Kildeer Rest tanaaiyak

He listened, and relaxed.

It was a gift from one hunter to another. Nothing more than that. In this moment Kigipigak did not even think of Sakhmet; he saw this as wholly removed from the girl who had gone missing.

If Lane were issumatar in a Tartok village, he might think otherwise. So far as Kigipigak knew she was only a ranger; a mother too, he had learned, but that made her more akin to Kukutux or Lote.

In my village there is a tradition between warriors, or hunters, to unite them. What he spoke of now could've been marriage, for it was one type of unification that placed this close relationship above all others, and it was for life. Those that work together well and often have a blood-letting. They mark one-another and share the blood, which makes them aokatti.

He did not realize just yet that Lane was one of two leaders in this village or that Duskfire was closer to Tartok than to Moonglow in nature.

I have always wondered if I would one day have an aokatti. Kigipigak mused more to himself, wondering. He was not close enough to Apiruk for such a thing to make sense, but he brought it up now. He did this to highlight the great chasm between their people - his, Kukutux', and Duskfire.