Blacktail Deer Plateau did you really ever think I gave a damn about you

Where the others stood, gazes cast out to the destruction wrought by their sea, Aningan was not. He had travelled with the band of wayward souls as they relocated to the plateau but, shortly thereafter, his anguish lured him away. He feared the sea that he had once loved, yet that love was not diminished—not entirely. He mourned for those lost to it and for those that knew only the coast, especially those that were long since separated. How would they find them again, when the coast was the only thing that could unite them? That lifeline had failed them, turned spiteful and cruel. By raging on their home it had severed any hope he may have still held for reuniting with Caiaphas and bore a new pain with the forced separation from the uppik. The malevolence of their former home had driven her away, leaving him behind to endure this horror without guidance.

Aningan had wandered from the group, pushed and pulled by conflicting feelings. It was his responsibility to stay and protect everyone, to ensure that this family he’d become a part of survived these hardships. Yet, at the same time, could he not do better by them if he were to locate his sky-bound companion? Could her assistance, her knowledge, not better them? He sought her out with the latter thought in mind, convincing himself that he was doing the right thing—but the young leader had hardly gone beyond where he could no longer see his pack before turning back around and rejoining them.

This was where he belonged and his efforts would be better spent being contributed to the wellness of the pack. The uppik would have to wait.

The boy’s return was quiet, attention given fully to those that gathered. There came a comment regarding smoke—why did he recognise that word?—and he found his own gaze following Raleska’s as it turned northwards. The sky he saw was not the same sky he remembered, now slowly being smothered by clouds darker than any he’d seen before. It reminded him momentarily of a storm, only this sight carried with it something far more dreadful.

What was happening to the world around them?

“Something bad,” he answered absently, staring. The longer he watched it, the further it seemed to stretch from the north. Would it reach them? He felt what began as a tickle in the back of his throat, only to grow into something suffocating; it was as if he’d been teleported into those very skies he stared at, now choking on the substance that poisoned them.

Except, that was all in his head. Swallowing, he closed his eyes for a long second and turned his head, gaze trained on the others when he finally opened them again. “We won’t find out what it is,” he decided. “We’re going to stay here for as long as we can. And if something happens… something like at the sea… we will find safety again.” Look after your pack, he remembered Rosalyn had told him. He was ready to honour those words now, even without her there to witness it.