Ocean's Breath Plateau silver sparrow

he had not gone to see @Red Leaf and @Ghelan for some time, but as the days wore on, guilt chewed at the man. at last he gathered pogyfish and chunks of the soft ugyuun plant; he slung these into a huge blade of reedgrass and limped through the village until he came to its very edge.
with effort and grunting did the seal hunter swing down from the ridge, padding heavily along the shell-lined path and pausing some feet from the den.
he set down the bundle and called out, hesitant.

red leaf was frail. chakliux would not be met with a face, but instead a voice, weak and fragmented and followed immediately by harsh, ugly coughs; come in.
she held brave one close to her chest, feeling his warm puppy breath as it rhythmically beats against her neck and her jaw.
if he was to enter, he would be greeted with a fragile husk of a woman who was once radiant. the white-cloaked girl was disheveled, fur caked with clumps of dirt and sand; the floor of the den had days-old spatters of scarlet and sickly green; her breaths, erratic, stuttering. she was rotting here, she and her son.
and still, she felt terrible that chakliux was looking upon her in this state. she raises her head to search for him, only to lower it back down without another word, eyes squeezing shut; waiting for tears that could no longer come.

brave one is, at first glance, in better shape than red leaf.

but he turns to face the man with a furrowed brow. this is not aapa. why is he here?

akiak lurches upwards, his hind leg flinching but he supresses a yip. he's tired of strange people coming in and just making everything worse! but when it came time to bark, a cough wheezes out of him. the cub stands now in shock, frozen like ice.

the den was ripe; she had been ill, over and over, and withered.
he had done this to her. he had taken cen from her, and now red leaf had nothing. no! this was not true. frantically his mind sought about for what to do; he found himself entering the den with his broad shoulders and scarred head.
"come with me now, red leaf, to the lodges. this time do not fight. i will carry your son. you cannot die here alone waiting for cen."
his voice was harsher than he meant, more rough for things that had nothing to do with her. 
the woman moved; chakliux gazed thoughtfully at her.
did he carry sickness to his own clan?
but he had put them here. he had spoken, and his word had sent moonglow to moontide, and cen — away.
he heard the wheeze in her throat. "red leaf. are you ill? did you become sick in the spring rain?" he must know before he led them along, but lead them the seal hunter would, today. today.

no, her voice is meek, hardly above a crackling wheeze. she does not look at him, only pulls brave one back toward her breast as he moves to protect her from the intruder; her valiant boy, living up to his name. i have to wait for him. if he-- if he comes back to find us gone, me with another man, he-- he will finish what he started.
but she could not say it.
hiccups erupt from her throat before they dissolve into a frightening, sputtering cough. she wished she could cry, wished she could run to her husband, she wished, she wished; her heart could be felt pounding in her chest as her lungs struggle to keep up with the rest of her body. the fever left her damp.
are you ill?
defeated, she finally cracks open an eyelid to seek him out, and the gaze was one that spoke for her. he did this.

akiak is tugged back up against red leaf's breast, even when he wasn't hungry. how could he when everything seemed so frightening.

the man is harsh, so akiak appreciates being taken from the fight — even if he would've won it. his mother's husk sputters, her eyes the only way he could understand her thoughts now. but surely it would all be fine once his father returns.

he sniffles into her pelt, though akiak's gaze fixates on the pale coated man that invades their solemn peace.

he is not coming back! chakliux's lips thinned; he glanced away from her rawboned, fevered form and toward the sea, steadying himself. 
he did not want or need to ask. he knew the sound in her chest; seawater swallowed. every seal hunter could hear the salt rattle when it came upon one of them. it was part of living upon the peninsula.
he swung his scarred muzzle in a parody of a dismissal, pulling short before it became that. "i am not leaving you here. come. come with me now. when he comes back, he will know you are still here. i have a lodge, a new one. it is small, not yet finished. stay there, with ghelan. that way you are not beneath my roof when he returns, only among the seal hunters."
was that compromise enough? chakliux did not know what he could do if red leaf rejected him again.

