Blacktail Deer Plateau sikinaagiksuk

The smell of wet dog preceded her. When she arrived, Kigipigak thought to look over to where the sound of her steps had ceased, but he was too content. So it was the woman that broke the stillness first. It wasn't a voice he would recognize readily, as he hadn't seen the woman in quite some time. She - and her various damages - had left a light impression upon Kigipigak.

Her question earned the opening of one eye, then Kigipigak opened the other and looked her over. A pale creature and older than himself — not small exactly, but not sizeable either. A twisted club for a paw; an uglier face. It was the face that sparked something in his memory.

Ah! He remembered.

You were the woman from the woods, and I was the man from the north. You were sad when I met you. Are you still? She did not look sad. Thinner because of the water in her coat, but now that the sun was upon her rather than the darkness of those trees a year ago, somehow better.