Ocean's Breath Plateau sky flier

a dripping skin of oysters was placed beside the door of @Red Leaf's lodge. the hour was dark, and the sounds of his children had died down as they at last gave themselves over to sleep.
"thank you for your gift," the seal hunter murmured, though he did not come inside. instead he tilted his chin to glance at the stars, pleased to be home despite the journey that could follow. "are you doing well? better?"
cen had never come back. this worried chakliux.

:O

she had not expected him to come see her so soon; not when he seemed so busy before. or perhaps it was guilt that kept her from having gone to visit earlier in the day — for what, she did not truly know.
but he was a welcome guest, now that her own boy too was asleep; a distraction, something to look at aside from the tangled roots which made up the ceiling of her new den. she shuffles out to meet him, dusting herself off in the way one would perhaps wipe grass stains from a billowing skirt.
there are many more where that came from, her lip curls with the speckle of glittering laughter which rolled from her chest. her valley accent only grew stronger when she spoke now. maybe i will have to make some for your wives, too. and your children. do you think they would like them?
i have been doing much better, she cannot find it within herself to meet his eyes, instead staring down at the hefty paws which carried his figure. but... i worry for cen. he has been gone for so long. br-- ghelan, he is almost ready to begin the long march. he asks for him every day, she passes a worried glance back into the den, searching for the silhouette of her son. i-i think-- i think he might have abandoned us, chakliux.

sorry for raiding he was about to be killed by the checker

the two month old had gone to the shore again, seashell in clutch in hopes of it being used for his mother's amulets that absorbed her attention throughout the day. he grew to learn the taste the meat, and now the taste of bitterness when the man that returns home is not aapa. whatever that means anymore.

he slips between chakliux's legs to enter the den, his greeting muffled by his insistence on holding onto the shell until it reaches the cache of materials and prizes he has built. mostly shells, fishbones, and the carcass of a crab he had tried to nab onto only to waltz around moontide with a swollen, bulbous nose.

he settles near the amulet collection's side of the ulaq to see what else his mother has made, though forever convinced that his is the best.
fresh new red eyes, however, glance towards the adults when he hears his mother.
"i think he might have abandoned us."

totally good! <3

"yes, i think that they would." red leaf indeed seemed much more restored, her coat glowing as he had not seen it before, her flesh hale and without the spareness which had marked those last dismal days in her den alone beside the sea.
ghelan. the long march. chakliux had not forgotten that red leaf was caribou, but was reminded sharply of it now. his ways were not her ways; she was only waiting to leave with a husband who would not come back.
guilt washed over the seal hunter, shame that he had not admitted his part in cen's disappearance.
"perhaps, red leaf. but perhaps it is best." his voice was tentative, expecting her anger or hurt, but his eyes were resolute with the rightness of it.
her accent, the spill of her laughter; they laid like fallen moonstones. he wanted to pick up their threads, but this thing of cen here, now, among his lodges — chakliux did not like it.
he smiled to see little ghelan. "wa-how! what a hunter! will you let the rest of us fish with you, sea wolf?"

perhaps it is for the best.
hurt flashes across red leaf's face for a brief flicker before it settles into a defeated emptiness, corners of her mouth twitching with so much buried and pent up emotion that she could just —
d-do you think--? she asks and yet she does not want to know, turning sharply away as she sucks in a breath and forces herself to hold it. i don't know what i'm going to do. m-my son, my son has no father anymore, i have--
her voice shatters in her throat.
i have no husband.
the cough which still lingered rattles her lungs, bringing her almost down to her knees as she begins to sag, sinking into the undergrowth. she wished she could disappear into it.
i know you don't care for him, chakliux, but he is-- he is all i know. he is all i h-- all i had. i am raising my boy all alone in a place with-with-with people who do not know my language, or my village, or my parents, or-- or our chief. i want;
breathe.
breathe.
breathe.
she does not know what she wants.
i did this. i-i-- i drove him away, i was-- selfish, and i took him from his people, and i-i gave him a broken son. her knuckles dig deep into the soil, searching, searching, searching for purchase that she cannot find. she does not even realize her boy has risen, shuffling about, nor that chakliux spoke to him.
she wished, in this moment, that the sickness would have taken her.

so many words, he focused on those which made sense. he roused as red leaf insisted on his father's abandonment, that he'll never return to them. but most of all, that he was broken. something wet hits ghelan's paw, and the world becomes like glass. he couldn't hear chakliux's attempts at playfulness with the pup.

thats.. that is not true! akiak stirs from his position. his lips twist, his head craned tall. is it his fault that his father is gone? is he broken?

the other puppies legs all moved together, none of them needed to hop like he did. none of them had this stupid, annoying cast. and all of them had their fathers, surely.

not true! it is not! akiak shouts regardless, hoping that either prove him wrong.

red leaf wept, and chakliux wanted to steady her with a soft touch, but held back. yet his eyes showed the turmoil, his recognitions of her loss which kept red leaf in this ouroboros of shame.
but when she spoke of ghelan, he stiffened in surprise, heart twisting when the boy responded in loud denial. how could she say these things before her son?
but chakliux felt he understood too, glimpsing the great shadow of horrible pain which must claw at her very spirit each day — and he had done it it.
"you are not broken, akiak," the seal hunter murmured softly. "but your mother's heart has been. you are a good son to her," he assured, a nod of his head to punctuate. a smile briefly touched his face. "once i knew a seal hunter who had his toes on both hind feet stuck together, webbed. on land he had to walk with care, but in the water, he was faster than us all! it is the way oil father decided he should be born."
"red leaf. you are right. this is not a place of your people, not a caribou camp. but you are not alone. and cen is not all you have. he is the man of your heart, but you are not abandoned by anyone else." through this all, chakliux had remained gently insistent;  at last he softly, slowly reached to brush her paw with his own. "you have a wonderful son. and you have been a strong mother. rest now, red leaf. let yourself rest among these lodges, for you do not need to do it all alone."

