Ouroboros Spine and i, the star-- burn low

dated for 5/5/24 timing set at about sunset. i want to thank each and every one of you who has threaded with shikoba. she was one of my very first characters i roleplayed when i first came to WOLF. she has such a long in-game history, and i am so very proud of the connections she has made and the family she has crafted. i will be finishing her threads in due time. it is a bittersweet moment to let go of her, but i am beyond grateful for the incredible threads i have gotten to have with her and all of you. thank you for being apart of her journey, and shaping her into the incredible woman she is <333 tags are for visibility, light pp made; please pm me if you'd prefer anything changed!

she called to @Kukutux the moment the skies begin to shift from that cornflower blue into the paint strokes of a rose and lavender, cobalt and indigo gently growing as those warm sunset lights flicker; and not a cloud in sight. it was the most beautiful day. bird song seems quiet, the crickets are slowly tuning their craft, her ears twitch at the noises besides her own breathing that has become labored.

'time is drawing near. find ajei, and the others who may wish to be here.

she's laying on her side, the grass has once never felt so soft beneath her creaking joints. was the world always so beautiful before her death? did the flowers always smell so sweet? shikoba did not know. the wind rocks her gently, her coat has grayed out more and more, her face no longer the dark visage it used to be. 

when @Ajei comes forth, shikoba would smile that soft smile she wore. she remembered when her precious girl was born, how joyous of a day that was. she'd kiss her forehead and her cheek gently, and whisper to her the words of love she has always known, and yet still needed. "i love you, my heart. wherever you go, i will be there too." she would watch from afar, perhaps as a bird of prey if allowed, and ensure her daughter would run east swiftly for her Kinaaldá; to ensure that while she is gone, ajei will still flourish,

shikoba would see her sister, and soon motions for her to come close, if she wished. whether she died in the embrace of others or simply just under their gaze, she would only know their love. and perhaps that was the way all lives begin and end-- with love. "sister," she'd wipe the tears she saw in her peridot gaze, "take care of her," of her ajei, "and tell my sons that they are loved." 

and so is she, her greatest family of all. shikoba kisses her sister's cheek, and whispers to her the praise of the village she has crafted, and her pride in knowing moon woman. she would find her again in the next lifetime, this she promised to her.

and if shikoba saw @Aiolos from the faces, she offers a silent plea for him to care for moon woman as her sun man, and to wipe her tears when shikoba is no longer able to. 

for when she lingered, shikoba took comfort in their touch and presence, in their words and voices. she must not cry, she must not let the dam break in her gaze that once burned sulfuric and yet feels like a warm honeycomb-- time has gentled the warrior, and now her fighting days are behind her.

@Mojag was her first born. she knew of the struggled he endured with his father' absence. she knows her death will be another trouble. she had set something aside for him, something for ajei to give her brother. a prized antler, one shikoba always saw him teething on as a child; she only hoped he might find some comfort in its rounded edge now.

@Chiteo, her darling son; she wondered where he might've gone, what wonderful things he's seen in the world. a little reflective rock he once marveled his reflection in remains set aside for him to take, if he ever came to return home.

@Rodyn was her heart son, having come to known shikoba in their later lives together. she remembers all that he has given her, the wonderful furs and soundmaker she gifted to ajei. one of the furs lays out for him, if he wished to take, one of the nicer ones he bestowed to the mother of his heart, holding her scent religiously.

shikoba had come from desolation and death of the clearing. she remembered her first days in the new land. she remembered mordecai and harlyn, larkspur and the other children of lost creek hollow. she remembered the hellcat she fought, she remembered the locusts. she remembered marauder's keep, she remembered ryujin and the cave of light; she remembered the moment she found the spine and met moonwoman. she found a husband, tore an ear from a prisoner, gave birth to her children, and found meaning in more than just her own history.

she lived long. and she lived well.

her breathing would steady out for a beat or so, and slowly weakens until her chest heaves no more. the dandelions do not bend to her breath anymore, and her eyes are closed to the wonders of those who have loved her have come to surround.

star hunter's last breath was a soft exhale. and death was northing but a gentle blanket over her body with the light slowly dying behind her. she surrendered at last, and shikoba has known no greater peace since.

