for Ishmira

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he dreams of beach shores.
he dreams of salty winds, and a plush hide.
he dreams of teething on shells, rolling over himself in the den while a pale woman, though wearied, hums to him anyways.
he dreams of warmth.
and he wakes to cold.

half of his face burns, a wretched smell permeating it. he could still smell kusaxasaa's breath before he stole his eye. akiak hisses, pain returning to his arms and legs the moment he shifts in his bed but he stands up anyways. he wasn't completely alone, but she was still a stranger to him. he only learned her name after confronting father. ishmira. he drags his half-asleep body to look at her. good morning.. yawned akiak, bobbing his head before it drops back onto the earth.

ishmira has been awake since before daybreak, guarding her sleeping charge. she turns when he wakes, greeting him with a grunt, and nudges a dead fawn in his direction.

you need your strength. and then she turns again, shoulders hunched, watching the horizon. for sun eater, for his armies, for dangers unseen. a fresh pile of herbs sits beside them— she had gathered them, too, as he slept. the ice, it seems, has its grip on her again. she does not speak, exudes no warmth. only watches.

whatever had changed between last night and this morning, akiak didn't acknowledge it. he didn't pick and prod, even if it stung just a little to be met with the girl's frostbite. thank you. sheepishly, he murmurs to her, voice taut and hoarse as if it had been ripped from him too. first, he ate her herbs, sick as they made him. that throbbing pain of his other half returned, tensing his brows and the tender flesh now exposed to air. oh, but how it itched. how tight the skin was, his instincts wished to scratch at it, to rip it loose again. but better judgement told him not to, finding solace in ripping the herbs and chewing before moving to the fawn.

unlike ishmira, akiak wasn't as worried. what more could they take from them? their lives? what lives?
well. ishmira had one waiting for her. that was enough, then, to steer clear of saatsine's march. he'll return ishmira with her family — back to her life — and figure out from there where his life will lead, if there was even still a trail left.