Ouroboros Spine and carried you away into the alligator sky

no rush just wanted to get this up
@Valiant and @Vairë welcome <3

They cross from the flatlands to the wilderness when the snowstorm allowed it, stride unbreaking until the spine comes towering into view. It's as much a relief as it does open up a vast pit in her stomach, though the feeling was spun into curiosity when they reached the forest. 

New scents crisscrossed here, intertwining with the familiar in a way that had Yuralria glance to @Sobeille with a look of befuddlement. Whoever had set up shop here had done it recently. But the girl had one thing on her mind and one thing only.

Arriving on Moonglow's borders, her voice called high and gently for @Kukutux, knowing that her mother may still be confined to her ulaq.

yuralria.

to hear that voice eased the deep ache in the wrists of moonwoman. as of late so bad had the pain been that she was not able to complete several pelts.

this irked kukutux,but the call of her granddaughter made her forget all physical anguish and stand, stand up among her scraps of leather and sorted feathers; she grabbed a wrap of dark ermine summerfur and went to meet the girl, limping only once here or there.

"it is good to see your face," greeted brightly the duck, and cupped yuralria's cheek gently. a similar embrace for sobeille, and then she stood back to take them both in, ascertaining with wise gaze where they might have been.

sobeille especially, since the ill fated night.

she took note of the scents with a dark look shared with yura. later.

straightening as kukutux appeared, sobeille felt her heart flutter with anticipation. through sivaak's teachings, she noticed something different about the moonmother today -- her gait ever so slightly different.

glancing to the ermine around kukutux's throat, sobeille swallowed and prepared to be scolded -- or worse, ignored. instead she was greeted in the same heartfelt fashion as yura -- something that caused the sapphiqian to feel a wrench of warmth and coldness at once.

it is good to see your face, she repeated back softly, gaze sweeping to yura for her to take the lead.

"It is good to see you too," Yuralria returned the greeting of their sunshine people, a light chuckle to see Sobeille fall prey to Moonwoman's display of affection. She wished then, selfishly, to pull her grandmother aside and tell her everything that had happened, to quiz her in turn of Moonglow's welfare in her absence.

But they had made this journey together, begun to see what lay beneath each other's flesh. Whatever she spoke of, Sobeille was welcome to hear too. "The caribou hunters - they offered me a place in their clan." Did Kukutux know of them? "And then Sobeille found me." Her shoulder brushed briefly against the girl.

"Grandma, I think I want to leave Moonglow. Maybe for good." Round eyes sought the jade of Moonwoman's own, pleading almost for her to challenge Yura's thoughts.

Sedna had taken many daughters and many grandchildren, leading them to different paths or to the afterworld.

she did not want to think of it!

yuralria's return suggested hope, as much hope as kukutux had borne when ipiktok returned from his travels.

moonwoman must be born again into a younger nuiruk. the duck was tiring, slowing as the years went on; her legacy must not fall into hands undeserving.

a selfish thought!

but it gathered a pierce as granddaughter spoke and it was not to say she meant to come home. usual hospitality suspended in surprise, kukutux stared at yuralria.

"i know the caribou hunters," she said grimly, thinking of cen. but more; "why do you mean to go?" what called her blood away when their destinies were already built here?

her green eyes searched, hurt welling even though she wished so much to be gracious.

some steadying of her nerves came as she felt yura brush against her, speaking to moonwoman. explaining.

yet sobeille, ever learning and soaking in the subtlety of disguised expressions, fancied she saw something troubling flicker across moonwoman's jade gaze.

what, then? sobeille tore her gaze away from studying kukutux long enough to give yura a careful look. whatever came next, she may be participant in -- but truthfully, had no ground on which to speak.

after all, she had already darkened the moontribes by her actions; would not stealing away their future be seen as equally reprehensible?

sorry she's bratty

Though the seagirl was very much at her side, her presence fell away as Moonwoman's gaze bore into her skull. Whatever history her grandmother had with Star Eater's clan was lost on Yura, for she had never met the man who's eye her mother had claimed, never connected the dots between Cen's crimes and the taiga hunters. 

She had been young, after all. Naive. A fawn under old doe's fury, shielded from the worst of it by a father's heart.

"Star Eater is kind - Ice Diver too. I taught them to make pelts, dry meat," as if her grandmother ought to be proud of her for spreading their sunshine ways. But what Kukutux spoke next opened up a sinking pit in her stomach.

What if she stayed? Sent Sobeille away and took her role as the moonvillages expected. As she had always thought she would. Her heart clenched. "You only ever saw me as a girl to take your place. After anaa got sick," eyes stung, slipping into her native tongue, "I realised I didn't want to spend the rest of my life cooped up caring for her. I- there's more out there for me. That Sobeille can show me.

Maybe Nutu was right to run away." Almost immediately as it was spoken did Yura regret it, averting her gaze in near shame.

no it's perfect character development! <3

kukutux was very still, her body without reaction. yuralria was not incorrect, but to reduce her birthright to this? she was meant to be head of the nuiruk clan! it was an honor, a privilege; it was a sacred duty.

but Sedna would not allow it.

that comment about nutuyikruk tightened her expression, and she lifted her chin as yuralria looked away. too far.

