Qeya River cursing pattern

"a p-pack c-called n-natigvik used to be here," lestan told @Mae as he led them the final few miles to the borderlands of the river. "it w-was led by k-kigipigak and s-sakhmet. i kn-new someone there, t-too, a d-distant r-relative of ours. amalia."
he frowned now, drawing up short; he sniffed the air and wrinkled his nose. a heavy male stench lay over the place, unexpected in its ferocity.
nevertheless, lestan sent up a polite call, willing to pass on akavir's message. "after th-this, i c-can sh-show you the g-glacier, wh-where i used to f-follow a herd of d-deer," he offered, thinking wistfully of his time here.

Traveling with a dead man wasn't exactly Mae's idea of fun. She listened when he occasionally stammered at her, nodding and offering little grunts of acknowledgement, but otherwise had not engaged with him since their departure from Swiftcurrent Creek. Mostly she'd kept to herself, though she was careful not to stray from Lestan's trail. She didn't want to get lost, even if it amused her to imagine Akavir flaying Lestan when he returned without her.

The last thing he said to her brought a confused frown to her face, though. I can show you the glacier — that was nice and all, but...

You know I'm blind, right?

saatsine's land was nestled into the glacier and thus having visitors surprised sun eater. he watched the distant pair of shadows on their boundary, slinking closer and closer as his own tall frame melted between shadows.

but at last he was striding toward them, open and purposeful. "who? why?" sun eater grunted, nostrils eager to take their scent. a girl was with him; the caribou man stared at her eyes and then back to the one he thought was a hunter.

"p-proverbially, mae!" lestan exclaimed, chastened and exasperated. but she was correct; he'd misspoken. no time to fix it now that a stranger was coming to answer.
long-limbed and hard-lined, he stared at the creek wolves, his tongue accented but his message more than clear.
"ah — we-we're f-from sw-swiftcurrent cr-creek. umm — th-there's a sickness going round. k-killing folk. called wh-white spit. it t-took one of ours, s-sir. we've b-been sent to w-warn everyone w-we can."

swiftcurrent creek. a sickness. the stranger stammered and made the foreign words more unclear, which frustrated sun eater.

but he nodded when he had parsed the meaning: sickness. "not here," the chieftain declared with a broad sweep of his tail. "i watch for it."

his single eye fixed to the girl, then to the man again. "what name?"

"l-lestan m-mayfair. and th-this is m-mae," lestan managed, his unsurety with this entire man growing steadily as he stood there. "was uh, was n-not thi-this place run b-by — w-well, r-riverclan?"
danger sparked in his belly.

riverclan; there was a name sun eater enjoyed to hear in his ears. riverclan. had that been their name before he broke them to his will? 

"the saatsine hold river now," he grunted. "i hear words. white spit. yes? more?" if not, he meant to advance. in the best of times was the caribou man lacking the most basic courtesies; he had never nurtured them and did not intend to feign politeness on his own territory.

a dismissal, and lestan was almost too slow to note that.
"n-no. no m-more. al-all right. th-thank you. ah, b-be well." he nudged mae firmly, keeping himself between she and the scary man who watched them with one single unreadable eye.
the mayfair managed to hide his shiver only until they were far shut of the river. "w-well. l-let's g-go to the gl-glacier after all th-that anyway."
a quick stop and then looped back to the creek they would be.