Ankyra Sound piyugaktuk

Distancing himself from the traveling Moonglow wolves, Kigipigak hoped to cool his head.

He had trailed Kukutux until she had found her way back among her village, then turned and gone off on his own. The snow was hard packed, with many patches of black ice hidden beneath it. As he came upon sand, it did not give beneath his steps, and he found himself almost skating down the hill because of it. He scrambled, righted himself, and took more care with how he moved from then on.

A familiar cavern, frosted but otherwise untouched by winter inside, looked like a good place to take solace and catch his breath. Kigipigak did not like to be underground. This was different from a den or ulaq, as it towered overhead and required no work.

Kigipigak had come here once before to bury the pink-colored shell that had once belong to @Njord, but he didn't think about that now, nursing unseen wounds after a different fight. He'd done it as a form of safe-keeping until he could return to the coast, and yet, being here now the redtail was far from his mind, shell included.

another wanderer roamed the sound, a wolf as pale as the snow that coated much of the mainland. the listener followed this one, too, watching as the white wolf entered a frosted cavern. she hid out of sight, eyes and ears turned toward him, ready to pursue again if he should move on.

cameo unless noticed, she'll be stalking until then (:

if you'd rather her not come in like a tiny wrecking ball, let me know and i'll remove <3

She left the plateau behind for good, made peace with how she had failed there and moved on. No direction in mind but she remembered some of the sights she had seen from afar.

The coast, the sea, how different it all seemed in the winter.

It was easy to silence her mind with the constant sluggish movement across the lands. Snow to stone to icy sand. An experience she had never had before. Uncomfortable to move across but better than staying still too long.

Or so she thought.

A scent tickled her senses with familiarity, although it most certainly was not the same enough for her to say with utter certainty who it was. A ghost of past perhaps.

You should leave it. You've already left them before.

Thoughts that would not hush as she trailed it all the way along slipper slopes to come across a strange structure. A cavern.

She had the disadvantage of not yet being able to guess who it was that might be inside. Tentatively, she peered in from a hidden edge. Then let curiosity kill the Sakhmet.

Hello?

I legit squealed and my BF was like "???"

Kigipigak was set to lay there on the frozen floor of the cavern, tail tucked, legs sprawling, to mourn what he thought he'd lost all over again. To imagine returning home to Moonglow and know Kukutux thought less of him. Her words had gone in circles in his head since last they spoke, despite all he had tried to silence them.

And then, echoing in the chambers of the cave, a spritely — Hello?

Up came his head. It was not Kukutux' voice; he thought maybe it could have been Sialuk's, as it was feminine and familiar, but she would not be so far from Moonglow's traveling group — or her mother, come to think of it.

Kigipigak rose from where he was sprawled and shook some of the moodiness out of his damp coat, tendrils of white still crusted with ice. He peered around and sought the stranger's shape; unaware of course, that there were multiple.

i think i'm good to skip over @The Listener since she hasn't been noticed yet? but if you want me to delete this so you can go first please message me <3

No response and she wondered, if maybe, she had lost it fully.

If she had imagined the scent. If she had lifted her hopes up that she might have found something familiar again.

Not that she thought she deserved somebody familiar, but that did not remove the desire for something she already knew. And she had thought calling out might summon a voice back.

Instead...oh.

Instead she had summoned a whole figure. Ice dripped snowy monolith. Marred with scars like familiar crimson rivers. She could never forget that form. Even if he changed his scent, even if he stood far away. Somehow she figured she would always know it was him.

And her heart grew full with panicked appreciation.

Terrified to be faced with him after her abandonment and so thankful to lay eyes upon him. Healthy and alive. She remembered how he had been before, she remembered him under the care of the village woman. She remembered every emotion she had ever had when faced with him.

None of them faded over the months, apparently. Something she had not realized until she had been faced with him again.

Such a shame she had no words that felt proper to say to him, that she could only stare in awe and wonder at the form of Kigipigak.

Oblivious that they had a watcher for their reunion.

As the figure stepped closer, as they moved from the ice-coated entrance to a shadow and then a shaft of broken light from far above, their coat was not just black but a strong red-black; their face, briefly lit, held bright doe-eyes that shone like a winter storm.

Sakh...met? He was not aware that he was saying her name until it echoed around him in the expanse. Nor did he notice rising to his feet, cumbersome at first, then powerful as he moved to close the distance; but Kigipigak did not go so close as to touch her.

