Ocean's Breath Plateau tigumiak

chakliux did not ask to dig a cache closer to @Marina's den. he simply did so, and put wide leaves inside as he had seen women do, and laid in a store of fresh salmon, caught before they could began their migrations.
his body which had been stockier upon the mountain now had adopted a flatter and leaner look, and he stayed often in the sea for the pleasure of it.
after all, he was seal hunter, born to far colder waters. 
when he was not part of the sea he was hunting upon their land or searching for nasamik. she had never come home, and he had internalized that in a half-dozen ways.
chakliux shook out his fur upon the beach and gazed down the shoreline in the direction of hljódrfell.

Despite the summer heat it seemed to pass quickly for Heph. There was much hunting to do in preparation for fall and then winter, many places to visit while the traveling was still good, and it felt like a welcome but steady change in welcoming (or welcoming back) new faces. She was grateful for it, the change, but it felt odd. She was somewhat surprised to see Chakliux, not for any particular reason but only that she often completed these tours of the territory alone without happening to chance upon anyone.

Glad to take advantage of the company she approached with a friendly wag of her tail and a jaunty smile on her lips. "It seems I've caught a fine hunter in a rare moment of rest." Eyes narrowing playfully she asked in faux seriousness. "How say you I should take advantage of such an opportunity?"

"heph." the seal hunter came to her then, almost grateful for the sight of her face. her flattery brightened his berry-gaze.
"swimming." half an invitation, half a want; chakliux glanced brazenly in her direction before he dashed for the cool shallows and threw himself with a resounding splash inside!
he surfaced and laughed, face streaming.

The cool water was as inviting as the company and she watched him splash into the shallows and emerge with a smile of her own that flickered between delight and something less tangible. Her own laughter was ever quick to follow however instead of gaining purchase on the sand as soon as the tops of her paws touched water she launched forward into the shallows nearby, creating a resounding spray of water.

she joined him, and for a moment of delight was he caught up, and rejoiced; he splashed her and perhaps was given the same deluge back in return.
for a time he played at this, and then he waded back to the shoreline, thoroughly wetted; he laid down in the shallows and panted.

Despite the fun of splashing water and the rolling tide she was glad to wade back to shore, panting and collapsing next to the other wolf. Her limbs felt surprisingly shaky on the ground, she could travel almost all day and yet a little while out in the waves and it was like she had run for hours. The warmth of the sand was pleasant as it seeped into her skin, though she knew she would be shaking it out of her pelt for months after. "How are you? At the hunt I saw Aiolos..." She trailed off, unsure of what exacty she was asking or how to ask, yet curious all the same.

at the name of the sun man did the seal hunter pause, but only for a second's time. "he is father to samani. he will be here often." he did not want to say what he had done, but would if heph pressed.
in the meantime, he hoped she would understand that aiolos was a source of shame for the delta, a shame against which he worked each day.

While his words did not reveal much detail the tone of them allowed her to understand what she needed. Her voice was somewhat eased by the tiredness seeping from her bones into the warm sand. "Mmm. For her kids too probably." She mused. "They'll still be fairly young this winter." Still, though summer was coming to a close winter still seemed far off. She wondered if there would be much ice on the water, somehow the ocean seemed too vast to think of such a thing.

"they have a long lineage." it was important to the seal hunter people; to recite your lineage was to know the blood-ties which had been made long before your birth. 
chakliux nodded, his brightberry eyes glancing for the sea. "i think i will make a seal hunt before long. the oil and the fat-meat keep a long while in cold sand. make a cache at the edge of the waves where there is always water, and these things do not rot so fast."
some humour returned to the man as he spoke.

Heph nodded, it was true the pups would be born into much family, even outside of their pack. While it hit her with an odd sense of uncomfortable nostalgia she could not help but be glad for them. "I'll know where to go looking when I get hungry in the winter then." She responded, a bit of her own laughter at the edges of her own voice returning in response to his own words.

She looked at the sea again. "You'll have to show me in the winter, I've still yet to hunt seal." It presented a new and exciting challenge, while a part of her would most likely always be more comfortable with her own four paws beneath her baiting out a stag or chasing after some other ungulate she wished to learn how to hunt by the sea too since she had resolved to return there.

"then we will make a seal hunt, in the deep winter," he told her. "it is dangerous, but —" chakliux shrugged. "it is the way of my people. and it is worth the strength, for the good sweet fat!"
now he looked with questioning at heph. "we have not spoken long of your people, have we?" he asked quietly, his berrybright eyes watchful upon her face.

