Duck Lake aanniqtuq ☀

she watched him carefully, watched the play of emotions across his handsome face. already it seemd to kukutux that he cared, or perhaps now the seed of wanting had been sown in the earthen places of his heart. she would not have wanted her belly to be filled this spring. not with the ghosts of her people still calling to her in dreams. better that she should find a place for her soul to settle, and know whether or not this would be a good place to raise her sons and her daughters.

and his, the spirit added. he had not accepted, but nor had he denied her offer. she would be asset to this pack of his, she knew. what man did not want meat in his caches? kukutux would prove that she was worth being a wife. even second, she told herself, knowing she would have to force a sense of contentment into her bones.

cry. qaryuq. "i am kukutux," the girl offered in a quiet voice. "i will eat, and then i will follow you." the hunger that could be denied no longer writhed in her with urgency. she passed her tongue over the fish-scales, offering thanks to its spirit, and then began to cut into the cold underbelly.

rich. fat. sustenance. she did not look up at cry again until she had finished, and then only a glance before she began to carve the rest of the lake-dweller into slabs with her teeth. easier to carry. an immediate way to prove the usefulness she had claimed only minutes before.