oh; brave one;
why had she done that? why had she said — i'm sorry, my otter, red leaf crumbles as she crouches for him, not wishing to speak over chakliux but desperate with the bite of immediate regret. i-i was just-- you are not broken, okay, baby? you are not. i didn't mean it. i didn't.
what had she done?
what had she done?
what had she done?
sniveling, steadying, she kisses the soft space between her boy's ears before she turns pathetically back to chakliux, breath stuttering in her chest as he — touches her. he touches her, this tiny little gesture, dainty eggshell against stark white, nails clasped together.
when was the last time a man had touched her?
i am so lonely, heat, rising in the pit of her belly! she cannot stop herself as she reaches up to caress his well-muscled chest. i want-- i want to feel loved again, chakliux. i want to be touched. i want to forget.
forget, forget, forget; cen's teeth against her throat, the hard shove of his bony shoulders, seawater in her eyes and nose and mouth; her voice lowers to a shuddering whisper as she leans forward, breath hot against his chin; t-take me away from here. help me forget.

last one from me!!

the apologies, the corrections, the stories. it rings hollow on brave one's ears. it had been said, and it had festered. the only way to prove it wrong now is..

bring aapa back! aapa disappeared when chak-chak came. the rumbling, looming dark figure of his father had been replaced by the snow-covered man who stood before him and his mother now. he did not smell like father, so he could not be father.
yet red leaf asks for love from him all the same. she treats him like father.
anger, betrayal, it festers in his white chest. spurned ghelan whisks away from the ulaq, not for seashells or play but to search. as well as for a place to bury his tears.

red leaf begged for something that chakliux did not think he had given before. or perhaps — once. 
he was still, pulling back ever so slightly as she caressed him, cried softly up into her face with the sorrowful maple-red eyes which filled him with her fear and pain. 
and he had done this! him! 
"red leaf. i can be kind to you without this. i want that. " his eyes told her that it was in no way her lack of beauty, only his resolve that she be protected even from the skinning-knife of her own emotions.
"it is not me you desire. it is him, and that is right. you are his wife and you — want him beside you, very deeply. you are still a woman. i know you are."
he glanced in the direction akiak had fled, looked back to the caribou woman. "let yourself think what else you might be without him, red leaf." an encouraging curve touched his mouth beneath the worried eyes. "let me find ghelan. i will bring him back to you."

Mature Content Warning

This thread has been marked as mature. By reading and/or participating in this thread, you acknowledge that you are of age or have permission from your parents to do so.

The participants have indicated the following reason(s) for this warning: blatant suggestion, delulu

he;
rejected her, and now red leaf truly began to slip. she recovers enough to straighten, to meet him with shaky breath and a steady, pleading gaze.
it is you that i want, she presses her nose into the crook of his jaw, breathing in the saltbrine that is tangled in the fibers of his pelt. it has been so long, aŋutigik, so long since i have been-- cen never pleased me. never touched me the way that i wanted. he only-- only took, never gave, and i want;
she preens, snaking herself around him, even as he stiffens beneath her touch. her hips roll, gyrating, thighs wrapped around his knee. i want you to fuck me, chakliux. please. just-- just this once, please--
bring aapa back!
by the time she turns to look for her son, he is gone, and she sighs, defeated, beaten, just like that day cen had — sobering, she peels herself away and casts a foreleg out toward him before pulling it back to her chest, shriveling. n-no, he needs to hear from me. i am-- i am the one who did this.

now a roll of his shoulders did push red leaf back, and chakliux retreated further from the lodge where she cried for him. his mind was too given over to worry for her; his body was unresponsive, for a thousand reasons but the forefront was that red leaf did not seem to know where she was.
that cen had been as selfish in his loving as he was in all other things did not surprise chakliux, but now he wondered how many times cen had possessed red leaf without her willingness, and further resolved in his step backward. healing must come first, and then she would find no shortage of men willing to bring her body to the pleasures denied before. this was not the way she could make herself forget.
"stop. i will not. but i am not angry, and i do not think less of you. but stop this, now, please."
chakliux glanced over his shoulder at the tracks that ghelan had left in the sandy dirt, then back to the mother of the boy, shrouded in her own grief. "let me help you here, red leaf. i will bring him back. let me talk to him as a man." as a father.

you are making a fool of yourself, red leaf.
she retreats fully now, swiftly dragging herself away, hobbling in the direction her son had gone. she cannot bring herself to look at chakliux, she cannot bear the burn of rejection, the embarrassment!
what man aside from cen would have her? she was soiled, ruined, sundered; she had failed as a wife, failed as a mother, and now it came back to truly bite her as if she had not already paid enough.
gathering herself, stiffening, shielding her face behind the glare of moonlight so that perhaps he will not notice the hurt written across it. i appreciate it, she murmurs, but i am his mother. he has been through enough. i will-- i will speak to you later, chakliux. i hope you enjoy your gift.
and if she is not pursued, she will stalk swiftly in search of her son, forbidding herself from sparing a glance back toward the seal hunter.