Heph nodded in anticipation. While a part of her felt skeptical, unsure whether or not any meat could taste markedly better than another, her desire to try for herself was greater by far. His eyes on her were more contemplative, and she was not quite sure how to respond, but she hummed softly. "Mmm they are some months journey east of here. Their customs are more sparse but at the heart of it there are some similarities. They place great emphasis on growing skill of all sort always looking to be better than the last generation. Growing up we hunted a lot of large game." Her voice hollowed out around her throat, distant, partly in memory and partly by necessity. After all no matter what her pack had been or was now that she had left it she had left all the same.

the slight shift in her voice was not lost on chakliux. his eyes showed that he had heard. but his voice did not address it. she spoke in not so many words, only the ones that had the most meaning, he had discovered.
"who were you there, heph?" the seal hunter ventured. there was something here, and he wanted to know, for she remained shadowed in many ways, while he glowed in openness.

She felt the light press of his inquiries. Perhaps some months ago she would have demurred, but Chakliux was no stranger and she did not fear his reaction. "No one of value to be sure." A smile twisted itself upon her lips and the slight tremor that threatened her voice turned to a hint of harsh laughter. "I lacked ambition and laughed and played too much, still do probably. If I was anyone I was most likely the sister to my siblings who fit in better with what the pack hoped for their youth, or my parents who did as well and for the most part raised many other fine young wolves." It was true Heph had never been one to shrink from a challenge, she had managed a comfortable place for herself within her previous pack simply by accruing skill through her exploits, but she had not done so through any sort of ambition or concerted effort to become better. In many ways she was the same as she was now, simply less accepted for the fact.

she spoke. her voice held a pain that felt unhealed. for a moment, chakliux was sorry to pry. but she would not have opened without trust, and so he listened.
she had been less of someone than she was here. a fall-away sister. one who did not fit.
when she had finished, chakliux gave a low grunt. "ambition is nothing on its own. and playing, ah. it is how we learn. it is how we do not forget the beauty of our world."
his world had been ordered. "no one can tell you what your value is," the seal hunter added, a wry smile coming to his mouth.

Heph laughed, after all she had chased after life with just such principles in mind and it had served her well. She was happy at least, and that had to count for something. It was not so easy a realization to come to though. "I would tend to agree." After all her new pack bound life had not changed her love of challenges, games, or laughter.

Her voice held a low humor, something glittering in her eyes. "Although it is good to hear it from others all the same. Especially someone so capable." A twist of something in her voice, irony, wit, truth, jest, it jumbled in her stomach in a complicated knot.

he grinned. "you make my face red, heph," chakliux teased in return. his eyes appreciated her for a moment as a woman before he resolved his expression into something more suitable.
"i will go on patrol. will you come with me?" his voice, perhaps hopeful!

"Let's see if we can't find some trouble, or perhaps it will find us." She nodded in assent, moving a short distance away to shake off the salt and sand from her pelt and preparing to head towards the borders.

chakliux easily flanked her. "i have seen seals. and sea lions. i have seen elk, along the border near the sea. and caribou, i catch their scent. they have come to gather."
for now he was silent, loping along the shoreline with brief glances toward heph.

Heph nodded, she had noted the passing herds but had paid more attention to the scenery, the way the trees changed, the trails left by the creatures. She settled into an easy lope by Chakliux's side, glancing towards him now and then in companionable silence.

"i miss nasamik."
he did not mean to speak aloud; he did not mean to share the heaviness in his heart. a wry smile shown but he drew a true breath. "sometimes i do not think of her. but when i do," it hurts.
he looked down their path in quiet.

Heph looked on quietly, from the sides of her eyes and let the silence weave in between them for heartbeats at a time. She did not rush to speak and listened intently. "It's natural to miss her, I'm sorry it brings you pain." She spoke, letting the words sink to the ground and pass by. After all, she did not know, whether or not his wife would return, even if there would be a place in Moontide for her if she did.

chakliux let out his breath and nodded, but said no more. talking of it was opening a wound that still did not wish to heal. 
the bugle of an elk split the air, and he veered toward it. not for the male itself, but for the herd of cows and calves that might merit an easier target, or draw carrion-birds toward those already dead.

The sound of an elk cut through the thin silence of the moment and she followed easily towards the path. No crows or ravens circled to indicate an easy carcass, but perhaps there would be young in the herd. When the signs of the herd were fresher along the grass and ground she slowed her pace to give them a wide enough berth so as not to start the chase before they could assess it.

his eyes looked, searched. a young bull straggled after the others, dragging a hind-leg. "there," he grunted, glancing at heph to see what she made of this.
if assured, chakliux would move in this direction, head low as he waited for the herd to catch sight of the hunters.