"you have always had my love. yes. i wanted one of you to gain all that has been built, to become moonwoman. but i cannot make you be this. your heart has no desire." though her words were quiet, tone modulated, hurt and anger colored the statement with firmness.

ariadne had been as angry and kukutux forever regretted that she had alienated her daughter more. she could not repeat it here.

"if you must go, then you must go," moonwoman said at last. there were no more heirs. she had failed. "rodyn brought much wealth from moontide," kukutux went on, emotion veiling itself in her eyes; "if there is something that is needed, take it, yuralria. this too is yours, even if you make a path away."

her gaze was for sobeille now, unreadable, but her attention belonged in truth to the granddaughter before her. grief was racing inside kukutux, but she managed to offer a tiny curve of her mouth, one she meant to be encouraging. akmaaski had also left, with tautukpik. her grandchildren one by one had departed the spine and the land. perhaps there had been a lesson in it all the while.

kukutux regained herself. "before you make a journey, will you stay for a time?" moonwoman inquired of the young women, her warmth practiced: an offering for travelers rather than a granddaughter who rejected her role and the love which had guarded it.

there was much kinship between the thoughts of sobeille and Kukutux; while the moonmother’s thoughts drifted towards the extinction of her bloodline, sobeille’s funneled into how best she could assure the permanence of her own. a shame, then, that so many things were left unspoken — and those few words shared at all were voiced in a tongue sobeille couldn’t understand.

this reminded her of the lanzadoii meeting; sulky but firm, her gaze flickered away as yura and kukutux spoke in the sunshine way.

a wedge was driving its way through the three of them. sobeille could sense its harsh edges, the glacial creep of its insidious presence. finally, the tension there broke — a great unmooring of some unseen emotion hid behind moonwoman’s unreadable face.

she looked to yura quietly, measuring her expression. she was amenable to staying, but also anxious to start her own journey home. yet she reminded herself that this was not just her own journey — yura was as much a piece of it as she, and whatever she willed in this moment, was what will be.

It was true, her heart had no desire. Curse it be that it had taken moons away from Moonglow's coddling for her to see this. "Let it be someone more suited than I," emotion levelling her voice to a calm finality as she gathered herself to leave. There was no apology, no acknowledgement of boundaries overstepped. Grief would come later, but for now a bitter and selfish urge to creep out of sight.

But Sobeille's gaze had her rooted, ears pricking to catch Kukutux' olive branch though she did not look at her again. "Thank you, Grandma." She would oblige, if only to see what had befallen Moontide in her absence. "We'll stay for a night. Then we really ought to get going." A chance to rest and refuel; if this suited her companion. Claws of ice still gripped Yura from within, however, and she remained stiff despite the apparent thawing present in Moonwoman's voice. 

For the secret that the little lynx still lived remained clutched close to her chest.

she can be stopped if there is need <3

"there is no one else."

sunshine, soft, in the same tone she had used to invite them to stay. kukutux meant to have the final word in this matter.

"the healing ulax are not being used," she said, motioning with her chin up the path, "and your pappou is on a hunt." yuralria did not seem inclined to stay; she hardly seemed as though this discourse was something she wanted. not a discussion. aiolos would not understand. better that he was gone away and that this might remain between women.

there was a final thing.

"yuralria." she did not look at sobeille. "at birth your spirit was named. it is time for you to know it. this is not for any other to hear, not even the one who might one day hold your heart. it is secret. we name our children so that Sedna may find them again." a last lesson, pressed into hands that did not want it. "the name of your spirit is 'qilaqnaq.'"

and how fulfilled it was.

"i will be beside the lake. there is work."

her eyes, only for yuralria, before ermine wrap was pulled to shoulders and smile given to them both.

moonwoman went on.

a finality crept into moonwoman’s voice. sobeille cursed her ignorance of their language, wishing she knew in that moment the significance of their words.

now moonwoman’s gaze held only yura; an intensity threading through the very air that sobeille could taste — something important imparted upon moongirl sobeille would never know.

and then kukutux brought her ermine pelt closer to her aged shoulders, smiled, and moved on.

sobeille stood a moment longer, her senses exploring the invisible waves of conflict left in the air between them. something amiss; something wrong she could not place.

There is no one else.

If Kukutux sought to break her spirit further, she was certainly succeeding. The gravity of her estrangement weighed on young shoulders as if a pelt of her own had been stuffed with a thousand rocks and placed upon her like some cruel parting gift. "That is not my problem anymore." Call it petty, but Yura wished to steal the last word as she had Moonwoman's succession.

The healing ulax would be their rendezvous for the night, but before that - perhaps what the girl had been waiting to hear of most though she had not thought to ask. Had not felt she could ask. And yet Kukutux delivered with all the eternal kindness Yuralria wanted to hate but found she could not. Her spirit; she'd known its meaning but never its name. A matriarch's parting wisdom, a last connection that Yura would treasure for the rest of her life.

Her lips parted then but no words came. There was nothing left to say, and the girl found she could only watch in turmoil as her grandmother departed and left her and Sobeille to their thoughts. A moment would pass before Yura would motion noiselessly and lead the way into the village heart, vehemently putting the lake behind her.