It wasn't that he chose to be reserved in the face of their reunion, but he was overwhelmed by this twist of fate and was stupefied by her nonchalance — compared to how his chest ached now when faced with that look of awe, Kigipigak was utterly lost.

How strange it was to hear her name roll from his mouth.

Part of her wished she might retreat, tell him it was a mistake and flee back inland. Only out of fear of being met with anger but she found none of that here. Just the two of them with eyes upon each other.

How could she retreat from this?

Kigipigak. She finally breathed out in response.

Perhaps she should have apologized, spilled out a thousand words to beg for forgiveness but it was already hard enough to think. Even harder to breathe. Practically stunned still, eyes still fixed upon him. Impossible to look away.

One step closer, almost near enough to touch, yet she did not move any further than that.

As if they might vanish from each other if she moved too fast.

She was a ghost. A spirit — that had to have been it.

Kigipigak had been wrong about many things of late, so why not this too? Why not follow the beliefs of Kukutux here, now, when shown something so incredible? He was not a man of faith or superstition — but he could be. He could be many things if he chose to step away from the path that his Tartok blood had placed him upon.

He stared at her, this figment, for a long moment. They stared at one another; both haunted.

I looked for you. Kigipigak all but croaked. He was afraid to speak; that was unlike him. He was afraid to feel the joy that choked him now as he studied her face, searching for any trace of a lie in the contours of it. Before she could say anything and break the spell of her arrival, he was sweeping in to close that tiny distance between them - holding her close, perhaps too rough in the process.

Real — ?! Awash in guilt, which trembled from his lungs as he sucked in a breath and with it, the warm scent of her coat. Even in the depths of winter she brought to mind summer dust and storm clouds in June.

They were even.

Not that she had ever wanted them to be even. Not that she had ever, in a million years, wanted him to feel what she had in those moments he had been away from the plateau. The stress, the unknown, the fear that he might be laid in the earth.

She wondered if he had those same fears of her.

It did not matter though as she found herself swept up into him and the roughness did not matter. Her monolith of snowy mountains. She was but a fire ravaged forest in his shadow, pressed tightly into the valley of his chest.

Muffled by the thick of his winter built coat, she finally found it in her to break. How similar it felt to the tears she shed for the moon woman. Soft and quiet but so ripe with emotion.

I'm sorry, Kigipigak. I'm so sorry.

She all but melted in to him.

The apologies were lost to the heft of his coat, and would do no good for his ears, as he refused them utterly. Holding her now, Kigipigak wondered about the many things he could tell her.

No, I am sorry, for a man who put such little value within an apology, he was willing to bear this weakness for her. It spilled out before he could help it, but unlike when Kigipigak had tried to speak with Lane, this was.. easy.

I looked, and I looked, but I could not find you. And I learned to live with that. I... I gave up. It was painful to admit, but he had to say it. He had to have it known; Kigipigak moved on, letting the connection to her stagnate. Letting himself think he had been abandoned yet again.

She was here now — what else mattered?

You're here. A pause, still in shock. As he pulled free of her and they shared a chasm of space, he wondered with his eyes: where, why, how?

She was not hurt, she was not upset, there was no betrayal in her hear for the words he spoke.

He had, in her eyes, done what he needed to do. He had looked and that was what mattered. He had continued to live a life without her, not hindered by her emotional burdens — that she had now shed before him.

I'm here. She breathed into the icy space between them. Loathed the space that was between them. Never so badly had she wished to melt into another.

I don't...I don't care if you gave up, Kigipigak — I don't want to give up, though. I want...I want to just stay with you. I don't need to build something, I just...want your company.

And maybe that was why she had ever attempted to build Blacktail, to keep the company of those she needed, to make something more for them than herself.

Yet presented before Kigipigak, she had never felt the need to be anything more than herself.

The man sank down so that he could sit and watch her, study her as before, yet be a stalwart spot for her to lean and rest. He told himself it was for her benefit but it was more because of how worn out he felt, even in the face of this discovery.

Kukutux' words came back to him. They rivaled what Sakhmet now said; that she need not build something, that he was enough. That he was wanted. He thought of how long he had searched for her, only for her to surface when he'd thought himself to have grown beyond her.

It seemed as though his worries were heavy, yet also meaningless. There existed no choice to be made for Kukutux or for Tulimaq, for Moonglow or for Tartok; he had Sakhmet, and somehow she was a third option. He could go his own way. They could go together.