Ajei had never run so fast or so hard in all of her life. As soon as she got word she had been in motion. Not even saying goodbye to @Sialuk or @Arrluk just pure movement. 

Tears had made it difficult to see. She hoped and prayed and bargained and begged to make it to her mama in time. To say goodbye. 

Mud caked her paws and her tears had dried upon her fur. She had done her best to clean some off, but she was more concerned with seeing her mother. 

A large undeniable pain in her chest
 So thick and so heavy she was certain her heart would break from it.

The words her mother spoke for her making it so much more painful and yet bearable too. 

I love you too mama. I'll always make you proud.

She didn't beg her mother to stay. That was cruel, but she stayed right beside her. As close as she could be to her mother and when she breathed her last. The delicate she wolfs cries could be heard for miles. They were not quiet or delicate. They were loud and shook her entire frame.

 And all she felt at first was this vast opening fear.  She was alone. And she already missed her mama. 

But pride lit her too. Of the she wolf her mother had been. Ajei had come from perfection as far as she was concerned and she would live for her mother. She would do her best to be everything she could. So her mother never had leave to be upset in her beyond place.

And love. She had been given so much love. It was why she herself gave it so easily in return. The name she had been gifted. The mother she had been given. It had all been perfect.

Though Ajei wanted to scream of the unfairness. She had been raised to know life was just as important as death. And though it was hard. Her mother had lived long and had lived well.

She would hold her mother close to her until she could no longer. And it was then she would look to Kukutux for she knew her mother had entrusted her with what to do with her death.

I may edit this. I gotta cry first. RIP Shikoba and thank you for playing such a wonderful she wolf and the perfect wolf mom for both Ajei and Rodyn

Rodyn had left the coast. Had ran as fast as he could when he had gotten the news that Shikoba was failing. He had spent what little time he could with her. Knowing that he held moontides future in his paws. And he was needed there. But.

But his heart mother deserved a send off. The woman who had helped to shape a unsure young man into a good one. She had taught him lessons he hadn't known. Had held him when his own world was breaking. He would do the same for her, for her blood children.

He gave her a soft kiss to her face a gentle low I love you. and then silently waited with her.

Tears fell when she breathed her last. And Ajei's cries cut him to the quick. But Shikoba had lived well, had earned this peace. He settled her in his heart of hearts beside Samani. That was where she would stay until his dying day. Nestled warm and snug in his love.

Far from the mountain, through the valley to the open plains where the land rumbled with the storming steps of bison, the man Mojag stood in watch of the beasts. He had been studying them since his inception to Yellowstone; his full attention was there upon the grassland as he saw two bulls vying for the attention of one of the cows. They made their grunts and trumpeted calls, and when the female moved off they turned their sights on one-another and stomped.

Mojag was fascinated. He expected to witness another furious battle between — ! A furious sound on the wind came, then. He knew that voice.

It was a distant cry from the west. Mojag turned his attention up to the great blue of the sky and moved quickly to climb a nearby hill; the call came again, and while it was from such a distance he knew it was his sister. He knew she was in pain - and he knew one word spoken, Shikoba.

In this way Mojag came to know his mother's passing. In this way he felt his heart break.

Knowing the end was coming for his mother had been one thing, but to have the end occur and to not be there, that was a whole other beast. He doesn't feel the wind knock out of his body so much as, he struggles to take in a breath. Mojag thinks of the last time he had visited his mother - what she looked like (had she been grayer?), if she had eaten (had she thinned?), and could only envision the version that lived freely in his mind: the star hunter in her prime, larger than life.

All other sensations seemed to slow. Even though the bison had begun to ram one-another and fight for that woman, Mojag heard none of it. He saw none of it. The world was silent to him, until he raised his head and sang to the faraway mountains:

Goodbye mother, I love you.

He was surprised that his voice did not waver. As the call ended, he stood there on the hill without any understanding of what to do next, or how to feel, or what he felt, and sank in to the grass.

quietly kukutux kissed the silent silvered face. tears were a cascade of sweet salt upon her face, for there was no bitterness in her that shikoba had been called to sedna. there was only the striking pain of holding her sister close as the breath of life slowly departed with the warmth of shikoba's soul.

