Lake Rodney ii They watch their children.

Kigipigak carried a belly full of fresh meat with him as well as a ream of hide, still wet, through the forest and to the river. He found that the cleaning of the deer had been a strenuous task and quite fulfilling for him. The river had run red and sat spoiled for the night. He had tried to clean more from the fawnskin further upstream after that.

Eventually his efforts drew him west. The hill he had been standing on overlooked a small ravine that led on to thick sequoias. Even in the dark these were impressive; the moonlight barely penetrated their great reach.

As he moved on to investigate a weathered tree which reminded him of a few elders of his old home he noticed how the ground gave way to softened soil, and in following the deer trails he found his way to the edge of a lake. The water was calm and, more importantly, clean.

He drank in the sight of its glass-like surface and the stars winking across the expanse. After some time he retreated to where he had left the fawnskin at the bottom of the deer path, and set about spreading it in the shallows to soak.