Firestone Hot Springs moontooth

"mm," came the rumble of chakliux as within him, his memories found that cold peninsula and the day he had become a man.
"a seal hunter boy, as soon as he can hear, is told of how he must kill a seal to be a man. we are ready for it, eager for it; our earliest wrestling and biting is to mimic how hunters described their time below the waves."
"my father had told me i was almost ready for this time. the morning that he and my eldest brother came to find me, i was watching for whales, for their water-spouting far out upon the sea. nine time i had already been with them and the other men, taking young whales, hunting seal, otter, oilfish, sea lion. i knew the sea. i knew its danger."
"but that day was for me, chakliux, son of waking shark and the spirit-woman k'os. they told it it was time, that i would this day lead the seal hunt. we went down together, we and the other men. i broke the ice upon the side of the ocean and went down beneath it."
chakliux was lost in remembrance.
"nine times i had helped with a seal hunt. i knew to wound it. the other men helped me until all i could see was the red of blood. then i was alone with this seal, who was full of rage and pain. seals in this state are so strong as they lose their mind; they can break a hunter's bones. but i found his throat, and held my breath, and bit deep until his air-tunnel was torn. so great was the pain in my chest! i breathed the sweetest air when i dragged him up to the surface. the other men helped me bring the seal to shore."
"they were proud of me. we brought women from the village and butchered the seal. all i wanted was to sleep, but i was not yet a man. my father laughed at me. he gave me a very strong drink the women had mixed, and it gave me strength. i was taken to the lodge of my mother, the shaman k'os. i lay down. my brother lay across my stomach. our cousin held my head still. my mother said 'do not cry, chakliux,' and made the marks. it took no time. it took a thousand years! but i did not cry. she put crush-abalone in the marks, to darken them. and from that moment forward i was a man."
a wry smile attended his mouth. "that night, the woman speckled egg came to me. she made me a man in another way. i was a seal hunter the next morning."