Ocean's Breath Plateau ataani ⩸

aya! aya! a shrewd one, this marina.

"make nantahala a seal hunter woman. she is fond of your sirmiq," kukutux said softly. "this year there is tautukpik."

of course, she did not say that if she sent akmaaksi to kvarsheim, he must stay. and she knew that he would not — to part them would be to lose each.

but their future must not forever run together. kukutux believed they would outgrow this need for one another.

her green eyes reached in the same veiled way for the gaze of the moontide wife. "in the months to come, more sunshine will be born."

though it did not show itself, there was a deep pleasure in kukutux for marina's gambit, equal to her own.