Duskfire Glacier mitqiaq

she was usually so perceptive. having a well cultivated hypervigilance was a boon; except for the past fortnight it was as if this quality to her psyche had been diminished, so when the man rose from the ice like some forgotten homunculi, sulukinak remained blind.

his voice shocked her, and the dense black hairs of her nape puffed. teeth meant danger—but this was also a diminished sense, somehow. the sight of the man, healthy and dominant, sent a thrill through her skin.

the ice, it calls to me. sulukinak did not know how else to explain her wanderlust of late; she held a limited, superstitious, spiritual understanding of her own bodily processes—unaware what she had been hunting until she saw this monster of a man; something instinctual told her he was perfect for her aims.

even after this sudden capture of his attention, sulukinak should have followed the instinct of self-preservation and fled the scene rather than listening to this newer, secondary urge: drawing soundlessly closer to him.