Totoka River uuliktuk ☙

he spoke kindly to her, and kukutux felt some part of her tension ebbing. a more gentle creature then. the duck glanced toward the mountains. "too many stones to fall," she murmured quietly. again the far-too-close lurching, and kukutux' lips trembled but she laid iron along her spirit.

"i have food," her voice sounded again, wan, childlike against the cacaphony within her soul. was he merely passing through? why had he stopped, if not to be shown hospitality? trembling or not, kukutux had been well-trained; she disappeared within her ulaq and departed its soft darkness with a stick of dried salmon, caught and stripped on this very riverbank.