Ouroboros Spine unatattik ‡

maybe @Stratos? <3

he too was home, this handsome son of aiolos and herself who had left a boy and returned a man. the forests and mountains spoke in his blood. she saw the rangy step. stratos was a man in harmony with the sacred oneness of sedna.

as evening closed to night, beneath the starlight, kukutux moved toward the three sisters. her heart was full, the ache gone completely for a time.

moonmother whispered her gratitude to the gathering stars.

<33

The last he had spoken with anaa was when he approached her with news of his two wives. When he approached her now, their names were as far from his tongue and his heart as the land was from the sky. He felt no need to hide from her, no need to prove himself anymore. Though she had not said it, he knew that bringing Ariadne home - and even more, staying with her when she'd wandered afar - was worth more to moonwoman than if he had brought home a thousand wives.

He radiated neither fear nor shame. Only love.

Stratos found her near three sisters, alone and looking to the sky. The dancing lights were not present, but he liked to think two of the stars were the mischievous glint of the eyes of Little Fox. Who knew what kind of a man he'd have been? But every boy had some glint of mischief.

I hear they have been named, he said to break the silence, I feel better, knowing that. Every child deserves more than a number.

Perhaps here, his judgment against his brother-in-law's ways spoke more freely than they ever had. He did like Kigipigak, although... he remained torn on the broader details. He'd only had his sister's side, after all, and he knew the emotions of young women.

stratos. 

mauruk would always be her firstborn boy, but this redstone son of herself and aiolos now spoke of the sunshine ways that had always been his.

and she saw he had remembered them while he was away.

the stars filled her eyes for a moment. "he wanted her, and them, to be his own people. as he did the first time. but sakhmet was not tartok. and ariadne is not tartok. i see her, stratos. she has come home to be a sunshine woman and to raise their children in sunshine ways."

there was a pensive silence.

"i am sure he sees it also. he did not sing for little fox." a rejection? stoicism? she did not know.

She had always been ethereal, but she had always been anaa. He had never noticed the age around her face. Now he did, but with it spoke wisdom and understanding. He was a man now, but he would always be her boy, and his ears would always listen.

And he listened. She seemed to read between his lines, as she always did, hearing what was there but was not said.

Kigipigak tried to provide and do as a husband should do, he said slowly. Despite his misgivings, Kigipigak remained his brother-in-law, and to speak without acknowledging his attempts felt like stabbing him in the back. At least now he only swung the blade where he would see it coming, but Ariadne has smiled more since we've been here than I've seen her smile in many moons. We are sunshine people, he affirmed, Ariadne tried to be Tartok for Kigipigak, but he never tried to be sunshine for her.

He did not sing for Little Fox. That was twice now, and Stratos had seen them both. I believe he loves her, he said, but only in part. Otherwise he would have sung for Little Fox. Otherwise, he would have comforted her in this. I do not expect him to become sunshine man himself, but I expect him to learn sunshine ways that make Ariadne smile like she smiles now.

stratos was kind to a man who did not deserve it. kukutux held her tongue. she did not need to heap more dislike upon kigipigak, for even her own son spoke carefully around the ire that moonmother carried for winterhawk.

"i forced myself to accept that even if i did not care for their marriage, that he would provide protection for her. ariadne was with child before they abandoned moonsong at the great hunt. i know it, stratos. and because i knew i could not bring her back to me," voice tensing as not to break, "i put my faith in kigipigak's strength."

"but once more he comes badly to the place of moonglow, and this time he brings your sister without hope and her arms bereft of a child. i tell you, stratos, it is only the love ariadne bears that man that kept me from commanding warriors against him, to throw him not only from moonglow but from the wilderness."

she sighed. "but it would have only broken us all, my son. he will learn to be sunshine in some way, or her heart will no longer find happiness in him. that is what i see along their path."

enough of such things! she nodded once in sharp resolution, then reached her small worn paw to stratos' own. "your own life too, perhaps it will open its next journey here."