I've been with Moonglow this whole time. He explained, his voice soft and careful, as he wondered to himself if he still held a place there or if Kukutux might've given up, given their conversation. Their argument. He wasn't sure.

This was offered so that Sakhmet could decide for herself: would she come home with him? If not, Kigipigak wondered where the road might take them. We could go back there. We could.. Go back to Blacktail, if that's what you want, or somewhere else. Or nowhere, he almost said; but in the end Kigipigak realized - he was giving up control again, giving the choice to someone else.

In that moment he became contemplative, which was not normal at all.

He did not decline her words, did not push her away at this revelation. She felt...relief.

Relief at the fact he had been with Moonglow this time too. Somewhere she knew he would have been cared for, tended to should anything bad happen. Yet his words...they almost sounded as if he did not wish to return but perhaps that was only because last time she had tried to build something with him.

We should...go back there, first at least. I don't...I don't want to take you away without them knowing. If you want to go away.

I would go anywhere with you. He blurted before he could help it, and then thought of Moonglow; somehow it had become second to everything else in his life. He knew that well enough given his conversation with Kukutux. It was a deeper understanding that dawned upon him now though, faced with Sakhmet.

Moonglow is just now returning to their home. He would explain the hunting trip to Duskfire Glacier at some point. For now Kigipigak was full of other thoughts, lost among them.

Would it be better not to return at all? Perhaps this way he could have both Moonglow safe, and Sakhmet with him. If he left this cave now and abandoned Moonglow — perhaps Tulimaq would never come for him. He doubted the elder Tartok would have any interest in Moonglow after finding it void of kin.


What then? He would be leaving after such a fierce argument with the moon-woman, severing his life with her, with Moonglow, with everything he had built among the people of the village. And what if Tulimaq came after him anyway? The thought of the Tartok warrior confronting Sakhmet made Kigipigak sick to his stomach.

Was it fair to Sakhmet?

Kigipigak's face was stoic, his jaw tense with unspoken thoughts.

Is that what you want? To live in the village?

Kigipigak asked this of Sakhmet and as the words echoed through the cavern, he wondered about the answer himself. What did he want?

Anywhere.

Apparently Moonglow wasn't even home, which she did not understand but it hardly mattered in the grand scheme of things.

Was that what she wanted though? To live in the village?

I...do you think I'd do well in the village? I want to live with you but I don't...want to ruin what you did while I was away.

She didn't know where he stood, what he did, who he had connected with. How could she return after so long away and rip those things from him? How could she ask that of him?

If you don't think that I'd fit in I can...live nearby until we figure something out. Close enough to see you every day. I want to be with you but I can't...I can't ask you to give everything up if you think I'm not good for them.

Except what would Moonglow make of that? A loner living nearby to visit one of their own every day.

Ridiculous.

Fade?? I'm so stoked dude!

Kigipigak knew only one thing for certain: now that she had returned to him, however that had happened, he would not so easily let her go again. If Moonglow would not have her then they would make a life for themselves elsewhere; they could roam, hunt together, while away the hours with one-another as company. It would start tonight.

He smiled finally, laughing a soft and insecure laugh as a boy might. You would not ruin anything. How could she ever think that? When Kukutux had welcomed her, facilitated their first reunion — thinking of the moon-woman caused the smile to falter upon his face.

We do not have to make great plans right now. You have only just returned — he moved to hold her again, settling so that they could share a space beside the frozen pool within the cave. He thought to ask where she'd been aloud, but did not. In time they could share their stories with one another.

He melted against her, giving her a place to nest against him; she was a streak of blood red against his snowy coat. Tomorrow. Tomorrow we will head for the village — and we can decide together.

the listener had heard enough. she crept away, leaving the pair none the wiser. she had learned many things this day.

can close or reply, up to you <3 also down for any travel threads or knowledge threads to catch up! :)

Nestled, tight into his side, she felt a bit more certain of herself than she had the last few days. Weeks. Months.

He had always been supportive and even in her absence it had not faltered.

Spend the night with me. She asked softly. A bit of privacy before they headed back to wherever Moonglow laid its head in its travels. Although she remembered how they had not shared a space proper before. A bit too skittish around each other, but she no longer had a desire to be skittish around him.

If he obliged, she would tell him stories of far away lands and stay close to his frostbite coat the whole night.