Duskfire Glacier at aaktuktuk |<

"Issorartuyok Tatkret," Veteran repeated for the man. He flipped the rabbit carcass deftly with his nose, pulling back the skin to reveal the only meat left on the bones. He dug in eagerly. The hunger of a growing boy could not be staunched, even by grief. 

"He's new. Kind of. He helps my mom lead." But the moon man would know that, since he was a Northerner. Issorartuyok's name translated to leader dog in the Northern language. Veteran was still of an age at which his black-and-white mind believed that one's job could not deviate from one's name. His own name was Veteran, and so he would be a soldier. Wayfarer would be a ranger. He'd met Angler, who was a fisher. And Issorartuyok, the leader dog-- he would lead. It was just the way things were.  

"Moonglow is about to start hunting?!" He leapt to his feet. Veteran nearly choked on his last bite of meat, which he had swallowed much to soon in an attempt to speak as quickly as possible. His eyes watered from the large piece of half-chewed meat he had just forced down.

"I'll tell Mom!" he cried, darting off in the direction of the Duskfire rendezvous point. After a few leaping steps though, he stopped in his tracks and turned around, darting back to ask the Northerner a question. "Will you wait here for me?" he asked breathlessly, "I wanna go to the camp with you, but I gotta ask Mom first!" Veteran technically wasn't allowed to leave the Duskfire lands without an escort, so he needed the Northerner to wait for him here. He leapt away once more, only to return again after getting about a step-and-a-half away. "Hang on, what's your name?" The moon man had never told him. 

As soon as Veteran had his name and his assurance that he would wait for the boy to return, Veteran would race away with the message. The rabbit carcass would be left behind, although it was little more than a pile of bone and fur scraps at this point.

Ready to fade when you are!