the duck left one son and sought another.
she dragged soaking skins from the lake, hauling them to the bank. her shoulders ached, but she spread them upon the ground as she had so many times before.
and now she asked for
@Arrluk, wishing his voice.
At another portion of the lake bed further west, Arrluk perks his head and ears to the sound of his mother's call. He hoists a fish from the shallows, just caught moments prior and he had begun to practice de-scaling it- not something he was good at just yet.
Many times, since Samani and her newborn daughter's death, Arrluk had walked lands outside Moonglow, finding solitude in his sorrows. For the time, he was home and came to his mother with the fish in his mouth, settling it down near. He was quiet, but looked to her in wonder of what she might need. There was sadness in all their eyes during this time.
her son soon arrived and it was with his own prey. there was a fondness to the duck as she gazed toward arrluk, an understanding that he stood at the edge of manhood, and that he had been marked by multiple losses thus far.
of these she made no mention; her arms were open for him, though there came a moment in which kukutux dreaded arrluk turning away from her.
"tell me what is in your mind."
Yet he would not turn away and never would. He came to his mother, head falling low and ears back. His tongue juts in and out from his mouth submissively and he sweeps his head up under her chin and throat and stays there against his mother.
All of them- everyone. Galana, red mother...
His words trail. He knew not to speak the names of the dead. While he wasn't certain if he believed the superstition (and for all he knew, the others could be dead and their names were spoken often) he knew his mother's deeply rooted and would not question her allowed.
Could a wrathful spirit return to the living? Had her life, doubled, been sacrificed for the return of another?
"they are in mine also."
silence. the wind spoke, and she could hear its voice in the branches, and upon the face of the lake. she drew a long breath and held her growing son.
"i do not know all the ways to answer. this is known to spirits, arrluk. and to the spirits you must show yourself now, my son. alone."
"all these things. they are meant to teach. we are meant to learn."
They are silent for a time and Arrluk doesn't mind it. He enjoys to sit and to listen far more then to be the one pulling the weight of the conversation. He also didnt need the chatter in order to enjoy another's company. He felt secure here against his mother, even as he began to outgrow her.
His mother then spoke of the spirits. How they only knew the answers now. That they, as mortals, were only made to learn from their teachings.
I don't understand what were supposed to learn from this...
He mutters, ill at the thought of these 'life lessons' from the spirits. How do I show myself? What do I do?
"we learn that each breath is a precious thing. each moment is one to share. that losing the faces of some who are loved, that this is part of our world. our own breath."
she looked at him now, handsome arrluk. orca son, perhaps the only one of them yet to have a potential match.
but first he must become a man.
and before this the spirits must see him fit for this.
"you must leave moonglow, for a time, arrluk. they will speak to you beyond this place."
Arrluk's lips pulled back into a tight frown as he listened to his mother's words. She explained, best she could, given that 'these were things spirits knew and would teach'. Arrluk never felt like he had taken his family for granted, that he felt as though each moment were precious but... maybe not. He was still so young, so much to learn, to understand. Things which the spirits were meant to teach, he supposed.
The oddly marked boy once more was silent a time. His ears swept back, his blue and green gaze to the earth between his paws.
Then, What if I don't want to go? What if I go and they never say anything?
He was stubborn, reluctant to leave home for long. What if he came back and someone else was missing? Someone else dead?
"you are the son of sun man and moonwoman. they will answer," kukutux said resolutely. "arrluk. this is how a boy becomes a man. you must show yourself to them, alone. they will speak to you in a way i cannot."
her voice was passionate, but gentle. she was only his mother, and he a child on the position of becoming a man. "you have lost many. the pain in your chest, you must learn to do something with it, arrluk."
Can fade with your last post? Or here. Whichever.
'you are the son of sun man and moonwoman. they will answer'. Kukutux words were absolute. Certain. Proud. Sunman and Moonwoman were wolves known by many. They were loved, respected, revered.
Once, Kukutux and Aiolos were not like this. They were far different now from the wolves they were in their youth. They had worked hard, they had built, they had grown. Arrluk must grow too and it had come far sooner then he had expected, nor wanted.
Okay... I will.
He finally said. His chest swelled but his gut was filled with knots and his heart ached.
Tomorrow. But today-
He shifts himself from leaning into his mother, dragging the fish nearer to them.
Let me show you how I've practiced skinning the fish.
fading! <3
kukutux watched arrluk accept this.
he would go.
he would return a man.
his doubts would be answered.
"show me, orca runner," she encouraged, slipping an arm around his growing shoulders.
it might be the last time she held him as a boy.