Ocean's Breath Plateau sweet as brandy wine

@Sulukinak

He hunted often, as he had in the days before Ulloriaq's return to the pack. Then it had been nerves driving his steps, but these days it was something else. The change of the season, perhaps. The subtle changes in the womens' scents. The presence of new life within the seal hunters' lodge, or new love, or desire to please his family and theirs, and the rest of Moontide as well.

Today he sought out his shadow girl, hoping to recruit her for a hunt. He looked for her often, needing to reassure himself of her continued presence, but there had not been much of a chance for quality time as they settled in. He didn't want to let this state of affairs fester.

"Come hunting with me," he said when he found her. He meant it as a request, even if he (as ever) failed to phrase it that way. His tail wheeled in anticipation of the activity all the same.

sulukinak was never too far, except in cases where she spied the many-mothers; this is what she had come to title the wives of chakliux, adding simbelmyne among them, as she thought the seal hunter man and her man dutch had been one splintered unit during the time of morningsong and now could be united together. although the girl lay some sort of claim upon dutch she did not consider herself one of the many-mothers.

when he found her, he had the want to hunt and spoke it to life. adjustment to this place was proving difficult to sulukinak; she readily moved to follow his bidding as a result, seeking the familiar comfort of his presence.

alas, she did not speak.

The panther set a jaunty pace, putting more distance between them and the lodges only for Sulukinak's sake. He hadn't asked directly, but he was sure the close quarters hadn't been pleasant for the girl. He feared that it would eventually overwhelm her, and she would flee from them never to return.

As a result, he was quiet, too. For a time, at least, hoping to offer her reprieve from the noise and traffic of the lodge. But Dutch could only be quiet for so long before he was compelled to speak. They had come a good distance when his willpower broke.

"The winter is gone," he commented, reeling back a fraction as a bumblebee rushed past his face. He flattened his ears at it, but his tail still fanned idly at his hocks. "Do you miss the cold?" he asked her, casting a curious glance at her beloved face.

it had been loud and busy and overwhelming in a new way, and at first sulukinak thought she could tough it out, or perhaps go unnoticed with the commotion among the adults when they tended the children. it was too much, in the end.

now sulukinak took solace in the singular presence of her dutch man, the comfort of familiar but companionable silence; and some level of weight lifted from her.

he spoke, and she smiled thinly at the path.

yes. the glacier was very pretty, also. and now they had shed ice for ocean, which was a familiar entity as well but in a different way, and even though moontide was a place built upon sand and salt sulukinak would not go near it.

she would not beachcomb like the others. she would not even look towards the waves if she could help it.

is this home now? she asks tentatively, withholding her emotions and her judgement while she listens for his answer; guarded, strangely.

The panther felt guilty for how much he didn't miss the glacier. As much as he'd tried to move past it, Ariadne's departure had soiled the place. Leadership there had been only a distraction from how lost and unsettled he'd felt in that land.

Not that he felt the plateau was much more familiar. It was the company, truly, that finally felt like home.

"For now," he replied, pushing his own twisty feelings away to better assess Sulukinak's expression. "We will stay close, I think. But it might be necessary to spread further from the others. To keep from overtaxing the land."

He suspected this second part would appeal to her.

"What direction do you like?" he asked her, coming to a decision of his own. He and Simbelmyne could be happy with almost any background, he thought — but he sensed that Sulukinak might not feel the same. "North? South? To the east or the west?"

he found familiarity here. she knew that would happen, given who had opened their lodge to them; but sulukinak felt no connection to them. it was fortunate that dutch mentioned spreading further out, and that brought a spark to her eye.

he wanted to know what she'd prefer? well, that was nice, but she didn't know. as soon as she thought about it her ears gave a nervous flick and then pivoted back in a display of worry, only relaxing when she took to looking around.

it all looked the same to her. it all was the same to her. home is with you. she admits, lacking any sentimentality in her tone despite the phrasing, and in her usual unabashed fashion. she didn't want to admit that the cardinal directions weren't things she knew.

what does simba, thimble, um... dutch-wife, want?

Sulukinak need not add any sentimentality of her own to the words; the panther fairly melted at the declaration, even if it wasn't news to him. He worried constantly that this would change, and so reassurance was a treasure he was unwilling to ask for but all to grateful to receive.

"Myna," he offered when Sulukinak struggled with the name. "I will ask her — but I think she will feel similarly. And I do as well — my home is where I stay with our family."

He stood a little straighter, happy enough to make the decision himself, if Sulukinak did not have a stronger opinion. There was a place that came immediately to mind.

"How about the woods where we met?" he asked her. "It is close to the seal hunters — " his eyes crinkled at the corners. "But not too close, yes? So that there will be some peace and quiet to escape to."

the woods where they met—the quiet place, where ghostly mist wove between the trees.

where they once wished for her brothers to be safe, and to return.

sulukinak remembers; she breathes a deep sigh but keeps her eyes averted from dutch, thinking, feeling deeply, wanting to hide it all. her brothers had not come home—maybe if they were closer to the forest she would see them?

if not them, then their spirits?

she looks to dutch, nods, and drifts along a few more steps as if to forage.

The lack of a verbal response no longer fazed him, for the most part. He wished he knew more about what was going on in her mind, but he was beginning to suspect that their thought processes may well be foreign to one another. This did nothing to diminish his love for the girl.

He allowed quiet to fall between them for a while longer, snuffling through the brush in search of a trail. He drifted alongside her, scattered only a few yards, and tried to turn his mind back to hunting. His thoughts drifted, however, as they were wont to, and he found himself standing in quiet contemplation before too long.

"Do you still want to learn to fight?" he asked Sulukinak, his gaze seeking out the girl once more. Perhaps having more of a purpose would help her — or perhaps not. He thought it might be worthwhile to try.

Fighting was not so different from hunting, she had always reasoned. Although she had not shown any great prowess with hunting since her arrival to this place Sulukinak believed she had a natural aptitude for it; besides that, Morningsong had become very small again and they would need some protection as they reestablished. They could not trust in the power of strangers who would try and take from them.

To his question Sulukinak would nod and settle, sitting upon a patch of moss half-cut by shadow. I want to learn everything. To fight, yes. To be useful.

The panther's tail wagged high.

"Then you shall learn," he promised her, his eyes shining. "You are already a valuable hunt-sister. But I can see that you will be a fierce warrior as well."

He bowed to her.

"We start here, with play," he said, paws splayed wide on the ground. "You will try to draw blood." He flashed his teeth at her, but his expression remained bright and playful as he issued his challenge: "I will stop you."

he invited her to play, or so he said. but he had mentioned blood and that was commonplace when she had played games with her brothers; blood and bruises, and a fiendish sort of frenzy between them.

perhaps she was not so far from fighting all this time.

sulukinak did not wait for his prompt, and was moving even as dutch bowed before her with invitation. she moved swiftly towards him and aimed her snout to the soft flesh at one armpit, snaking, snapping.

if she caught him she would pinch and pull and make him bleed; if she failed, the momentum would carry her in to a zig or a zag as she sought another opportunity.