yes, their young voices and youthful faces assured. the woman smiled at each in turn, pausing a moment before she began. "one day, many many moons ago," kukutux murmured, drawing their attention to the dirt upon which they had paused, her gaze lingering briefly on sialuk's relaxed form.

she glanced back to the pair of cousins. "there was the lightning mother," and here she approximated jagged clawmarks in the earth to signify the fire-womb. "and there was the rain father." toes pressed into the earth, drawn down to make a wider, softer set of lines. "the lightning mother said 'i am the voice of the storm, and sometimes i must eat the dry old things to live.'"

"but the rain father did not like this. 'i am the one who waters the world, lightning mother!' he shouted. 'i decide what gets to be eaten.' and so the rain father brought a great storm. he pulled a thousand clouds into the sky," kukutux exclaimed, gesturing to the heavens above she and the listening cubs. "the rain father knew that if he kept all things green with his blood, then there would be nothing for the lightning mother to eat, and she would starve."

kukutux drew a line between the pair of symbols, gazed solemnly at the boys. "it worked, for a long time. the lightning mother had nothing to eat. she was very hungry. but she was not alone. the rain father, in his work to bring hunger to the lightning mother, gave too much water to the earth. the sea rose and drowned animals upon the land. the great grandfather trees began to lose their skin. 'stop, rain father!' they shouted, but he did not listen."

with a dramatic sigh in the fashion of the story tellers she had known, the duck went on. "the lightning mother knew she must eat. she reached down to the little grasses. soon she had eaten many of them, but because she was upon the flat plain, her hunger grew too large and became fire. it burned all the grasses. it killed the little birds who live in the flat rocks. they cried out 'stop, lightning mother!' but she did not hear them."

kukutux passed her small paw across the earth, blurring both the marks of the rain father and the lightning mother. "the birds that escaped journeyed to the forest, but the trees were drowning. they said 'little birds, do not land here.' they did not. they went to the rain father, and they said, 'you have been so selfish. now she starves while there is too much water. you must come to apologize."

"and the rain father knew they were right, and was humbled. he went out to the flat places where her hunger had scorched; he saw the column of fire, and he came to her at once. 'lightning mother, i am sorry.' at first she did not want to forgive him, but then she saw how cold and wet the forest had become. 'i am sorry for not seeing your purpose,' the rain father said. she was silent. and then said said 'come and dance the fire away.'"

a beam. "and so he did. the rain father washed the fire away, and the lightning mother was able to eat again when the forest dried, but only the dead things that must be consumed for the good of the forest. that is why now, when rain father arrives, you know that his new wife, the lightning mother, is not far away." and she drew two lines now, one thinned, one wide, to show how they had come to harmony.