Duck Lake aanniqtuq ☀

the girl was starving.

long gone was the bit of meat she had brought with her; now kukutux carried only the empty rabbit skin across her shoulders. it was all she had left of the place from which she had come. and even now, some spirit whispered that dragging it after her invited evil shadows to follow. kukutux refused to listen, for had she not invited those same specters to steal her breath? they had never come. why would they arrive for a fur that held nothing?

days of no food had thinned her already slender frame; the ivory child had made a few half-hearted snaps at the strange wildlife of this place, but she had no names for what she saw. how were the creatures to be killed? there were few things that could be done in all terrain, however.

she had come upon a lake rife with the noise of ducks. but though her mouth watered for the rich fat of the birds, kukutux instead crouched weakly at the edge of the water, peering beneath the clear ice for any sluggish fish.