Great Bear Wilderness night sun

loosely backdated for posterity!

blood caked the side of the man's face, mottling the black fur with splotches of dried burgundy.

the pain in his skull and clenched jaw was immense, beating a caribou-hoof rhythm inside the bone itself. he had said nothing since the trial ended, nothing since —

he had not been able to hold still after all. the marks of wolfteeth studded his throat, his shoulders, his nape.

cen had never been so thoroughly humiliated in his life. the anguish with which he walked now was only a single portion of the mental agony suffered.

the caribou hunter had been running until he could not, imagining the sunshine wolves leaping through the undergrowth after he and @Sulukinak. at first he had leaned heavily upon her, hot crimson dripping into her own pelt, but now cen only stumbled doggedly for the outskirts of the bear wilderness, singleminded in his intent to avoid death.

the man ran like a hunted animal. sulukinak knew the feeling well, having grown up hidden and afraid with a rabbit-heart; and here was her uncle, a hungry man she lent her energy towards.

together they made their way. she knew better than to look back. her fear was not of a true chase - but of her own heart's weakness, and that she might turn for dutch, if he might be following.

sulukinak had made her promise to the village, and she knew she could not reverse the course of her life now. the man's blood flowed in her veins, through her fur, across her skin.

when cen was forced to stop again, he sagged heavily against a tree and took in the air, searching for the scent or tread of the moonwolves.

his head throbbed with a roar as if it were water rushing through an underground sea cave. "we will go to the taiga," he decided, "away from these forests and the sea."

his voice was garbled and hoarse. cen began to run again, blood smearing the hanging leaves as he went.

the tree smeared with his mark now, too.

he wanted the cold places. that hot blood burned him. sulukinak nodded before realizing he was not looking and so she moved closer, seeing cen's wound and the scowl he bore too.

it occurred to her to help him, to clean it maybe, but that was also a danger sulukinak was not keen to approach; it was a feeling she could put aside, choosing her own safety. hadn't she already done plenty for him?

but not as far as the everdark. in this she held conviction; sulukinak had gone away from the villages for his sake, and now worried they would run forever. she was not willing to fall backwards in time for him.

cen had to be strong for sulukinak now. she was not caribou, but she could be. and she had left behind what she knew for him, to travel, to run, stained in his blood and stamped with the exile he had earned.

cen was so deeply grateful that the emotion stole his voice. he did not think he had ever been so filled with gratitude before.

"no everdark," he grunted. "just the snowy places and the bracken forest." he moved at a trot now, tongue lolling as his limbs screamed in protest. "and then, sulukinak, i need to — i must find a way to get a message to red leaf. she will leave if i command, she and ghelan."

he trembled as he spoke, with anger, with pain, with fatigue. only red leaf could have spoken against him, but she had not been at the trial! he wanted her before him, if only to ask, and his hard eyes shone more bleakly than before.

they ran and ran, and even in his bloody state he spoke the name red leaf! even after mutilation and blood price, he desired his son! were all men so stupid? but it showed to sulukinak a depth of heart that her own mother lacked, and she gravitated to this aspect rather than the mindless parts.

she could not turn back now, regardless.

she could, and did, stop her churning limbs to stand and stare at the back of cen, eyes wide.

they did not speak for you. you can't go back, i can't go back. we go forward now - that is all. forward, or nowhere. although this was framed almost like a choice, sulukinak spoke this fact in her direct way, refusing movement until he could see and accept this truth.

red leaf was no more; the son no longer caribou but moon.

sulukinak stood stiffly and felt an itch in her spine, as short fur began to prickle along it.

his jaw worked terribly, slowed by the sudden stop of sulukinak. cen ground his teeth, ears flattened direly to his torn skull. she was right! she was correct! 

but there was something she did not understand. "red leaf did this. she — lied! to rodyn! to that seal hunter bitch," he growled, teeth bared, panting as he stumbled forward another step, then stopped, turning toward the dark wolf.

"she cost me my son! she cost me the march. and these moon people. these sunshine wretches. i hate them. they will not steal vengeance from me! or keep ghelan from what he must know!"

but his trajectory continued, moving directly east into the flatlands, then the mountains beyond, then the taiga. cen was unwilling to put their hides in more teeth. "forward," the caribou man gritted through clenched teeth, capitulating.

for now.

he hated them.

he had bled for his love of his woman and son, and was set upon revenge.

when the man cen began to stalk again, this time sulukinak followed doggedly, not because of the vitriol of his convictions but because she felt the urge to look back, and had to move or else she might.