Ocean's Breath Plateau ivilauk ⋣

He had not slept well since the night after his hunt. Knowing that he would be home soon was exciting, and then he was home, and there were things to prepare for—the final painful rite of becoming a man. Word came to Raiyuk that the shaman Kukutux had arrived; the boy waited, listening to the birds sing while he rested within the lodge, and then his father came.

Raiyuk did not speak. He walked beside his father full of pride, a sprinkle of apprehension, and the focus that would be needed for what was to come next. As Raiyuk came before Kukutux he bowed his head to her and then was led to a mat, where he would lay.

There were others watching. Somehow this felt wrong to him, but he did not protest against it. This moment of earning his scars felt simultaneously intimate in the sense he only wanted Chakliux and Taggak to see, and theatrical for how proud he felt and how this act was being witnessed and made real by those gathered.

Was he meant to sit still and silent? It was what came naturally. Somehow Raiyuk expected the shaman to speak some magical incantation; then she bent before him and began the work of cutting. The boy grit his teeth and felt each line pull through his skin.

He remembered other pain as he fought through this. The recent battle with the seal; the pain from the bison hunt; a deeper and more profound ache when Chakliux had gone away to hunt with Dutch; rooted deepest of all the loss of his mother and her glaring absence. Having survived all of that, Raiyuk knew he was strong.

Chakliux had prepared him; his eyes locked for a time upon his father and while they gleamed, he did not cry or make a sound. Kukutux moved to one shoulder, then another. He recites in his mind the lineage:

Son of Chakliux, out of Nasamik.

Each name punctuated with a line in his skin.

Grandson of Waking Shark and K'os.

And when it was over, Raiyuk lay there a moment longer. His fur was bloody despite the best efforts to staunch the wounds, and his skin thrummed with an ebbing pain as the medicines took effect. These red marks would heal black and be reminders to him, and badges of honor, as Raiyuk went forward in his life.

When he finally stood up, he heard Kukutux and he saw his grinning father, and felt only love.