Snowforest Taiga maugak ⋟

her breath left her in a slow, muted drag— not surprise, not warmth. recognition scraped in behind her ribs like a blade being sheathed.

muradoii. the name struck a chord she did not want to hear. a seal hunter—not saatsine, she knew, but it is close enough that the back of her neck prickled. close enough that the ghost of sun-eater’s teeth flashed behind her eyes, the remembered crush of his bite sinking into her throat. the snow. the blood. the after.

she did not flinch from kanuux’s touch. instead she held still, gaze locked to his, cold and sharp and cutting— weighing every piece of him. her jaw tensed. a flicker—the smallest—passed through her eyes.

she tasted metal as she tries to recall more of their language, anything—the pronunciation is clumsy as she speaks. "not like lanzadoii," the woman nearly hisses it. "no lanzadoii here?"

she waits for an answer before she offers a name, lifting her paw and setting it to her own chest. "gjalla of stormrift."