Ouroboros Spine pivalliak ⧃

set for tomorrow <3

aiolos had come.

she breathed in.

kukutux stood again upon the spine of moonglow. she searched despite herself for @Nuak, afraid that he had left moonglow after their last interlude. what sort of things might a young hunter need to assuage an insulted heart?

she did not know. she had left iḷitqusiq to rest, and now wandered, watching a lone turtledove wheel and cry against the cover of green-needle trees.

Nuak had watched the strange red-haired man come, eyeing him from a distant ledge until his shape vanished among the trees.

It was not his duty to protect these lands. He was as skilled a warrior as he was a hunter — so, not very. Any intrigue that rippled through the village did not affect the boy, who retreated to the comfort of the fox skin.

His mind was on other things.
( He had the look of you — nuak — )

There were many places for the boy to hide — but, he could not hide eternally.

When the need for food came to his belly he rose and, following a twisting path he had not seen before, left the sleeping place he had made and journeyed in search of a cache; he had not taken the food left out for him by the ulaq, and steered himself clear of the boar-witch's scent.

kukutux was grateful then for the appearance of a rabbit, and set her attention upon it.

some time later, its limp body hanging from her jaws, moonwoman set a trail for the nearest caching-place. nuak had not come to eat, but she did not think he had left the valley. he had taken his foxfur and retreated to its innermost core.

but she had not come across his path.

in the shadow of two trees, the duck used her small pale paws to overturn rich dark earth, comforted by the scent of the loam.

The fresh blood-scent drew him closer. It was enticing enough for Nuak to ignore the presence of Kukutux' stronger scent, but he was wary on his approach. The sound of the earth being tilled gave him a clue. Someone had hunted a fresh thing and he need only be patient to take it.

He glimpsed something from between the trees — a pale shape — and slowed his approach, ultimately stopping where he could shroud himself in pine shadows.

There she was, the witch. Had she done something to the creature she had caught? It smelled fresh and Nuak could not discern anything arboreal or terrestrial about it; he knew the smell of fresh and dry herbs from his time in the dead healer's grotto, and there was no such sign of corruption.

Then again, the wind did not favor him, and he was hidden. He watched for signs of spellwork from her, convinced there would be signs of her duplicity.

kukutux carefully split the rabbit's chestbone and pulled away the heart. she chewed this, droplets of scarlet rushing along her chin, down to chestfur — she closed her eyes and pushed the remainder of the carcass into the cache, whispering a silent prayer with stained lips, in thanks for the sacrifice of the animal's spirit.

she suddenly felt the pressure of unseen eyes upon her, but did not look up. kukutux covered her kill and turned her back upon it, melting into the woods.

there she stopped, and this time secluded her own self, to watch the cache and see if wayward nuak would show his face.

The sharp taste of blood in the air told him that the creature was no longer whole. The woman moved on soon enough, burying the remains and murmuring against the wind before rising and departing. He watched her go, dark eyes burning a hateful glare against her back.

He waited a little longer and when she did not return, crept from the shadows of the pine wood.

Head bent over the freshly tilled soil, he snorted over it like the hogs from the other day; the blood scent was strongest here, and he could not hold back the urge to dig. It was not a deep grave for the dead thing — Nuak snapped at it and tugged, pulling the body free.

Once it was unearthed he inspected it with probes of his nose. Red stained his lips, mud streaked his cheeks, but he did not eat it; adamant there was something wrong with it, or that some spell had been cast.

for a long moment she only watched.

the boy did not eat. nuak did not eat, only sniffed over her kill searchingly. and she knew he hungered, surely. he was only a young hunter with a fathomless belly.

but he was not only. she had seen the trader in his face, clear as an early sun. maybe you only saw the thing that you wanted to see, she suggested softly to herself. the truth could not be ignored or put aside.

when you gave him the name of nuak, did you know?

kukutux returned to herself, drinking in a breath. she blinked.

Tossing the carcass heavily aside, the boy began to investigate the dugout where it had been buried. It was a small, shallow trench without any additions to it. The heartless creature left behind had been alone in that little pit, and Nuak could not find any sign of herb, perennial, or blood which might denote magic.

He turned then upon the bundle of muddied meat and set to devour it whole; pulling the legs out with a twist and pop, gorging himself on the remaining soft meats of the belly, chewing on the leathery ear strips.

When all that was left was the head and cheek meat, he dropped it in the hole and scraped dirt loosely over it.

nuak devoured her offering to the cache.

in him, in the swing of his head and the powerful tension of muscles beneath rockhue pelt, kukutux saw the angry trader again. she only watched the boy for a long moment, wondering if his trust might ever be received. she had stories to give to him as gifts, for if he carried that man's spirit, he was ostrega clan, with her, with sialuk, even zane.

a gentle blink, and moonwoman was turning away, choosing each step with slow care to carry herself near noiselessly away, leaving nuak to the blood and the dirt of moonglow. perhaps it might heal him.