Moonsong Glacier erginathus

with the arrival of ulloriaq, sulukinak began to keep her distance from dutch. she liked to hear his laughter and to see him smiling, and to hear him making rhymes, while at the same time she found it bothersome that it was someone else that brought these things to life for him. he was happy; that was good, even if it wasn't sulukinak that could make him happy in this different way.

she voyaged inside of the glacier — to what could have been the heart, branching in to one atrium or another.the corridors were pristine. some entrances were so vast that sulukinak could run and count her steps, and be out of breath before she'd reached the other end of the archway. other holes looked too narrow for even her slender figure. she would be careful as she explored.

as immense as the glacier was, and as impossible as it might have been to see every hollow in the network of rooms, sulukinak was glad for the distraction.

the nervous girl. he still wondered at their paths crossing once again here. adi was out for a leisurely stroll when he saw her enter a tunnel within the glacier, promptly disappearing into the void.

dare he follow? surely the ice wouldn't cave in on them. . .right?

he thought he remembered, a long time ago, pathways like these in a glacier north of the dawnlark plains. near the bracken woods, where alarian—

he winced; the name still gave him pain. but yes. . .that glacier.

aditya couldn't resist the temptation and moved inside, breath fogging before him. there was a dim, ethereal light that marked this place as sacred, and upon entering one of the larger chambers, he stopped and looked around, like a man awestruck by an ancient cathedral.

waah, kya baat hai, he said, and his words echoed around him—surely alerting the girl to his presence here, too.

while she had expected the interior to be somewhat dark it wasn't, and sulukinak was surprised by this. she wandered with silent steps along corridors and to one room or another and sniffed the ground and sought to taste the walls from time to time, curious of the inherent light that came from the ice, until she heard a voice and turned sharply and saw the man, who she knew but didn't know.

his voice echoed. she did not know what he had said but it sounded almost like magic with the way he said it and the way it carried. sulukinak blamed the sweeping chill that clung to her in that instant upon the ice around her.

she slunk closer to him but not too close and appeared to settle upon her haunches, watching him, and if his eye did find her there doing so, her tail would thump-thump-thump a rhythm through the cave.

she emerged into the cavern, casting shadows that matched her pelt. he briefly met her eye and smiled, noting the nervous thud of her tail against the icy stone.

there had been a woman like her, once, at morningside. a few of them, actually—perhaps it was the warmth and steadfastness of grayday's blood that attracted them to these packs. dutch would be a good match for her, adi thought—patient and kind.

then again, perhaps arjun had too many women already.

what's your name, ladki? aditya began. i just realized i've never asked.

this man spoke in the same way as dutch, she thought, or at least with a similar softness, and she liked the sound of it. remembering their first encounter was a little bit difficult given how riled she had been at the time. still, she remembered him.

sulukinak, she answered.

her tail stopped thumping and began to sweep across the ice instead, making a new sound that was a little softer, and reminded her of rain somehow. the sound of her name echoing in the caves made her startle a little bit and sulukinak turns to look in to different corridors as if someone else has spoken.

then her eyes rest on the elder man. you sound like the chief.

aditya, he replied warmly. he followed her movements with his eyes, then returned his gaze to her face as she spoke. the statement brought a grin to his face.

he's my son, adi said proudly. but he's got much more of his mother in him, i think. she raised him, mostly, while i was. . .away.

it was, at least, technically the truth.

aditya took a few steps over the cold ground and looked up at the icy walls and roof. i've heard tales of glaciers covering the earth, once, he remarked. he glanced at sulukinak. was it like that, in the north? ice as far as the eye can see? i've never been that far, he explained.

his name was beautiful. she wondered what it might mean, but before sulukinak could ask her mind was taken by his next statement, that her dutch man was son.

sulukinak had never met a father before, not that she knew of, and promptly forgot about her interest in his name to fixate on this detail. curiosity drew her closer.

he asked after the land of ice, and remembering herself, she stops short and sits again.

we called it the everdark. she divulged.

ice and sea, and darkness for many moons. when the sun would come my mother-- she would say we must hide, so... this was a fine detail sulukinak had never shared before, this hiding. i had not seen the sun much before leaving. this place here, it is sun all the time.

it was sun, and warmth, and so far a much more forgiving place than her birth home. dutch made sure of that.

her body language was halting and abrupt. starting first, stalling then. . .

he listened to her tale, head cocked slightly to take in the words. they had more power here, as her breath fogged in the chilly air, surrounded by ice.

he could understand. the sun shone more in the south. it had diminished here. and even further north. . .

but when the sun came back? adi prompted, tilting his muzzle forward in curiosity.

for surely it returned. . .even there.

she gave a shrug of her shoulders, which seemed more pronounced because of how naturally wiry she was. it would bring snow with it. some days were so bright that my head hurt. some days there was so much snow and it was safer not to go out. but the sun wasn't there for long, and when the night came back... we would celebrate it, a little.

for all the strangeness of the everdark there had been some good things.

nukilik, my mother, would bring us gifts. we would play outside until it got too cold; but i always stayed out for the longest. she took pride in that. being resilient despite the cold was one thing, being the only living creature beneath the stars was something altogether different—magical, she'd always thought.