a new lodge, one he did not yet live in. a compromise. he was pleading with her, and she knew this by the urgency in his tone.
she looks to him, and then down to brave one. his downy coat looks washed out, pale; his eyes are glazed. and she would soon be unable to feed him, soon he could watch his mother be lowered into the ground, and
she could not leave him
a nod is given to the seal hunter man as she reaches down to kiss her son's temple. listen, baby, she lowers her voice to an intimate whisper, reaching up to sweep at the ruffled fur along brave one's back. mama is going to get help so we can both feel better, okay? this man is named chakliux. he is-- he is a good man, a nice man. we're gonna go on a little trip with him! you don't-- you don't have to be afraid.
neither did she.

the pale man's words must've finally appealed to red leaf, as she croons and explains to brave one that they'll be leaving. it takes a moment for the boy, who lays stiffly against the ragged pelt of aaka.

..okay.. he whines through a pout, his distaste at the idea evident. but what more could he do?
but does this mean that father is never coming back?

chaki-chak.. aapa? blue eyes flick nervously at chakliux. absolutely not!

a visible relief flooded chakliux; he straightened, grunting gently at the strain to his aching leg, and stood back, away from the denmouth. he made no promises of her comfort there, only her safety, for he relied now upon the consistent guardianship of raiyuk and taggak.
when the boy spoke, the seal hunter's throat constricted with a dry bob; he left the answering of that to red leaf, only stood awkwardly to one side of the path, ready to guide them.
"will you let me carry you, akiak?" he said finally, addressing the small and tentative boy. and in this the berrybright sheen of his worried eyes found those of red leaf, and saw how the shine had gone from the maple-red of her own gaze. she was close to death, he felt, but reined himself from trying to hurry the caribou wife along.

red leaf manages a thin smile for her boy, shaking her head at him with a small sigh. no, otter. he is not aapa. aapa will be back soon, she's not sure whether she believes it, but her son must; she must shield him from the harsh reality that seemed to loom closer and closer with each passing day. we're just going to stay with him until we feel better.
she shambles weakly from the back of the den, pausing to give a look to the seal hunter man. she looks dreadful, she knows, and feeling the sun upon her shoulders makes her feel exposed, naked.
she casts her glance over to the sea and feels a tightness in her chest. is it-- is it near the sea? she asks chakliux, trembling as she moves to his side. i-i don't think i want to be near the sea anymore.

at red leaf's reassurance, brave one finally settles, and the boy turns to chakliux. okay.. he mumbles feebly.

but so many questions runs through his mind; how would aapa find them? would he be mad, or happy? when will aaka get better?
aapa is an enigma; the only memory brave one has is the blurry image of a man drenched in darkness and faintest gleam of blue like the sky as it warns for rainfall as eyes. nothing real, nothing he can reach. looking for him will be a challenge.
but it's one brave one will take on. even if he can't leave far from the den.
aaka is sick because she misses aapa. when aapa is back, surely everything will be fine again.

the boy agreed, but chakliux did not make a move to lift him. "yes," he told red leaf. "our lodges face the sea, but we are not so close as you are here."
and the sea would always loom closer when one was alone.
at last the seal hunter shifted and put out a paw to akiak, his eyes solemn upon red leaf. 
quietly he would guide them along the shell path to where it curved over the ridge and back into moontide's center; from there he carried the boy and supported the caribou woman until they reached the pinewood where the seal hunters made their place.
chakliux did not allow himself to consider what might occur if cen returned.

if red leaf knew what her baby boy was thinking, she would have crumbled right then and there.
she leans upon the strong shoulder of the seal hunter, sobered by the musk of seabrine upon his pelt. when was the last time she had so much as touched a man who was not cen?
hobbling, she feels all the blood pool at her feet and fights off the blackness which swirls at the edges of her vision. she must — be better. be stronger. she is lanzadoii. she is lanzadoii. she is lanzadoii.
wasn't she?
the sea roars ominously behind them as she and her son are carted further into moontide's territory than she had ever been thus far. she wished she never had to hear it again.