed his seal hunter.
"I send you out to find food, and you come back smelling of women," he said, annoyed and amused and just a little bit scandalized. "And you did not even bring any back for me!"
"oil father gives, and oil father takes!" chakliux exclaimed, though he stung inside himself and harbored something similar to dutch's sense of failure on the wolfhunt. he tried to cover this with a smile; he peered through the flying curtain of snow as if looking for an opening.
"when there is a break, i will hunt again. and you will eat. not me."
he was annoyed with himself; it showed in the snort of his jaws, the way he knew he had forced dutch to stop and did not bring a reason why.
he leant forward silently, meaning to inspect his makeshift dressings. a great sense of failure weighed in him, and ciri's lost regard crushed even further.
"Ha! said Dutch. "Forget the meat — bring the women."
He didn't protest this time when Chakliux focused almost immediately on his wound. It was an embarrassing injury, in his opinion, and the less mind others paid it the better. But he understood the seal hunter's concern, even if he did not share it — so he kept his mouth shut on the matter and studied Chakliux in turn. It seemed that both their spirits were flagging; Dutch suddenly recalled how the seal hunter had looked when they first met.
"Chakliux," he said, abruptly serious. "This was beyond both of us. This was intercession. Dark gods favored him."
the seal hunter's mouth twitched, and at last he let himself be gathered by dutch's good humour. "her name is ciri, and she was one of village moonglow. we met each other after i had hunted; we spoke."
by his regretful expression said it had not gone so well. "she said she had come back to this land to choose me. but our ways are not the same."
women; he warmed to their talk, to thoughts of his wife; he smirked even in the telling, though it fell away at dutch's words.
chakliux nodded. "such monsters have strong power. we will wear talismans when we hunt again. perhaps the moon woman or her daughters might know how to curse him, now that we have his skin."
He was surprised to hear that Chakliux knew the woman, and then on second thought, decided he shouldn't be surprised at all. Something in his tone made the panther tilt his head in question, but he let the words sink in before opening his mouth.
The seal hunter's suggestion was taken with a little breath of relief; Dutch hadn't thought of that, but the idea reassured him and lessened the sting of failure. They had not come properly equipped — perhaps that was their folly. But next time, they would succeed.
With that agreed upon, Dutch let his thoughts wander once more.
"She wants you to herself," the panther posited, and the clarified: "This Ciri."
"she is not the only one," the seal hunter said back, but it would show that this was not a brag, that it was a sense of frustration for the man. "i smile at women. i tell them they are beautiful. but i do not hide that i am married, for i am not ashamed of it. yet it is in the telling of this marriage that the women grow angry, as if there is not enough of me."
angry. hurt. he had even been accused of selfishness.
what selfishness was it to offer hunting and pleasure where he roamed!
"the women of this place, dutch, they are made for one man. seal hunter women enjoy any man they choose while having a husband. we lie with one another through the long dark and the children born in spring belong to all the village." the purpose of marriage was the offering of names, the lineages that bound them to the very first people upon the sea ice.
The panther listened gravely, secretly pleased the be confided in. This pleasure brought with it guilt as well — but it was not his fault that Chakliux had been hurt, so he tried to shut that away.
"It is as you say, seal hunter. They are made for one man, and expect the same of their husbands," he said quietly. "This is not wrong of them. They cannot help how they were made any more than you can. And sometimes when love sparks, hurt is the only answer. This is not wrong, either. This is life. For as long as you love as a seal hunter does, there will be those who cannot easily understand. They want you to change, but does a part of you not wish the same of them?"
But through all this speech, the main emotion was this: "I am sorry, Chakliux. That they cannot see your loyal heart, and that they discount the fierceness of your love. I believe these things of you. It was perhaps the first thing I knew of your spirit."
"it is not wrong of them," chakliux agreed, though he did not speak for some time after dutch's words had ended. his companion's steady words in favor of him lifted the seal hunter's spirits.
the fierceness of his love;
not for the first time and not for the last time did chakliux wish that dutch lived among the seal hunter people, though he knew the panther was meant for the ice-place.
"what would i do without your words?" he laughed but he was serious. "i have needed them. if i did not hear them again i might become a cold man."
The panther laughed as well, his frontal lobe lighting up in technicolor at this praise. "I do not believe that," he replied, adamant, "But I will pretend to, if it pleases you. Poorly — but I will still pretend."
He laid back in the dusting of snow, finally able to relax now that Chakliux had returned. He did not pain or hunger nearly as much as he brooded, then. The hunt was ended. They would return to the moon villages, now, each to their own. Not long before, Dutch had wanted ardently to have his paws back upon the glacier, but now he was reluctant to move from this place — in space, in time, in the universe.
"You have given me something I needed as well, I think," he said to the seal hunter. "I do not know the name of it. But I will miss it when we part ways."
His eyes were sad. He directed them at the canopy instead of at his friend.
he too did not like to consider that they would part ways. of course chakliux knew they must, but each of them had been far from the moonvillages for so long it seemed as if they had been hunting for years. that was what existed in the seal hunter's spirit. "believe it. i do," he laughed.
"let us not be parted so long you forget what it feels like," he urged suddenly on passionate whim. he too had no word for the sensation which grew in his chest; he knew only that it was a good and blessed thing.
a break in the snow passed, and he stood. "now i will hunt," the seal hunter declared. "you rest. i will think of our words when i am away. and when i return home."
He was startled for a moment, but barely a heartbeat had passed before the panther agreed: "We won't be." He could not imagine going back to how things had been before their hunt, when he had only held the secret hope of seeing the seal hunter appear. Now Dutch would go to great lengths to see that they kept up with one another — and this made the thought of parting not so painful as it had seemed a moment before.
He almost told Chakliux to forget the hunt, and to just stay and rest a while. He wanted to, but he sensed that the man would be happier when he'd brought something back to show for it.
And anyway: they would reunite soon.