Duskfire Glacier after midnight

aw!

northern nights were cold and long, but svalla embraced them. with the glacier so vast and open, she could admire the sunsets in their full glory; watching the sun make its crawl toward the horizon, and paint the glacier in hues of gold orange. 

setting the ice ablaze with light. it was a sight she often did not have time to indulge in. but when she did, it was with peace and quiet. contemplation. 

there was much to consider, much to dwell on. faust, blackfell—since when had she let men influence her so? she was her own woman! strong, independent. she'd survived all these years without them...

and she would do it again, if needed. 

she would try to soothe her mind beside a fire, its flames licking at the skies. popping and sending little embers of orange to float with the winds. she rest beside it, warming her side, chin tilted upward as she watched the moon claim the sky.

faust had told her to stay somewhere. he had said he would kill for her. neither were things sulukinak was accustomed to—she did not trust the earth the way these southerners did, and had never once utilized a sleeping place; likewise, she could not trust the chieftain's promise as anything but intoxication. above all, it was proof her mother's magic had done its work.
sulukinak now scoured the frozen expanse; she did not know what she looked for, only that she needed to move. the fire ignited by blackfell, fed by faust, now consumed her in entirety. the part that was still cognizant of her surroundings told sulukinak, go, run, be away from this place and it was these two warring parts of her physiology that left her distracted.
the moon was full. if she was in the everdark, her mother would have found something to bleed in to the sea; but there was no sea here, no dark goddess to appease. only herself.
except even there, she was oblivious—another body trailed upon the ice, hidden by earth and sky.

a skitter of paws, hurried and almost panicked. fleeting. svalla turned her head to watch the same woman faust had taken. she reeked of his scent, causing the wilding's lips to curl with her obvious disgust. 

wait a frail, weak thing. skulking about like a rat. and to think faust would of had standards. she would not let the jealousy swallow her whole; this woman had nothing, while svalla had everything. 

if he wished to screw serfs, so be it. but, the urge to mess with the woman was strong. fire dances within the sharpness of her eyes as she shifts, laying upon her side, eyes tracking the woman. 

"you are leaving?" she mused with a roll of her eyes. "and so soon? what a shame. was he that awful of a lay?" she goaded.

skulking was right. sulukinak rarely moved without a serpent's curl to her body, or the prowl of a wildcat; a feral aspect followed her through life, perhaps as a curse from the very mother she hoped now to emulate. was that right? did she want to be like nukilik? the need for it was so deeply rooted inside of her—especially now—that there was no avoiding what was to come.
as a shadow, sulukinak had become accustomed to watching and listening; she had done so in moontide, and then at the qeya river, and only came out of that protective shell when cen had sent her with the lanzadoii; soundlessly, she came upon the languid figure that had previously gone unseen.
it was the woman—but for now she appeared as a pearlescent ghost in repose. compared to sulukinak's own scraggy shape, svalla was swan-like, while sulukinak was closer in composition to a pigeon.
there was that edged tone, again. still, she did not know what to make of it.
we only lay after, answers the girl, unaware that svalla was making a dig at her.

svalla met the woman with a roll of her eyes. was the serf some type of imbecile? perhaps a runt who's mind never fully developed. she felt no pity, but a sense of satisfaction. 

if faust had laid his seed within her and life would follow, his pups were at threat to carry their mother's moronic ways. they would be slow. the cruel part of the wildling woman is delighted by the thought. 

"can you not speak?" came her snort. followed by sharp, harsh eyes. even she, a wildling of the farthest north, had common sense and decent etiquette.

she was growing bored. rapidly, too, but the spot by the fire was nice and she wished not to leave just yet.

the woman was agitated, and slow. sulukinak had only moments ago displayed the ability to muster language - but maybe they had not heard her? maybe those little white ears were broken. she doubted the chieftain would harbor someone with a deficit like that if he intended his warriors to be fully capable.
i just did. a snort followed. sulukinak did not know this woman and had by now realized there was something wrong, either with them or with something between them where faust was concerned; but it was not as if sulukinak intended to be wife.
moving around the woman where she lay, the shadow girl looked more like a hungry pest lingering at the edge of a camp. eyes glinting with the light spared by the moon.
you treat him badly. like he is husband, when he is chieftain. is husband what you want? she had not stopped moving but had continued to circumnavigate the woman's sprawling place; her voice came crawling through the dark all the same. not wanting to be struck, sulukinak hoped to use the woman's perceived lethargy as an advantage.

you treat him badly. svalla laughs at this, humorless and sharp. if this is what the woman found mean, it was no wonder why she was so naive. so...uncultured. "please, that was hardly anything. you should see me on a bad day." she grinned, as pointed as any tip of a blade. 

the woman speaks of things she does not know. her audacity makes svalla sigh, as if she was growing bored of the conversation already. did she want to be his wife? 

her eyes harden, as she chews on the question before she spits out her answer. the woman lingers, looking as if any sudden movement would frighten her. it brings svalla joy, but she would not harm the woman, lest she have a riled up Faust on her doorstep. 

and while that was appealing, she did not wish to hear more of his bitching. 

"i do not know." she said. no bite, no bark—perhaps the closest to amicable she would get. "he is an annoying man. i knew him as a child—he has changed. back then, i might have said yes." she shrugged, resting her chin atop a paw.

"why do you ask? you wish him to be yours, instead?"

the woman was slow.
slow to think, slow to respond. her words were barbed in tone, always, and at the same time sulukinak felt only impatience as she tried to understand. the answers were not forthcoming: she did not know. then why fight? why be so spiteful when there was no claim?

you wish him to be yours, instead?
no. she answers with a lancing tone of her own, quick to refute. ears slanting back across her head, then relaxing in the next moment, pointing like little horns in the dark.
i only prepare for what is to come. for future. but the future she envisions is different from what faust must see. faust having by now offered her darukaal's support and his own teeth against any enemies.
then there is silence, rumination. sulukinak does not often speak in great diatribes, but she bears witness, and she does not know what else to do. to leave the woman here seemed the most pertinent—and maybe leaving darukaal was the best option.

the harvest was coming.

if he wants wife, he should claim you.

svalla was the one who did understand now. the woman, who had been invited into faust's arms in a way svalla had never—but had always yearned to—did not wish to stake her claim upon him. 

even though she very well might carry his progeny, a thought that sours the wildling's mind. why? she had been offered everything. why refuse it? 

there was strength here. protection. everything a woman could wish for, if they could take protect themselves. her stare is less pointed, and more curious. "and what is this future you think of?"

a natural question, one that lacked her usual spite. what future would be better, than baring the king of the glacier's children?

svalla turned her gaze elsewhere, lips pursing. the woman said faust should take svalla as his wife. "it is not that simple." not when there was so much history between them. not when svalla was still angry. 

she does not think on it...she cannot. that is a daydream she cannot afford, despite how badly a part she will not recognize yearns for it.

the details were not for this woman to know.
it had been hard enough to speak on it with her dutch man, many months ago; a lifetime, it felt like. she knew it was something understood—at least in part—by suliya's people, the muradoii... but even there her mother nukilik had been an outlier. no, sulukinak could not explain.
she shakes her head, jaw tightening, eyes averting briefly as a shadow passes over her.

i came looking for strong man. i found... faust, and blackwell; perhaps others would arise before her time was over. i found what i needed.
was she loyal to darukaal? hardly. faust had seen a weak and flighty stray in need of his protection, and for that sulukinak was thankful, but she was also capable. she had paid back that kindness.
she was a hunter. this hunt was over.
i do not need his protection. i go with the caribou.
and she was moving, then. having shared at least this clue, mindlessly.