Moonstone Quarry uliruk ⊹

Ipiktok walked beside Moonwoman with the pride and ego of a young soldier who had never seen war. His budding frame was broad, stocky, and strong – bear-boned like a northern warrior. Yet, the mind matured much slower than the body. Though he had recieved Sedna’s wisdom, Ipiktok’s spirit was filled with childlike enthusiasm.

It was with these clear eyes he regarded the quarry. Great cliffs of pale stone with little vegetation descended towards a pool of cold, blue water at the bottom. The slabs of rock shone in the moonlight like a marble church's walls.

He listened to his wise grandmother speak and thought upon his own ambitions. Kukutux’s children had established their own villages… some stood the test of time, like Moonspear and Moontide, while others had crumbled like scree at the bottom of the quarry.

Would this be Ipiktok’s path? He felt there was much to learn… but a streak of ambitious naivety said otherwise. An ulaq, a wife, a family, a village… the path of the Sunshine people appeared straight to Ipiktok’s inexperienced eyes, and he had little want to defect from it.

“Yes, this one it ready for a wife,” he blithely procclaimed with little knowledge of what it took to create a successful relationship. A marriage was simply what one did – he could figure it out along the way.

He thought of the pretty woman he had met at the hotsprings.

“I have great desire to bring honor to our village,” Ipiktok added as if to suggest he was ready to do her bidding.