Ouroboros Spine i see your bones beneath

idleness does not sit well upon kivaluk's shoulders. especially not with his most recent conversation with his father still imprinted too fresh upon his mind.

yet, still he lingers in the sting of mourning what once was; choices made for him, things so far out of his control that thinking he could do anything about it was nearly laughable.

petulant in the only way that a still child could be, he scowls at the empty air of the neutral territory he looks beyond. he lets himself linger in these feelings for a bit longer before he gives his coat a shake; dispelling the light snow of the early morning and begins his patrol; eager to lose himself in the focus of guarding and marking the borders.

moonwoman joined the boy.

she was silent, a white skin wrapped around her shoulders.

she thought of the spirit-walking.

nuak eventually took her focus. "where do you mean to walk today, young hunter?"

the sound of footfalls draws kivaluk's attention away from the borders and to, instead, kukutux. his gaze flickers over her, noting the white fur draped like a shawl elegantly over her shoulders though he diverts his gaze not long after. she is his leader, now. extended family, sure, but still his alpha.

she keeps pace with him well enough, though he slows it in mind that he has company.

the borders, kivaluk replies simply. a small pause is given before he adds, quietly, i am trading scout for mercenary. she is the first he's admitted this to; despite how right this change feels and has felt.

kukutux looked at kivaluk with approval. a scout was necessary. but moonglow was a place of guardians and hunters.

she wondered if the boy missed the river beside which he had been born, if it called to him.

"you will still see many things as walker," she assured him. "the snow here is fierce. it comes from the great salt water. animals run to this place to be protected."

walker she calls it, with a look that kivaluk hopes it approval. he doesn't know her very well ( yet ) but she is his alpha and her opinion and thoughts mattered.

enough so that kivaluk admits the switch of trade focus to her first before anyone else. before his father, even.

lone wolves, too? kivaluk inquires, considering her words and wondering just how persistent he would need to be as he walks the borders of moonglow.

"yes." her nod was somber. "when moonglow went to winter hunting last year, some wolves came to this place. we welcome them with food and sleeping places. but these ones threw aside our hospitality and made stinking water over a cache."

she shook her head with an irritated chuff to demonstrate how it had been.

a soft rumble of displeasure begins in kivaluk's throat as kukutux tells the story, even if her last words about 'making stinking water' confuse him. the gist, though, he has a grasp on. wolves took advantage of moonglow's hospitality and then threw it back in their faces as if they had any right. it doesn't sit well with kivaluk who feels a swell of protectiveness for the wolves of moonglow.

he might not yet be sure where he stands among them but they are family.

i am sorry they did that to you. kivaluk offers, despite that he knows he has nothing to be sorry for. still, it does not change that he feels empathy towards the situation and how wronged the moonglow wolves. it's not right. a fact that hardly needs retiterated but he feels obligated to say all the same, if only to demonstrate that he ( already ) has a strong sense of right and wrong.

he was the son of his father and mother.

kukutux felt pride swell in her chest. and she thought gently of callyope.

"it is not right," she agreed. "that is why i am happy that moonglow has come home for the winter. we will be here with strong guardians," and now she looked with approval at the poised boy.

kivaluk takes the swell of protectiveness as a good sign: as a sign that despite his identity struggles and how he fit as a cog into the machine that was moonglow, that it was becoming home. still, there was a part of kivaluk's heart that yearns for natigvik and perhaps always would.

he does not miss her look as she speaks of strong guardians and he offers a soft wag of his tail, glad for the opportunity to prove himself, if nothing else.

i know since i was old enough to comprehend what it meant, that my parents have told us we are family...but thank you for taking us in all the same. kivaluk says then, perhaps coming across as out of the blue despite that his thoughts of natigvik segued into it seamlessly. without kukutux and moonglow, kivaluk wasn't sure what would've came of his small family.

kuktuux nodded. "it is not an easy thing to leave the place of your birth and to come to another village. even if it is family."

she admired his levelness in the face of what he had lost.

"in moonglow there are three hunters. first is sivullik. firsthunter. then secondhunter. and then thirdhunter. first comes to moonwoman and sun man. second takes the place of first. and third often becomes second if there is injury."

her words trailed. she waited for him to consider what she was saying.

a solemn nod leaves kivaluk, glad that she seems to understand. the fact that he missed natigvik and the solidity of knowing his place there wasn't a personal slight to moonglow. it was something he'd been feeling and trying to process since he arrived here. eventually, it would go away. but for now, it's just 'one of those things'.

kivaluk processes the information she presents him with. sivullik, he begins. how does one earn that rank? do you have to work from third hunter to second to sivullik? orr...— he trails off.

the duck nodded. "you work hard and earn one from another. unless there is a place. speak to shikoba and to rodyn. tell them that you have the want to be among these three hunters. they will see that you are given tasks to gain this."

her eyes were clear with approval for this path.

i will seek them out, kivaluk promises her, gaze contemplative as it settles upon the neutral territory spread out before them. and keep up with my patrols. it gave him something to do: hours where he was able to shut out his thoughts and focus on instinct and nothing else.

he looked forward to those hours; which perhaps explained his change of heart from scout to mercenary: it, like hunting, required focus.

thank you. he says again though more and more it does not feel like enough.

fade? <3

she was warmed through with pride and determination.

"you are a good son to your mother. you are a good hunter to moonglow. i see you, nuak." it was good to reclaim the word that she had once used for a thief.

a man who had returned what he had taken and so redeemed the title.

"go. come back to my hearth when it is dark, and i will give you deer fat." moonwoman nudged him and began to turn away, back to her home and the endless chore of leathermaking.