Ocean's Breath Plateau seal hunter

sirmiq's departure following this thread. can be a read only/single post response for those looking to join him. tags for reference.

in the days following the seal hunt, sirmiq had been on a high. he'd taken the skin of the seal that had made him a man and knew what purpose it would serve. for eight days did sirmiq work on this task, stripping the skin of fat and drying it beneath the winter sun. for eight days did his mind not linger on the woes of his family, or the weight of his future. for eight days sirmiq thought of his mother tullik, and sister kilalurak and smiled in a dream that he might see them again. 

for eight days sirmiq thought of nantahala, and how she might react to this gift.

for eight days sirmiq did not worry. but on the ninth he wept. 

he'd wished to show his father the work he'd been doing. to seek the courage a father might offer his son when he went to bestow a gift to a girl. he wanted his father's praise. 

but all sirmiq found was the sea. 

the pawprints of chalkliux led to the ocean, and they did not return. sirmiq dropped his seal skin and waited. and waited. and waited. day bled to night and as the sun was struck from it's pillar in the sky, sirmiq felt his world crumble with it. mothers — gone. sister — gone. father —

sirmiq had become a man, and yet had never felt more like a lost boy. 

he tore away from the scene with hot tears as waves washed over the last memory sirmiq would hold of his father. he ran back to the seal hunter lodges where he would sleep for a final time, their emptiness a chill that hollowed his bones. 

when the sun rose the next day, sirmiq stood with it. he went to search for each sibling, @Chagak, @Sea Hunter, @Puffin and @Raiyuk. should he find any, he would attempt to articulate the best he could that he would be leaving this place, and that each was welcome to join him. he would go to the sea ice again, and he would find the villages of his people there. 

next he went to find @Nantahala, the seal skin delivered to her with as much of a smile as he could muster. to her he gave the same invitation, with a boyish hope that she might accept. he'd dreamed of a future with her, and he did not wish to leave that future here in his past. should she accept, he would give her time to say goodbye to those she loved. 

when all those who might join him had either gathered to depart or said their goodbyes, sirmiq called for @Rodyn in a final farewell to the tide and it's leader. sirmiq looked to the lapping waves he'd grown upon one last time, before he spun on his heels and aimed for the north.