Blacktail Deer Plateau west memphis is on fire in the light of day

Impressing the mother was the best option. It followed with Kigipigak's own experiences, that the women were the head of the family and the ones in charge of everything; if he could do that, he would certainly be able to handle life here without issue.

Sakhmet's further comments — about her father — struck him as odd.

Her mate—I would have thought he was your father. But the way she referenced him, withholding the title, gave Kigipigak some pause. It sounded as though Sakhmet did not know the man very well.

Perhaps the young man should have been more cautious with his questions.

She supposed, in a way, that Mou might as well be a father to her.

He had stood by her mother and she had never had any sort of father figure there, that she recalled. Although she did not call him Dad, Father, so on or anything like that. Regardless he was with her mother and the father, in her eyes, to their current children.

Which meant he was family all the same no matter what title she gave him.

No, A little shake of her head. I don’t have one. No hurt or disdain in her voice.

That had simply been the way of life for her from the beginning. Perhaps she knew she did have a. . . sire but no father to claim.

In the end it didn't matter. If the pair cared for Sakhmet properly then Kigipigak knew he wouldn't have any issue with either of them; besides, it wasn't like he was on great terms with his own father (who was very much dead, by his own fang).

Kigipigak did not know how to move on from that point in the conversation. He regretted having brought them up, although it sounded like Sakhmet was fine with the situation, so he hadn't inadvertently made her uncomfortable. That was a plus.

I sometimes wonder if I have more siblings. No doubt by now, Sedna would have her hands full. Kigipigak is briefly distracted by his thoughts of Unnuakvik and almost doesn't notice the abrupt end to the pair's roaming. There is nowhere they can go from here — the mountain looms as a sheer wall, cracked in some places but otherwise impossible for a wolf to traverse.

Kigipigak shakes the thoughts from his mind. The momentum carries in to his shoulders which are almost dry by this point in their joint wandering; he takes notice of the wall now and as his eyes slide up, up, up, to the vanishing point of mist and cloud, he softly gasps.

Imagine climbing that somehow. Impossible!

Together the pair explored; but when both became too beleaguered by the effort of further hiking, they settled somewhere quiet - until the morning, to decide what more they should do.