"your daughter is as my own. your sons will not forget your love," she had answered with a voice which cracked as if it were sea-ice beneath a thaw. 

the whispers of mother and daughter; the gentle breath as it slowed and slowed; kukutux wept with soft sounds, and it seemed there was a moment in which she felt the spirit of her sister ascend.

she held too ajei as the girl wept aloud, her cries echoing through the beauty of the fading light over the spine, the purpled shadows falling back from the gold of sunset to illuminate shikoba's still and peaceful features.

shikoba.

shikoba.

tooteega, silent. 

mojag's strong voice poured with the emerald pain of a man into the foothills of the spine.

lynx, speaking; break the taboo for the star hunter. for your people.

"you will always make her proud, ajei," kukutux said in hoarsened tone when at last her eyes met the teary look of her embraced daughter. "she asked three things: that we bury her in aumauttak grove with the things she owned in life. that we sing for her in the ways of the moon clans. and that you run the kinaalda, ajei."

she wiped a tear from the young face. "your mother's spirit and her ways live now in you. we will keep them for the girls of the moon packs from this moment and forward. and," she said with a firmness, a fierceness, looking between the son of her sister and the husband of her daughter;

"we will not forget her name. we will say it. listen to me. i say now that we must speak their names." a shuddering breath passed through the duck, and tears fell, and she looked down upon shikoba. "when the death songs are finished, we will wait for six turns of the moon to pass. then we will speak the names of the dead again."

and her heart was filled with a soothing warmth, and she kissed ajei and reached a paw to rodyn.

it was the right path to take. longing for @Aiolos, kukutux exhaled.

the night would soon come. for now they remained in communion with their star hunter, sharing soft tears and stories of how her love had fulfilled something in each of them.

The time had been drawing near. Death was calling the old woman to the dancing lights. Shikoba kept going, kept moving, until she no longer could. Tiredness found her and she lay under the open sky and waited to sleep. 

Loved ones gathered. Though it was certain Shikoba's life was coming to an end, everyone was together and supporting as she found her peace. Aiolos too, stayed close. He nodded to her words, silent yet assuring and he laid near her, as many did. Quietly, he prayed to the Moon and Sea Goddess. 

When she took her last breath, Aiolos lifted from his lay and into a sit, head lowered and ears back as Ajei's cries shook the mountains of Moonglow. Aiolos sweeps to the side of Kukutux when she seeks him, pressing himself close and holding her firm. Their star hunter was gone. 

It could have been days. It could have been months, but Arrluk knew one day he would hear the sorrowful message that Shikoba's life was ending. Now, here it was and Ajei ran and ran as fast as her legs could carry her. Arrluk howled out to @Sialuk, to @Alaric, informing them that he, too, would be leaving to offer his support to the family and save his goodbyes. Then he went, swiftly following after Ajei's trail. 

His parents were there, Ajei and Rodyn, settled around Shikoba as they waited for the inevitable. Though sadness filled the air, a sadness for themselves that she would be gone, there was also a sense of peace. Of understanding, of love and accepting that Shikoba would find her peace in the dancing lights. 

Arrluk kept quiet, seated and watching as he gave everyone their space. When Shikoba's eyes fluttered to a close and she took her last breath, a sharp whine slipped passed Arrluk's lips as Ajei's cries twisted his gut. He lifts and rushes to her, standing just behind as Kukutux soothed her and wiped her tears. Arrluk had no words, didn't know what to say. Yet he would be there for her, for Rodyn, for all of them, just the same.

Shikoba's passing marked the end of an era within Moonglow.

Ariadne had been drawn to the crowd and settled down next to Arrluk as the star hunter began to die. While they hadn't interacted much, she felt it was important to be here to send her off and provide comfort for those hurting—to help her people as they had helped her.

The woman's last breath was haunting, sending a chill down her spine, and she flattened her ears and looked away as the dust settled. When she felt ready to look at the fallen beta, she straightened, pushing her feelings aside, and prepared to help whoever needed her support. She remained where she was, giving the others space, but was ready to jump in if needed.