Hoshor Plains Pikpagigaa

Kaluktuk had helped with the kill by his team and then proceeded to offer himself to other camps, other hunting parties, as a butcher and as extra muscle for tasks. During these moments he caught sight of many other hunters; many young, some his age. He was keeping an eye out for @Kivaluk in the off-chance they may work together or interact.

As he worked he wondered about the future, although the work pulled his attention away from such things eventually. He considered what it might be like to be a father again; and when he thought of his conversation with Chickadee, he realized that one day - maybe soon - he might be called grandfather! This shock earned a pause from Kaluktuk, as he was working meat from bone, and he watched the earth a moment in stunned disquiet.

kivaluk had done his best to avoid his sister and father — still unable to shake the gross creep that slithers down his spine at the thought of that union. he does not approve for many and more reasons, not that it matters and struggles with how how to explain it to his children.

children!

it wasn't absolutely known for sure yet, but kivaluk does not doubt that he would soon be a father himself.

perhaps that it was keeps him from avoiding the man that sired him as their paths cross.

kigipigak. kivaluk rumbles in greeting, stubbornly refusing to call him anything else.

Kigipigak. A voice rumbles, snapping the man's attention away from the midlife crises level event happening in his brain; he sees his son there, noting he didn't look happy to see him. That sobered Kaluktuk up quickly enough. Kivaluk.

You look well. Except for the sour look upon his face. He clears his throat, unsure of what to say next, or what to do. Kaluktuk does not like having to be careful about how he comports himself — he feels he should be free to do as he wants, given that Kivaluk has all but renounced his ties to Tartok and to his father's blood.

Are you here with Chickadee? I was glad to meet her. She is a nice girl.

there is still so much tension that snaps hungrily in the air between them, a palpable slavering beast, emitting largely ( if not entirely ) from kivaluk himself. the wounds too raw and too festered for kivaluk to think about forgiving. he will take time, if it ever fully occurs. that was not something he could promise and thus, did not.

his stony-faced facade almost drops when kigipigak mentions chickadee.

chickadee will be my wife. kivaluk says in response to the first question as well, shoulder-stiffed and mind going a thousand and one different directions.

a moment and then two passes, barely more than a few stilted heartbeats. how does my sister fare? a genteel inquiry wrapped with the barbed wire truth of how he ( still ) felt about their union. despite his feelings on the union and his disapproval, he still cared about ariadne.

There was a sense of resistance from Kivaluk that Kigipigak did not know what to do with. He wanted to be part of his son's life and he wanted to mend whatever had been broken, but it would be impossible if it was a one-way effort; and then Kivaluk spoke, naming Chickadee as his betrothed as if Kigipigak had not known that already. He didn't know what to say, again, and was quiet. The silence obfuscated the true obstacle between them, until the young man broached the subject of Ariadne.

He wanted to correct the statement made; Ariadne was not his sister, not really. That tension gathered in his jaw but Kigipigak held firm to the words. Ariadne fairs well. She is happy, happier now that she can see so many in one place. The village of Moonsong grows — but we are still isolated, and I think maybe a little too quiet for her.

This hunt held much work for the men, and gossip for the women.

Kigipigak thought of the spring and how the village would grow, strengthening with the mixing of sunblood with his own. You will be a brother again, in the spring. I hope you will visit — you are always welcome. It might be a sore subject, speaking of future sons and daughters, but Kigipigak needed it to be known. He needed Kivaluk to understand there was access if he felt compelled to try and reconnect.

though kivaluk is relieved to hear that ariande is doing well, it is soured by the twist in his stomach at kigipigak informing him he is going to be a brother again.

he knows ariande is not his actual blood sister, but she might as well be and it feels wrong to him. no matter how kivaluk tries to ignore it, tries to put logic behind it, he cannot change how the relationship between his sister and his biological father gives him the ick.

he is quiet. he does not want to make kigipigak promises, but it is the older brother — the to-be father — in kivaluk that keeps him from walking away entirely. for he wants his siblings to know that if they are left as he and his have been that they were always welcome with him.

that they were not alone.

and this is a tough line for kivaluk to walk.

a half collapsing bridge over a chasm that feels endless, with violent churning waters waiting to swallow him below if he slips, if the planks give way, if the rope snaps.

with any luck, i will be father to my own children and very busy. travel hasn't ever really been a priority for kivaluk, but it will be even less so in the months to come.

With the news that Kivaluk would be a big brother to others, the young man shared that Kigipigak might become a grandfather — a grandfather! At his age! It should not have been such a shock; he knew that Kivaluk was pursuing a wife, and that Kukutux put a lot of focus on marriages and that she would encourage such things. For once Kigipigak did not fault the moon villages for their choices, but only briefly.

Children! I am glad to hear it. He commended in that booming voice of his, erupting with that surprise and joy over the idea of his son, the father. Kigipigak wanted to temper his reaction — he did not want to think about Natigvik or the past so much, not when things were changing and potentially recovering between them — yet he was excited for his son all the same.

If the idea is welcome... Perhaps when your children are born and are old enough, we could... Visit? Kigipigak was convinced he had found a path between them that might unify them again, father and son; man to man, as Kivaluk learned what it meant to be one. Maybe he would see that things weren't always so easy.

kivaluk considers the offer, silvered champagne gaze watching kigipigak carefully for a moment. the road before them was rocky and pitfalled but kivaluk wanted to know his siblings; desperately. the feeling nostalgic as he thinks of galana and how the feels was a clone. desperate, perhaps to be the brother he hadn't gotten to be to akkuma.

i think that'd be fine, kivaluk finally breaks his silence. i would like the children to know each other ... and to know my siblings.