Ocean's Breath Plateau hear the clock tick, the wolf who loiters at the door

Tags for reference, or feel free to join! All welcome please play with me. Forward dated to idk Tuesday or something.

Dutch had informed @Ulloriaq and @Sulukinak in particular of his trip, saying this time that he would stay there for a day or two before returning. Neither were explicitly invited, but he wouldn't turn down their company, either. And it was @Aditya who he left in charge, deputizing @Hototo on his behalf.

He would not be far, but the chief still worried the pack would find they did not need him in his absence. Still — the trip could not be avoided.

The seal hunter's wives were nearing the halfway mark of their pregnancies. Dutch came again with meat for the lodge — achingly empty without Chakliux or his sons to fill it. Still, the panther intended to visit; he wanted to bring a good meal to @Tullik and @Marina, and then plead to lay his ear against their bellies.

And, with consideration to his conversation with @Heph, Dutch brought ideas that he might share with her — plus the promised gift of furs that he'd lacked on the first visit.

He stood on the borders after announcing himself with a howl:

I have come bearing gifts on weary paws!

He wondered if he might see @Rodyn this time, for he'd had little to do with the man thus far and had heard only good things.

Even growing heavy with child, Tullik was not inactive for a second. Pregnancy didn’t seem to slow her much, as she tended to the lodge with an iron fist in her husband’s absence. She could be found slinging saltwater from her fur at any time of day now, digging the shore for clams, prodding her nose into rock crevasses after the creatures spit there by the sea. She was everywhere, a frantic sort of energy thrumming under her skin.

So, when Dutch called from the borders, she glanced up from the mouthful of feathers she had been steadily plucking from the bird she caught. She glanced at the bird, then the borders, then the feathers, before deciding to say screw it and meander over anyway. Her tail waved as she did, friendly despite appearing as though she was molting with how many feathers clung to her mouth and neck fur.

Her hello was muffled, but no less jubilant.

She appeared like a vision, prettier than he'd ever seen her before. Even if the feathers were a somewhat comical addition, Tullik glowed with vitality, and the rounding curve of her belly sent an odd, sweeping sensation through his body, like a warm ocean wave knocking him off his paws and hauling him by the ankles as it rushed back to sea.

Dutch came forward to meet her, tail whipping in delighted greeting. A grizzling whine escaped his muzzle before he dropped his parcel at her paws.

"You shine like sunlight on the horizon," he said, still marveling at her. Perhaps he realized how silly he must sound to her, because his next words were an amendment: "Or perhaps like water on a duck's back."

He plucked a feather from her cheek and spat it out with a soft puff of breath. It spun and then drifted, swaying back and forth for a moment before landing on the bridge of his nose.

"How are you?" he asked her, his now serious tone undermined by his new adornment.

Tullik spat the feathers from her maw, rolling them off her tongue with practiced ease onto the bundle Dutch carried. His question and compliment washed over her like a wave, intent written in the furrow of her brow and the glimmering eyes she wore.

She reached out and dragged the man into an embrace.

I am as well as I can be. I do not slow for anything. She spoke, serious, before grinning.

Marina and I make the lodge home. Soon, Raiyuk will be a man. I am making him a gift for when he does, but do not tell him I do this. It’s a surprise!

"I can see that!" he laughed, secretly relieved to see Tullik in such good health and high spirits. He'd not had much experience with rough pregnancies, but he knew that they were a possibility. Part of him felt responsible for anything that might happen to the two women while Chakliux was gone — even if Dutch himself was seldom present. And, even though he still thought of all the children the seal hunter's wives carried as belonging to Chakliux, he felt a certain proprietary protectiveness over the family either way.

Mostly, though, he just wanted Tullik to be safe and happy and comfortable.

"What are you making?" he asked her, intrigued. "Can I help?"