set for tomorrow morning, 2/20
green eyes watched the twitching whiskers of tiny mouse brother. he had found their
ulaq in the night, and despite the scent of wolves, had taken a bone off into the darkness.
now in the thin grey glow of early dawn, he had come back. kukutux had neither the inclination or the ability to hunt him. she thought of the things she had said in the last days upon moonspear, how even her conversation with
@Norah, seeking as it was, was innocuous now in the set of things.
For a while out there Norah had thought that her involvement in daily life of Moonspear was too little and that it was high time she did something about it. Yet she had postponed it again and again, and again, preferring to wander in the flatlands than climb the territories higher up in the mountains to mingle with the royal Ostrega family. Few days ago, as she had returned from yet another exploring mission out in the wilds and seen her former pack territory in fiery ruins, she almost began to believe in destiny and some higher plan for her.
Being pragmatic and with a very keen self-preservation instinct, she had not meandered around the remnants of the kingdom for long. Norah had dug up one of the caches, emptied its contents and without a second glance back headed out in the wilds. Those, who searched for any survivors afterwards, would no think of her. They would not have known her being part of a pack in the first place. And around this point we could end Norah's story here, but fate intervened in a form of a scent trail left by someone familiar.
Kukutux had been the last person she had spoken to in length and, having liked the lady well enough then, she decided to trace her footprints, until she found the lady itself. "You are a sight for sore eyes," Norah told her, approaching the figure lying in the snow.
there was nothing to do. there was nothing that could be done with her broken bone, but kukutux slipped from the ulaq all the same.
at dawn in moonspear she would have sought her morning tasks. she would have looked to greet the day with sialuk and saviguk. or perhaps we would have pressed a kiss just beneath jarilo's ear and curled more deeply into him.
nothing now but the bare expanse of snow in this throat of mountains. she looked at the forest she had not yet explored, wondering if it might be best to move their shelter there.
movement caught her eye. it became a familiar figure, and then norah was speaking. the duck's breath hitched in her throat. "sister, you are the first to come down from the mountain."
"I happened to be on a scouting mission down below, when the disaster struck," Norah replied simply, not specifying, what she had scouted for and definitely not saying that she had seriously considered leaving for good and seeking greener grass elsewhere. Which... in hindsight, now was in a limbo. Selfish she may be, but leaving this sad piece of pelt and broken leg did not feel right even for her morally bankrupt heart.
"Did not meet anyone on my way here though. Are you the only one that made it out alive?" she asked, looking around, as if suddenly many former Moonspear minions would appear any moment now, covered in soot and burn-marks.
"i am glad you were away," kukutux whispered fiercely, the weight of rhe past several days cracking like spring ice across the face of her heart.
"my daughter, sialuk, escaped. she is here with me. hunting," the duck added with a sharp breath of frustration at her own weakness. it was a kinder look she returned to norah. "i have seen no others. only strangers. many wolves of firefly live. i hear them calling. they know i and sialuk are here."
So Little Miss Bleach had survived. Norah was not attached to the kid in any way, frankly speaking, she bored and annoyed her, but she had a potential to outgrow her silliness. And, while the she-wolf would not have shed a single tear for an old fool dying, losing a young idiot seemed a waste of life. She did remind herself though, that, when she met the little brat again, she had to be more in control and show some sympathy. Just for a while, until the kid was emotionally capable of receiving blows aimed at her intellect.
"What exactly happened there, do you know?" she had seen only the aftermath and it was a mystery, what sort of force of nature, could destroy something as solid as a mountain.
the snow wife rolled her shoulders in a helpless gesture. "i remember a great light upon the sky, and then the ground moved." the time between the last memory of moonspear and her next of explaining what had happened had remained dark.
"if you live, then others in moonspear live," kukutux said softly, pausing to daub snow onto her tongue. she must believe it. "i wish that i had more to tell."
Or all of them had perished and Norah had been the only person to be outside the ensuing chaos. Yup, fortune had not turned her fickle face away from her today. She thought that now would be a good time for some epiphany about value of life and seeing the world with new eyes. But - in truth - she simply felt lucky and there was nothing more to that.
"Yeah... maybe..." she remarked quietly. "So, can you move around at all - or that injury is very bad?" she turned the focus of the conversation to Kukutux's well-being now.
"it is a break that is smooth," kukutux indicated, struggling upright in the snow. she was relieved to be beyond talk of moonspear for now; even though she had said many words, she could not bear the sound of anything more now. the calls had not numbered jarilo or saviguk.
"it has much pain, but rest will heal it. i cannot go long distances," she added, words disjointed as her body warned her against such movements. "you would think that because i am healer, i would know more," kukutux muttered in self-deprecation, her green eyes pulling away from norah for a moment to survey the horizon for sialuk.
Norah had not known that Kukutux was a healer in the first place. After all the woman had sought her out only recently and that reason had had little to do with health. "So, this leaves just you and the kid to take care of you?" she asked, though the answer was pretty obvious. "The future does not look bright to you," she remarked, but there was no ill-will in her words, just the statement of a fact.
"I'll see, if I can get you some food," she decided. And then I will leave for greener pastures. "If anyone else survived, they'll find you soon enough," she added just in case Kukutux decided to be all noble and tell her to look for survivors among the rubble.
her lips thinned and she ducked her head in shame. norah was correct, and kukutux could not defend her strength against the words. there was none that she had. "i thank you," she murmured, shifting back against the edge of the ulaq.
at least sialuk would not be alone. norah was older and had the advantage of knowing this terrain, she suspected, for the former moonspear wolf had traveled. a nod of her head. she wanted to ask if the other would stay, but could not compromise what remained of her dignity. like the others, norah would speak that soon enough.
I hope I am not going to regret this... Norah thought to herself, as she headed off to the flatlands and see, if she could fulfill, what she had promised. Not that she had to keep her word. After all, they were no friends. Two strangers in unequal situations and one of them happened to feel generous today. She did not bother to find the kid now - the gray cardinal had no inclination for being a patient teacher today, but maybe - if she decided to stay longer than just this one meal - then something could be arranged. An uncertain
maybe for now.
The last one from me, but you can add Norah to Moonsong for the time being (or I can add myself there). She'll hang around for a while.
<3 thank u sm
kukutux watched norah go with gratitude in her heart. the spirits had taken much, had humbled her. but the duck had been since faithful to her tenets. and loyal to the mountain. perhaps they would take pity upon her and sialuk now. or perhaps she might earn back their favor with the raindrop so blessed.