The village is preparing for a spring celebration before the arrival of summer which signals the coming shedding season when the villages change from their white winter fur to brown. This typically starts off with a grooming ceremony when every villager takes turns to get brushed and have their shed fur collected to make felt for the village tents and clothing. The main reason for the ceremony is to strengthen the bonds and unity within the tribe, the other reason developed over time when at some point the tribe had merged with another as some started to use the ceremony to groom potential mates during the public ceremony.

So Nanuq is helping out with the preparations and setting up the large felt tent when one of the elders, Ulva, walks in to talk to her. At first the conversation went about the usual things of villagers having some gripe or another with Nanuq's unusual size and presence in the village or claiming she doesn't contribute enough while in truth she contributes more then her fair share already by performing tasks outside of her duty where her size and strength are a big help and advantage.

Though soon enough the conversation drifts into some lighter topics, even though Ulva's stoic expression hardly changes throughout, and when the two of them happen to be alone in the tent for a few moments Ulva drops the question Nanuq had been expecting the whole time. "...and are you planning on finally finding a good mate this year, Nanuq? We could use some new strong blood in this tribe." Nanuq grinned slightly at this "Are you sure it wouldn't be cursed blood? you know many of the tribe think that way, elder. Besides, not a lot of decent sized males around in my opinion, not even among the good ones so I think I will have to sit out another year." A barly noticable smile crept on Ulva's lips as she shifted her weight onto her walking cane. " Are you sure that is the real reason, great bear? You know my grandson is coming of age soon, he might yet still measure up to you once he grows a bit more. So is that why you've been holding out on the tribe all these years? Just so you could discredit your elder, hmm?"

Neither of them knew back then that Suka would indeed grew up big, not as tall as Nanuq but still bigger than usual for her people, in fact before Nanuq he would have been considered a giant to the tribe standing nearly a foot taller than most at six feet tall which was pretty rare. But are Nanuq and Suka meant to be or not? Time would tell...

Artwork by   foxenawolf
Characters belong to me   chakat_blackwater