Swiftcurrent Creek The roaring seas and many a dark range of mountains lie between us.

Kilgitsuk listened and nodded. He liked the tactical mind of this man - it was sensible, and would be a boon should the group be assailed again. When next the conversation turned to villages, Kilgitsuk did not know what to say; he already carried one lie close to his heart, he wasn't sure if he could handle another. Best to be truthful about something.

I had a home north of here. The village was called Natigvik. The tone of his voice did not welcome questions. It was a part of his life that Kilgitsuk felt great shame about, as he had failed as both a leader and a father. It lasted one season before our numbers were too few to sustain ourselves.

It was the way of things sometimes. It was not the lack of a village that burned Kigipigak and made him take on the trader's mantle; this new name, this distance from his wife and family. It was something much deeper that he could not properly face.