Northstar Vale don't you know that i'm trying?

as she began to search for stones, kukutux felt the weight of what she assumed was scorn in kalika's eyes. she set her jaw. babies always came in the spring, and it had nothing to do with men. a woman swallowed a spirit. that was all.

but she was not about to argue with kalika; she settled on her side of the half-chewed pelt. it was at that moment the strange woman asked after a man for the duck, and she was unable to hide her horrified gasp.

did kalika insinuate that she would lie with a man who was not her husband? ears burned, splayed backward, and the girl found she had no words.

mortified, she skipped it altogether, heart thudding with the shock of such an inquiry. "the amik —  hide," kukutux corrected swiftly, flushing now with shame, "is meant to be used as any other part of the animal. that is what my mother and her sisters taught me, and what their grandmothers taught them."