Ocean's Breath Plateau aliuktuq

Some days, the quickly approaching rubicon of adulthood frightened Seal. She wanted to bask in the glow of an innocent childhood forever. A time before hellcats and death songs. A time before maturity and responsibility. When Raiyuk nipped at her cheek and dashed off, she felt a wave of nostalgia. It was as if they had been transported back to the summer of their youth.

Seal giggled and quickly followed. Raiyuk’s ability to traverse the unpredictable coastal terrain greatly exceeded her own, and so she was thankful her friend never let her lose sight of him. Despite her stumbling, she arrived just after Raiyuk who looked full of life.

“You’re fast!” the young woman said, out a breath. Then, she closed her eyes and took a deep draught of salty air. “I just love the sea,” she said with reverence. “It’s so… mighty! Powerful, just like Moonspear. But infinite.”

Her brown eyes watched the crashing whitecaps, ears attuned to the call of hunting terns.

“My Da told me a story once about a shapeshifting, sea-faring wolf called a Selkie,” she told Raiyuk. “By day, they walked on land and hunted prey in the forest. But at night, when the stars and moon shone, the wolf returned to the ocean. They wrapped the skin of a spotted Seal around its body and transformed into one, so they may hunt the great waters swiftly.”