I figure this one can be short & sweet.
@Kukutux
Three nights they sang, and six more they would sing. Sialuk's throat was raw, and she kept to herself and
anaa for the majority of her time. The others she saw in passing, but did not interact with them beyond a sad wave of her tail and a glance in their direction. She could not even bring herself to hold ire for Raimo.
The sun would be setting soon, and she knew their voices would ring out again. She turned to
anaa then, touching her shoulder briefly to get her attention.
We should stay here,
she said, her voice rasping,
For good. You and I and whoever we wish to make a home. We should honor Moonspear in this way.
This ring of mountains would not be the home they once knew, but they could forge their own path here.
the duck stared blankly toward the mountain. the inner spirit supposed it was a long-arriving death of hope she had carried past the seven days and into the nine.
but after three, it had twisted, and as dusk approached for the fourth time, the sensation was dissolving in her chest, glass powder that cut at her swollen eyes as she turned them finally upon sialuk.
stay. kukutux had known they could make no place else for themselves, but to hear it spoken aloud tightened her own inner resistance to leaving the wide spread of mountain-jaws.
"when i sat vigil, when i did not come home for nine days, it was on behalf of your father's brother. i buried him upon that place of ice." the glacier of songs sung by the moon.
a sigh swelled her chest. there were others here who might help them build. "you are right, daughter. it will be good to live where we have loved for so many moons."
tears bent her head forward in a soft wail.
Father's brother. Sialuk tried to recall if she knew this man, but she did not make the connection of Revui being her uncle. He was only a strange man who had appeared, taken some liking to her, and disappeared just as quickly as he had arrived. Her gaze shifted to the glacier, watching it for a moment before returning to anaa. Sialuk pressed into her mother when she leaned forward, fur against fur as she had done so many times since being removed from the spear.
We should call this place after the moon,
she said softly. They could not call it Moonspear, because it was not the same place, but her mind sifted through similar words and phrases, trying to settle one one that seemed most fitting.
kukutux gave a nod. "this land lives between moonspear and the glacier where the moon sings. those are sacred places."
she too was silent, for a moment. "sometimes it feels here as though the moon shines always." her lips were quiet now, quietly appraising the wounded territories within her inner spirit.
Sialuk listened to anaa, seeking some name that would suit this little ring of mountains. This place was special, she realized, and it felt now as if they had been drawn to it for a reason. Thinking of it as a draw and less as fleeing the mountainside soothed her spirit. Perhaps they were always meant to end up here.
The moon glows,
Sialuk replied, the concept beginning to take shape in her mind.
kukutux saw the figure of it, the image of what sialuk perhaps meant. ivory and full its touch upon the snow, not as great as light but with the air of a beacon.
she was silent, for she sensed sialuk had the name just before her reach.
Anaa let silence settle between them, and Sialuk let the words brew in her mind. She doubted herself in that moment, unsure if she should be the one to speak aloud the name of this place as it came to her. But with anaa's silence, it felt as though it were permission to do so.
Moonglow,
she breathed, and it felt good to hear it aloud.
and there it was. there it was. "inikuk."
in the way that brought peace to one's heart. in the way that spoke of unbroken snow beneath a soft light.
it would be so.
Last from me. <3
Once it was spoken, it was solid in the world.
Anaa's praise was welcome, and Sialuk felt at peace for a moment. There were many nights of singing to go, but their path became more clear with each day of grief. She curled up, letting her eyes close as she drifted off to sleep.