Moonsong Glacier you've got a church and steeple

The panther nodded, pensive. He'd thought as much, and when she said it like that, it sounded more like the spirits as he had come to know them. Gray trader was a lost spirit in need of an anchor, and perhaps guidance into the next life, if what Tulugak said was true. He was inclined to trust her in this — women knew things that men could not.

His head turned fully toward the morning star when she proposed her idea. His burnished gaze searched her face for signs of reluctance or worry.

"You have my support," he said at last. "Moonwoman showed this place to me. Perhaps she will be willing to show more to you."

These were not men's secrets to know.

"Let's leave this place," he said, looking one last time at the little cairn. "I have done what I came to do."

It felt unnatural to turn his back on the deathsite, but he did it, and he walked sedately down the trail instead of fleeing, as he might have if Tulugak were not present.

"This path calls to you?" he asked, still stealing glances at her face.