Hoshor Plains obasan

"ah! yes, i want this, but —" chakliux exhaled. "i have been gone a long time. and now i must take raiyuk to the sea. i do not think my wives will want me to run after this man again for a time."
he would leave this to marina.
the space between them was maintained, and to the seal hunter it felt almost as if it were a chasm.
but he did not know if this was the fault of her scent and his inability to respond, or if it was she herself. was it hurt? the seal hunter would explore this another time.
"perhaps it is better if our moonhunters stayed close in spring," a time of vulnerability and high alert while babies were born. chakliux did not think he would leave his lodge if both tullik and marina fell pregnant, and he turned his head in the direction of the sea without thinking, consumed by an ache to see their faces even with the lovely cloudwoman so close!
"was it a very great hunt?" he asked next, eager for any talk of this accomplishment even as he nursed that seed of sensitivity deep within himself.