Blackfeather Woods How can one like me love one as filthy as you?

Kove knew that it was important for his children to learn the common tongue, but never was he able to help himself when around them. Usually, if not always, he addressed his children in the tongue of his family, just as he currently was. Thus, whenever they spoke it back to him, he was proud. Lessons in English were left for Nemesis to teach, though he came to wonder just how well they were going; he’d yet to hear any of his children use the language as their primary. Wishing to believe that they were going well enough, his thoughts went back to the matter at hand, which was listening to and teaching the girl as she spoke. Her next choice of words, however, had been surprising.

“Itsinak?” the father repeated, his version having been presented as a question. Of course, he knew that she could just be repeating something she’d heard before, but still wished to investigate further into it. If it turned out to be that she wasn’t simply doing as a mockingbird might, then he needed to know. “IlilikKen?” he’d decided to ask. It was the Inuk’s hope that she’d not seen anything that might have caused her to speak, unprepared to explain away some fantasy monster from a child’s mind.