Verdant Basin ingiullik

She knew this story.

She could have written his claws into her hips. She could have written those soundless words he breathed into her fur. In her mind, it was romantic. Don't leave me. They'd found love. They'd stumbled into something written in the stars, and heavens, she could see the stars! He was the most incredible man alive, and she, a very lucky woman.

She didn't even know his name.

"Ingiullik," she told him. Perhaps it would sound like more senseless words to him. She clarified: "My name. Ingiullik."

She gave him the one her first parents had given her, speaking it for the first time in many, many moons. Easily. Thoughtlessly. As if she'd planned this all along.