Chakliux's lodge son stood at the cusp of a year. A boy no longer, but not quite a man, Kukik combed the rocky shores of the keep. He had become reclusive as his body grew. He held no lack of gratitude to the seal hunters that cared for him, but a void had been forming in Kukik's chest.

Was he still a walrus hunter? Was he a seal hunter?

In many ways Kukik felt that latter, but he could never truly shake the former.

Lost to his thoughts more often than not, Kukik had grown quiet. Silence clung to the boy like a cloak. The boy thought that perhaps he was trying to observe his own silent period. A makeshift one with the lack of Walrus Hunter men in the vicinity. Would Chakliux know how to make a boy a man?

With no answers to be found, Kukik settled for scouring tidepools for sea creatures stranded by the tide.