Moonspear Put a look on my face and back to your place

yeets out ideas :big eyes:

Within their lodge, Nasamik had asked that @Chakliux stay a bit before going out to hunt. With him, there are words she wishes to share. 

Close against him she leans, sighing faintly. The village grows, husband. Perhaps too much so... There was nothing wrong with an abundance of members, but she was beginning to feel crowded. 

What if we were to leave? She poses the sudden question, gazing up at him curiously. Maybe start a village of our own? Raiyuk would have much room to grow, and could see what it might be like to someday have a village of his own. It was an opportunity far into the future for their son, but one nonetheless.

And, maybe— Another idea. —when we are ready, another litter may come next season in this new village.

chakliux looked up from where he had been chewing meat from a latest kill brought by himself and kannoyak. the pig meat was good, carved and stacked in their cache.
for a long moment he did not speak.
"i have not yet paid my debt to moonspear," chakliux reminded nasamik. "how can we ask for the rainstar's blessing when i have not given what she asked?" he turned the thought in his mind. their lodge was grand and large. she held sway over all things. and raiyuk had no shortage of playmates here. 
"i do not want to leave." but his voice was quiet. "when our son has a larger age, you and i will become kalugiaq," chakliux offered in compromise. "of village moonspear, but we will travel and make our hunting camps farther for several seasons."
his berrybright eyes watched her, for now he thought of tullik. it would be a great appeal to found his own village when that time had come. but he did not want to uproot now.

His debt. Right. How could she forget?

And why has she not yet called you to pay this debt? She asks, quite bitterly so. But perhaps she did not truly want an answer, nor to think of it at all.

Chakliux— Tone hardening, she pulls away. I do not feel at home here. My life has no meaning, other than to be mother and wife. While she had no quarrel with these tasks, she longed for more. 

During my time in Moonglow, I admired Kukutux greatly. I wanted to learn everything that I could from her so that perhaps some day I might be like her. A mother, not to just my own children, but to an entire village. A woman of wisdom, so that those who are lost may earn my guidance and blessings. Someone who has meaning to others... not just to those that live within these quarters. 

Maybe it was so that he was satisfied, but Nasamik was far from it. All of it—frustrating! Could he not see this? Or did he not want to? Either way, he would hear of it all.

I do not want to be only wife and mother and hunter to this village. Or anything at all, even— A hard truth, for her to admit and him to hear, no doubt. But she meant in sincerely. This was only a place she lived, alongside her family. But it was not her home.

who knew sialuk's mind! but chakliux did not say this, only listened to his wife pour out her dismay and frustration to him. 
a soft part of him understood.  a thorny part of him wanted to remind nasamik that they had come together over her pregnancy, that she had not sought the moon woman then, that they had left in disgrace.
now she spoke of kukutux in almost daughterly tones!
silently he looked at her, having stated his wants. but as seal hunter man and woman, they were equal. he could not force her to stay. she could not force him to leave. 
"i have been thinking of taking a second wife," he told her. this want had not been a secret. now it fell to the woman of his lodge to say yes or no. it was his right to have another woman. it was not his right to let her live where nasamik made her home.
and it was her right to say whether or not she would tolerate this. 
"i want many children. you want a village of your own. two wives. one husband. two births. that is our village."
a deal. bartering. would nasamik accept?

Back to the suggestion of a second wife. Nasamik knew this would come, for he'd spoken of it times before. 

Any other place in time, and she would have said no. But now, perhaps it is something that could be considered. 

If you have want for another woman, I will not take this from you. I do not know all of the ways of seal hunter, but I am learning. I am willing, as I had once promised you. And her promises were never broken and never altered. 

Straightening, she fixed her gaze upon him. It did not yet soften from its hardness, but her tone was entirely sincere. Find another woman you love, or even just enjoy for the pleasure of it— If that is what he desired. Nasamik did not fully know. But the decision of which was up to him. I may detest the idea, but I will warm up to it... or, at least, try to. Who can say that we may not come to be friends... sister wives, as it is often named? Only time could tell the truth of this.

Her decision. Her answer, given. The rest was left open for him.

an understanding was made. chakliux had never doubted nasamik's  devotion to his ways. and so he would agree. "then it is done, wife. when the air grows cool again, you and i will go to sialuk, and then we will begin our searching."
secretly he hoped in the next season nasamik would find contentment in the village. "i would like there to be peace. help me make the choice of who it might be."
now a small humour tugged at him, lit his eyes. "in the time between, maybe we will go to the sea so that raiyuk learns how to hunt the seal."
but chakliux did not want to go; his heart had become rooted to moonspear. and yet he was one with his wife.

They were one, as it had been made clear time and time again. Disagreements were always to be expected — but in the end, they find their way back to each other.

When the time is right, husband, I will help you to find the right second wife. One to please you, and to love you, as I do. 

But then he spoke of their son. He wished to teach Raiyuk to hunt seal. What a preposterous idea it seemed! For it was too soon! 

A grin tickling her expression, he bumps his shoulder lightly. He will do no such thing until he has grown. Those beasts would bury him into the ground as our own feet would an insect! She laughed, and yet, she was serious all at once.

teeth flashed in a grin at her joke. nasamik always had a way for wittiness that matched his own. he saw how they grew together as husband and wife more each day. it was part of why he wanted another in their lodge, to do the menial work and freeing nasamik to her own pursuits.
but love — love for now meant nothing to chakliux if it did not come from the northern woman before him. he was overcome, and did not speak, only pulled her into a tight embrace, an exhale against her shoulder.
"ah! i learned when i was not so much older!" chakliux protested, drawing back with a long laugh.