Deepwood Weald arctocephalus

As he explained his place in the world, he gave names and descriptions. All that Sulukinak hears was glacier and her thoughts began to churn.

She had outrun ice mother and now was being told of a place where many gathered - a cold place, a quiet place; and there were women there, like herself. Sisters for her, maybe. It felt fortuitous and also dangerous. What if this man was lying? What if he only said what her heart wanted, to lure her? There were warnings going off within Sulukinak that rivaled the sense of familiarity his telling elicited; but she was naive, and lonely, and chose not to let her apprehension win.

He offered her this story, and this invitation. Sulukinak knew hunger now, and fear, and a desperate sort of loneliness, and Dutch offered something to help. She had run once - if she needed to, Sulukinak could run again.

Show me? She wanted to see this place. It was so much like the conclave of her mother, but vastly different - that there was not one mother, but many, and men who could live among them? These were not the hungry men that had been taught to Sulukinak. They sounded like brothers.