Duskfire Glacier NulettuKutik

The scout argued with him, listing reasons, making her cause as just as she could. The longer that she spoke to him, the heartier he seemed to grow. It was not until she had finished that he found himself laughing wholly, throwing his head back and chuckling with his entire frame.

First, you are speaking to me like I am a child. That is unkind, but I understand why you do it.

The smile did not fade from his features.

Second, you seem to believe you know a lot about love and courting and these things, but even a man who has never laid with a woman knows that we all change.

This time, his features shifted slightly. He was paying close attention to her words, this time. He did not wish to forget the things she said, to confuse himself with her terminology. When she had first spoken to him, it had been to say that she did not want him to change. That she did not think either of them should have to change to be something they were not.

You said neither of us should change. We all do. You will change. The man you court will change. What will you do if he changes into something you do not love as much?

Then, more tersely, and what will you do now? For there is a man standing before you who is good. Who is willing to embrace this change and face it with all his spirit.

For a second, the frustration he’d stored away bubbled up.

You have no patience. A plume of air was huffed through his nose.

Meerkat wanted her love right away, it seemed. She did not want for him to change, but she did not like him the way he was. She did not want to wait to see if they could sort things out. She wanted to run to find someone new who could fill her head with her damned whispers. Again, the instinct that she was too young burned through his belly. Impulsive and childish, he thought then before chasing the nasty words from his mind. Issorartuyok cared for her.

You told me you had feelings for me and now they are gone? Only a moon and you have washed your feeling away.

And then a very specific memory from his time in the north drifted back to his head.

Issorartuyok had been made a fool by several girls in his village. They had led him on, made him believe that they were ready to become wives and that they would wait until a family could be made with him. One of them had led him out to the distant frozen shore. It was there that he waited in the cold. The northern man had waited until the sun had vanished in the distance and he had been left with the snow and starlight. She had never come. It had been for their pleasure, for them to laugh.

Did you do it to make a fool of me?