Ocean's Breath Plateau auntspeak

set for tomorrow morning! <3

a man who had failed was no man at all.
chakliux had not sought the comfort of tullik; he would not touch marina for a long while; he had slept fitfully until the sky greyed and then gone out to spend the next hours fishing, forcing his tired body to work harder and harder in the surf.
he kept his mind from the monster. chakliux considered @Matteo. the boy did not belong to heph. he was not rodyn's. where was his father? his mother? 
six fish lay in the sand. the seal hunter shoved them up, out of reach of the tide, and then went to find the one who had become friend to his son.

Matteo's mood had remained subdued. He had returned to the beach to hunt, but instead had fallen into a repetitive pace amongst the surf.

Letting the cool waters foam around his inky paws, he thought of Raiyuk. How the seaboy seemed to ooze confidence was a mystery to him. Many a time had he looked back at himself in the reflection of a tidepool and saw nothing but a coward, a shadow to someone else. Or, perhaps, more truthfully, a boy who was yet to find his way in life.

Chakliux would soon find him kicking rocks along the sand, seemingly deep in thought.

it was time, he felt, to tighten his claim to moontide. this was done through children born to his lodge, of course, but there were other ways.
it was the name, after all, which carried one's status.
"matteo," the seal hunter said. "i wish to speak to you of your mother and father." chakliux knew that the boy had arrived with a woman, but he did not know her, and also did not think this wolf was mother to the darkfurred youth before him. "walk with me. tell me of them." to those not of his people, this would be seen as an invasive, demanding question. for chakliux, it led to another path, and was a sign of polite interest, to ask after an unknown lineage.

It was always the same question. In all honesty, Matteo was rather fed up of dwelling on the past and wished dearly to move on, but he would not voice his displeasure to Chakliux, the father of his new friend.

"It's...really not worth your time," he paused his movements, gaze shifting uncomfortably from Chakliux to the sand, and then back to him. "I never got to know them well." He wasn't sure exactly what to say; other than vague memories and stories of which had been passed down by Iseul, he found little interest in discussing his old family.

At the invitation to walk, the boy would follow out of respect. "Why'd you wanna know?" 

matteo was quiet on the subject of his family. chakliux saw a boy who had been apart from them for too long, a boy who had even perhaps grown up apart from guidance.
he rolled his scarred shoulders and did not ask more questions. "i invite you to stay in the lodge of my wives, with raiyuk. you can be his lodge-brother. when you want, eat with us. hunt with us. perhaps we make you a seal hunter too, yes?" chakliux beamed. but this was not a requirement.
"we will need to make a new space, for marina, but there will be a sleeping-place for you also." 
it was not a requirement, but the boy sharing raiyuk's age had endeared him to the marked man. with no mother or father, why should he not come into the lodge of family?

An invitation... to join his family?

The subject of his parents thankfully shelved for now, Matteo felt his cheeks flush as he processed the news. Chakliux's excitement was not hard to miss, reminiscent of Raiyuk's infectious happiness, although the boy found it hard to reciprocate at that moment in time.

He knew he could not live the rest of his life relying on Iseul and already he had seen her less and less, spending more time with Raiyuk. It was not fair to cling to her should she want to spread her wings in Moontide as he had begun to do. 

And he could not deny the pure joy of being wanted as part of a family. "I think I'd really like that," a small smile finally wormed its way onto his face. Chakliux's generosity was welcomed. "And I'd be happy to help with any work that needs to be done."

matteo agreed, and this prompted a nudge from chakliux. "among the seal hunters, boys make bonds early. this helps them when it is time to go out upon the ice."
he was suddenly very frightened for raiyuk and in this moment of frailty, willing to remove the rite from his son. but then oil father would not recognize him as a man.
the seal hunt must go on.
"good! we will start with this: i will teach you to dig roots," chakliux invited. "then we will dig a new cache."

Chakliux spoke of many things unfamiliar to him and there it was again - seal hunter. "What is a seal hunter?" he couldn't help but ask once the man had begun his lesson, their idle chatter interspersed as they worked.

Curiously, he wondered what it meant to go out upon the ice and what kind of gang he'd gotten himself into this time.

"And the ice," now that he was used to the presence of the man, the questions came more freely to him. "Is it dangerous?" Would he have to go too?

chakliux grew somber. "yes, matteo. the sea ice is dangerous. you must never go alone." but then his face softened, warmed; he motioned the boy along and set his muzzle to hunting for scents.
"the seal hunters are my people. the people of raiyuk. and their ways and their words will belong to my wives and our children, and you as well, if you wish. we hunt seal on the ice, together. we move between the long dark and the warm sun. we worship oil father. our sons become men by killing seals alone."
he paused there, stopping to dig a white tuber from the cold ground.

It was like a switch was flipped from day to night as the man's expression grew serious. Matteo, suddenly understanding the gravity of what had just been said, let his eyes widen in concern. Even as he moved to help Chakliux dig, his thoughts swirled. It didn't sound right to send out a boy alone, especially when the ice he had to tread was so dangerous. But Raiyuk was strong and capable, and Chakliux knew what he doing, right?

"I've never hunted anything by myself," he admitted. This would be his first winter and he had much to learn. "I don't think I'd be very good at it, if I'm honest. But I'd like to learn about you and Raiyuk and your people. Apart from Iseul, I never had anyone to teach me things like that." 

Now that he recognised the scent of the mysterious white tuber, he followed his nose to another patch of ground and began to dig there until he emerged muddy-faced and looking quite pleased with the prize clutched in his jaws.

iseul. chakliux had not yet met her. she must be someone of note to matteo, though not a mother or sister. "i will teach you all the things that i know," he promised. "and seal hunters do not seek the ice alone. we are always together. when raiyuk goes to kill his first seal, i will also be with him."
the boy dug another tuber and chakliux grinned. "very good! you can eat these right from the ground, or you can put them under fast water and peel their outsides. it is good food for the long dark or the dangerous storms in which no hunter should leave to seek meat."

Shoulders relaxed slightly at the confirmation that Raiyuk would not be alone and instead be accompanied by his father. Though he had only known the seal hunter boy for a short time, he wandered if he would be allowed to join them too, or if it was just a family thing. "Can I come too?" he blurted, hoping it didn't sound rude or invasive.

And then, in a quieter tone. "What happens if Raiyuk doesn't catch a seal by himself?" Would he be allowed back in Moontide? In truth, he worried for his friend and his looming trip onto the ice and wanted to be there to support him, if he could.

Preening at the praise, he set the root aside and began scouting for another in preparation for the cache, tucking the knowledge away for safe-keeping.

this question gave chakliux a great deal of pause; he looked contemplatively toward the sea. "girls who are ready to become women enter a time of mitsilillik. it means they are 'between times.'" but a girl comes through this with secret knowledge and ceremonies."
he looked toward matteo.
"seal hunter boys who do not take seals most often die in the water. i have only heard of two boys who failed and lived. the first could not live in shame and returned to the ocean. the second moved far from his village and made a lodge alone. he still lived by himself when i was lost from my home."
then a resolute look came to him; "he will take his seal. he is ready. i will ask him if you are to come with us."