Moonsong Glacier you've got a church and steeple

Although the whole interaction had been one long joke, Dutch recalled what Tulugak had said to him when they first met. Even with the silliness that followed, he had always believed that she spoke to the spirits. That they were all around, and that she could see them, even if he could not. Part of this was because of women's magics, of course, but part of it was the sturdiness and surety of the woman beside him. That quality that made him feel safe and brave and yet simultaneously like he was about to fall from a great height.

She would be a good shaman to them, he thought. But would such a path be good to her? She had suffered a deep wound to her own spirit so recently — Dutch wasn't sure it was wise to delve into these things in such a delicate state.

He came back to the present when she spoke, and for a moment, he felt sure she was talking about them — and the new life a leader was duty-bound to introduce to the land. Dutch felt he'd fulfilled this in bringing Eira and Fallen Sun together, but if she was willing —

The concern in her eyes set him straight. Dutch dropped his gaze and breathed out a long sigh.

They'd come to a ridge that overlooked the valley floor and the distant walls of Moonglow. Dutch dropped to his haunches and leaned his shoulder against a stalwart pine.

"When I reached home and Ariadne was not here," he said, his voice pitched low. Like it was a secret between them, instead of like there was something out there they were trying not to wait. But he spoke to the mountains, his gaze lingering somewhere in the middle distance. When he'd reached home: "I went to Moontide. To the lodge of Chakliux. He said that I had a home with him and his family, and I told him that I would come to him when things were settled here. I thought that moonwoman would send another of her sunshine people to lead us. And when she didn't..."

He looked back to Tulugak, searching her eyes for understanding.

"I have always walked my own path," he told her. "And I have always been lonely for it, but no place has been quite like home. When I met Ariadne, I thought — here is a leader that I can grow with, instead of a stranger I would have to learn to bend beneath. And I found my place here. And I found — " You. "My people."

The near-slip scrambled his thoughts for a moment, but he soon got them back in order.

"Sometimes it is hard not to think about running off to become a seal hunter," he admitted. "And if it were just Chakliux and his wives and his sons — perhaps things would be different. But I don't want to leave my place or my people. Even though things are different now."