Her tromp is restless where there are less and less ice floes and more and more new smells. Silver-colored fish and fat seabirds, elk musk tangling with stenches from fox, the barren diamond coastline has turned into her wondrous playing ground! There is so much food, enough for all three of them and the ocean spirits too, and she has begun to round pleasantly at the middle as all four legs stretch lanky and ears grow comically long.
Girl never strays too far from Tata or Ana, lifting an ear every once in a while and sounding out her position like a bright little songbird. But the wind cuts wildly from the east, and Asxinu chases into it farther than she ever had before!
Thrilled, and daring!

[asxinu wanders. tugix prefers that she remain upon the dark beach with its studded ice. but girl cannot be contained. her appetite for knowledge is vast. he must have answered a thousand questions by now. he finds he does not like when she is out of his sight. she is small. the skua and the seal pup are larger than she. thus when girl traipses off, so aorta-man trails, a thin polarbear shape against the surface of the world. she is taller. longer. round as a whale eye but with driftwood legs. she is growing. tugix has no sense of a child's timeline. but his own coat has grown glossy and any lingering pain is finally departed. it is only his face and shredded ears which evidence the life lived. time then, must be moving more quickly for girl. he chuffs back a rough bark, watching her race against the flattening keen.]

asxinu wanders.

tugix prefers that she remain upon the dark beach with its studded ice. but girl cannot be contained. her appetite for knowledge is vast. he must have answered a thousand questions by now.

he finds he does not like when she is out of his sight. she is small. the skua and the seal pup are larger than she. thus when girl traipses off, so aorta-man trails, a thin polarbear shape against the surface of the world.

she is taller. longer. round as a whale eye but with driftwood legs. she is growing. tugix has no sense of a child's timeline. but his own coat has grown glossy and any lingering pain is finally departed. it is only his face and shredded ears which evidence the life lived.

time then, must be moving more quickly for girl.

he chuffs back a rough bark, watching her race against the flattening keen.

---

ty for joining <333

Far to the easterly beaches she has wended, unaware of what rustling her girlish tromps wrought on these softly sibilant shores.
Asxinu has no concept of time. She is unaware of her growth. She no longer remembers her father from before, with the cough and the opened wounds. Nor the one with a coat of pure white. He has always been young, and strong. He has always had a bloodmark, and two-toned eyes; one for the sea and one for the sun. He has always flowed with Ana, and they with the spirits of the deep ocean.
These same musings have led her here, and the musk of ammonia pushes far downshore.
“Tata!” Girl calls, not old enough yet to want for space between he and she. In childish teeth is clutched something treated far more preciously than her sticks. This she would give to him, for he must feel a significance too! “Look!”

tugix is content. girl has made a good find. he sees from a distance the off-white which proclaims ivory, and sent his ragged ears round to listen. his eyes beheld. bearish head dipped down, down, down low as asxinu approaches.

he notices it is not so low as before.

what will it mean when girl grows older? tugix thinks of the future in tones of amorphous grey. girls became priestesses. boys were lucky if they did not become bait.

but he has not replicated this world for her. that is why her eyes dance with intrigue and joy. that is why she looks to him for explanation.

these are teeth. she knows that, but he points out the odd edges with a dirty claw. girl sees how they lock together? his own jaws click in demonstration. these teeth are for biting strong things. hides. bone. shell.

tugix grunts.

either a beast belonging to Shaahk has eaten this one, or it came here to die.

he snorts. there are many seal. tugix thinks this is also a seal. or a sea lion.

Girl crouches before him, licking the tall forearm and lovingly nosing his belly. Tailtip and ears flash high in the wind.
Tata stands in an aura of light, for the sun glimmers on the dark guard hairs and he seems to glow. The air is cold and she pours her breath against his ankle where it warms her face. He always gives instructions on what Axsinu must and must not do. She has learned that some sea mammals pose a mortal danger, and others less so. Among them are skinny whales, whose good fat and skin could be harvested, but whose thin meat must be thrown only to shaahk, because it may result from an illness. She has learned that smaller fish yield leaner flesh, and that larger ones are often more trouble than they are worth. But she has not encountered seal since migrating back to the black coast with Ana and Tata.
So this jaw is a novelty, spread in halves now between stubby paws for careful observation. And best admired from a distance! She does not want these teeth turned against her!
“Oh!” The wonderment is quiet but plain— how can one be a seal and a lion? The ebbing tide leaves a small stretch of open water between ice floes where Asxinu peers timidly.
“Do lion seals hunt us, Tata? Like sharks? And black fish?”