Duskfire Glacier Sunnguvuk

stronger than men.
she did not know what issorartuyok meant, but it lodged into her thoughts, a roughened pearl that would be polished in the months to come.
heda did not know her own lineage, and yet this northerner had somehow spoken to it.
her gold eyes with their below-dusting of silver looked toward the trees, and she stood tall and young and determined. 
heda leapt into a run. it felt like she had never begun so quickly. small-framed, her legs consumed most of her body's height, and it was with this swiftness meant for mountain passes and icy places that heda sped to the trees.
she was not winded; her claws cut the earth as she curved back toward the duskfire wolf.
but by the time she stopped there, heda was panting; her sides heaved but she was delighted, fiercely so. 
"maybe i'll come live here," she said impulsively, then clapped a paw over her mouth, eyes bulging.