Firefly Glen innaktuk (3)

As they came upon the middlepoint, where the glen tribe met the mountain's earliest hills, the shadow called to alert Kukutux of their passage. Kigipigak appreciated this—at the same time, he was not yet ready to make that last leg of the journey. Fortunately there was a corridor of no-mans-land between the two claims that wound south and then west, clearly overlooked by the constant passage of bodies between the territories and poorly marked. Here Kigipigak would wait.

Thank you for the escort, he said to the boy. There is time enough for me to make the rest of the journey without distracting you from your duties, and I would like to find a gift at the very least. Kigipigak thought he'd have time enough to hunt down something small; perhaps a songbird, or a collection of inedible feathers, something that would not bother the wolves of this land should he take it for himself.

He looked to Antares and wondered if the boy would take offense to this attempt to dismiss him, and smiled in a friendly - still somewhat guarded - manner. It was good to speak with you. I have much to learn of you southmen.