Ocean's Breath Plateau silver sparrow

he is not coming back! chakliux's lips thinned; he glanced away from her rawboned, fevered form and toward the sea, steadying himself. 
he did not want or need to ask. he knew the sound in her chest; seawater swallowed. every seal hunter could hear the salt rattle when it came upon one of them. it was part of living upon the peninsula.
he swung his scarred muzzle in a parody of a dismissal, pulling short before it became that. "i am not leaving you here. come. come with me now. when he comes back, he will know you are still here. i have a lodge, a new one. it is small, not yet finished. stay there, with ghelan. that way you are not beneath my roof when he returns, only among the seal hunters."
was that compromise enough? chakliux did not know what he could do if red leaf rejected him again.