Moonsong Glacier akiaguk ¤ {m}

If she held questions she did not speak them.

Instead, in the way only a woman could, she came to settle beside him and lend herself as comfort; more than being a listener to his story, Ariadne was easily affectionate and physical in a way that Kilgitsuk found endearing. She comforted the parts of him that were more restrained, and accepted all that he said without obvious judgement, against his expectations. So much like her mother! But better, he decided. Better because she had grown in to someone who could think outside of the bindings of previous traditions.

It was then that an understanding about his own situation flickered to life. His boys were different too. Kivaluk had thrived among the sunshine-people, rather than the imposition of Tartok; he could see things in a way Kilgitsuk could not, and he knew in that instant he should not demonize what he did not understand, but try to be better.

He breathed a deep, soul-wrought sigh and placed his chin upon Ariadne's shoulder, accepting the embrace — and then realizing he was perhaps being too forward! So he withdrew with a boyish smirk upon his face.

You are wise for your years, nuviyagnak. He had not yet let her go.