Greatwater Lake When I feel the snakebite enter my veins

his sister, the stranger tells kivaluk, affirming what the natigivik had already assumed. for a moment, kivaluk lingers in a moment of uncertainty...for he both understood the want to find one's sibling ...and yet, he did not. he had not chased akkuma through lands yet undiscovered by himself. no, he'd left his brother to his own choices and had estranged himself from his littermate.

though, this is to no one's knowledge but kivaluk's own for he does not speak of it.

at all, if he can help it.

no, kivaluk replies. i was born here. well, not here here. i was born in these wilds. he seeks to clarify as if to say that he wasn't familiar with this particular neutral territory they presently occupied. my home is with the wolves of moonglow. they claim the spine, he gestures towards it, over his shoulder where in the distance the rocky walls of the spine could be seen in the distance. i was only out this way because i was tracking a herd.

kivaluk hadn't been asked but offered the information all the same.