Ocean's Breath Plateau salt

can be a single post thread, the timeline for this is over several days <3

"a seal hunter does not fear the coldness of the water."

chakliux had come back in annoyance. for a long while it was ariadne he pondered with hurt and with desire, and then kilgitsuk with anger. slowly he forced these things away from him; their intensity made him feel vital and alive, at the cost to a beating heart and soured belly. 

he must let it go. besides, he reasoned, she was young. she would want others. when she tired of the tartok-man, she would seek the seal hunter.

it was @Raiyuk he found the dawn thereafter. his son must be prepared if he was to hunt the swift and brutal seal beneath the sea ice.
the first lesson was this: to go out into the ocean until its temperature drove them out. a handful of minutes at first, a half-hour the next, an hour the third time. over the course of one day did he take raiyuk out several times. he would not command the boy to stay for any length of time; it was willpower which kept a seal hunter in the water.

"a seal hunter learns to train his body."

his breath, to be exact. on the second morning, chakliux took their coldwater training to a new demand: he flipped pieces of ivory into the water and expected raiyuk to dive. other times he only faced his son beneath the current, counting the rising silver bubbles until the training boy must burst from the surface or begin to flail.

"a seal hunter dances beneath the current."

when chakliux felt that raiyuk understood temperature and breath on a better level, he added spars, held in the icy grasp of the lashing waves. there father and son grappled with one another, breaking heads through the foam only to grab breath and return to it.
chakliux encouraged a fight until it drew blood, and the day that his own floated up to the surface of the sea, he knew raiyuk would be ready.
"each day you must practice these things. a seal is much faster than i. a seal is much fiercer than you. it is your arms which hold a seal beneath the water. it is your breath which outlasts his own. it is your power which drags him through the sea ice to the surface. do you understand, raiyuk? be ready."

He had returned from the desert more certain than before, that his home was meant to be upon the ice, spent as a solitary hunter or with his father; he was glad to return and to see him, yet found him changed.

The lessons reunited father and son, and Raiyuk did all that was asked of him. He learned of Chakliux' hunt and knew that was why he was angered in part, but beyond that remained ignorant.

The boy swam, and sank, and held his breath. He ran great lengths. Finally, his father had him sparring and testing him. Raiyuk was proud of his progress, and prouder still of all the time spent with his father. In the coming months he knew time with him would be less and less frequent, as he would be with his wives and future children; so for now, the hard work was savored.