Porcupine Ridge auntblood

the ridge held cold snow and no sign of the man. but chakliux was determined. not far off was a gathered pack, and deeper into the mountains he expected to find others.
but the night was long and the temperatures low. the seal hunter searched along the outcroppings until he found a hollow large enough for he and @Dutch. hunger clawed in him but he would conserve his energy till morning.
the wind howled.
"it would hurt my pride and spirit to return once more with nothing," chakliux remarked, staring out into the whorls of snow scudding through the atmosphere.

He had dashed his paw up on a snow-covered rock earlier in the day. It was a small wound, but he licked the icy blood away now and found comfort in the dull pain and the sharp flavor. It meant his heart still beat, and that he still had feeling in his bruised toes.

He did this sprawled out, cold but slowly warming now that they were out of the wind. An ear flicked toward Chakliux when the other man spoke, and at the end, the panther lifted his head to regard his pale silhouette.

"There will be many more marks upon your spirit than on your body before you leave this world," he said after a long moment of contemplation. "No one escapes this, mera bhai. I say that we will spill his blood, and I believe this. But if all we can do is warn all the others, and make him known to all the wilds — he will find no rest in this life or the next."

He pushed himself back to his paws and came to sit beside the seal hunter.

"And regardless, you will grow old and fat chasing your grandchildren through the fields. Rest, Chakliux. In the morning, we will go and find him."

the seal hunter listened as his eyes watched the world beyond, as his mind filled with thoughts of tullik and marina and raiyuk, home where he wished to be.
dutch spoke true, with a man's heart and the confidence of a hunter. it was what chakliux's ears needed to witness, to hear. 
his throat had grown thick.
"he will find no rest," he said though tight teeth, though his shoulders relaxed and he at last let out his breath. "i thank you, dutch. your voice is strong."
sleep would not come easily for the seal hunter.
but the dawn would rise sure as his heart raced that night.

To the panther — the teller of tales — there was no greater compliment than to be told that his voice was strong. Perhaps he would have been bashful under different circumstances. Tonight, he only felt a strange thrum below his breastbone. It made his eyes deep and solemn as he gazed at the other man, unable to look away.

"You are strong, too," he said after a long, quiet moment. His voice, unusually low, scraped just barely above the howl of the wind. "In your heart. You have a great love for your family. I admire this."

dutch's eyes appeared lit with a strange expression. it did not perturb chakliux; he held the other's gaze in confident unblinking interest, seeking the root of where the emotion originated.
"without them i am nothing. without them this is worth nothing." he did not glance away. "i earn the right to return to the arms of my wives. i earn my son's respect. and i am happy to do both, for this is how i am fulfilled. it is how i love."
the berrybright eyes gleamed. "i know it is the same for you, dutch."

He understood these words on a bone-deep level, even if his kneejerk reaction was to disagree, and to tell Chakliux that he had worth outside of his wives and his son. What did such worth matter to a man? It was a thing that existed outside himself, and outside his own happiness. Something that mattered to Dutch far more than it mattered to Chakliux. And even now, Dutch knew that he could not go back to his roving lifestyle. Ariadne and the other Moonsingers were not his, exactly, not in the same way — but it was better than nothing. And if he had nothing, he knew it would be difficult not to be nothing. Even reuniting with Valiant would not be enough.

"Yes," he said quietly, and he did not say, I hunt this man for Chakliux.

But it was in his eyes.

Now, he found the grace and wherewithal to look away.

it was in his eyes.
chakliux blinked and turned his own out upon the snow. he did not believe that he had seen what his eyes had beheld in dutch. the seal hunter was used to such flickering expressions from women, to a degree where when he saw it otherwise, the nuance remained unknown.
and yet as he shifted his body against that of the hunter, he would remember the way that dutch had held his eyes upon their hunt.
for now, he grunted. "let us save our hearts for sleep," he joked. "we hunt a monster. we will need our strength." 
he thought of tullik and marina; he thought of hospitality between lodge and hunting-brother; he considered dutch among them, as he had once wanted kannoyak to be.
chakliux exhaled.

The moment passed, and yet, the panther felt it tumbling within him like an avalanche. It was a feeling like the kind he sometimes felt in the village. Centering. Warm. The kind of feeling that made it ease for him the curl up and shut his eyes, and to trust in the press of Chakliux's back against his own. The trouble had not yet passed, but for the moment, he was content.