Moonsong Glacier through the fog of an early morn

At the first "I think", Dutch concluded that the girl had no idea what she was talking about about. She had been born upon the ice — she knew nothing but her frightened mother and stories of hungry men.

"Did you speak with him?" the panther asked, curious as to when this might have occurred. More than that, even, he was amused imagining how such a conversation must have gone. And then, of course, all that was swept aside by the concept of a women's meeting. He knew that women held secret magicks within their bodies, and that the knowledge of how to use it must be passed from one to another — but Dutch had never observed any secret meetings between his mother and his sister.

None of what Sulukinak shared was a secret, however. He had known already that she would come into her "power" this season, and of course he knew that women took husbands — not that he was used to phrasing it that way. He would have said that men took wives.

"A man is a husband when he married," he said to Sulukinak. "And a woman is a wife. Valiant will take a wife."

He had to work to keep his expression neutral. She was just too cute.

"Men do not take husbands," he went on. "In my family, this bond between men is called hunting partners. A man with a hunting partner may still take a wife. This bond does not exist in all cultures — but in seal hunter culture, I believe it is called lodge brothers."