Ouroboros Spine ommatik

@Kukutux pls <3
wanted something one-on-one for callyope's timeline before she possibly brings a boy home haha

The evening carried mist, fog. Cold and frigid.

Yet Callyope thought nothing of it as she peaked the spine of Moonglow. How refreshed she looked in spirit! Blind to the way Moonglow had shifted in her own absence, how faces had come and gone. How wants among the people may have changed.

She had told @Melaneus that she would come back in the late night at once, that she only must see her anaa first. If he had questions, she gave the answer of a woman's circle and the importance of women's words to one another. Knowing and trusting him to understand these things the way he had understood everything else she had introduced him to.

She had left with a warm feeling and carried it even now, as she approached the fresh scent of her anaa. Crooning a low warm note of arrival — and that she had words to share!

/FLAIL

it seemed as if kukutux had seen an answer to her prayers.

first kausiut had returned, willing to settle among the village of her birth for a time. and then stratos had come back, speaking of not one wife but two!

now callyope called. kukutux greeted her daughter and saw that she carried a clear, high expression, one of a woman and not a girl.

the day was cold but the ulaq was warm. kukutux gave the young wolf a strip of dried meat and turned her eyes on her daughter, silent, encouraging. waiting.

She could not even think to eat!

Too delighted to see her mother and although she should share words of spirits, it felt better to speak of their own realm first.

There is a hunter, a boy!

She paused for a moment, voice hitched and eyes bright.

a hunter.

a boy.

kukutux was swift to thank tooteega! "tell me of this hunter, my daughter."

the duck noticed how callyope did not eat. how excited she seemed to be!

He is kind and good! He is understanding. He is handsome.

And here her cheeks burned hot, yet she could not contain herself. Finally pleased that somebody wished to hear her blabbering about her Dying Sun!

I met him before. I called him Dying Sun, he lived in the dark with his family. We meet again! Now...I think he was alone and I did not wish him to remain so. He agreed to stay with me.

callyope spoke with much enthusiasm. kukutux found it hard not to smile.

it sounded as if her daughter had found her own sun hunter.

"do you bring him here as friend or as husband, my sweet-snow? i would like to know his face, this dying sun who has brought such happiness to your heart."

Her face burned hot, warmth in the freeze.

The question was to be expected. It was why Callyope had come, after all. Words should be exchanged and things learned as she came upon her first year.

I would like him to decide it. She admitted meekly, looking down at her own paws and the dried meat they held. I...think he would be good. As husband. He must want it too!

And yet she felt herself in no grand rush. Only glad she had found him once more when she had.

moonwoman nodded in agreement. "bring him to this place. make an ulaq together. see that you can live as one before you marry."

for that reason she worried over stratos and the possible two wives. women quarreled at a hearth when they realized it was not what they wanted. the way of the duck's people, the long engagement: it grew with young affection and showed the two what they needed to make a fine marriage.
 
her eyes danced. "when the snow comes again it will almost be time for you to be anaa, if it is your wish. these moons between, learn all the ways of your dying sun."

Her cheeks flushed at once. Warm and simmering. An ulaq together! For so long she had stayed alongside her mother, father and siblings.

Now her time had come to open up beneath the guiding hands of Moonwoman.

I will.

She reminded herself that he must want it too. That she would give him only the things he asked for, he had a heart for. She remembered him, waiting her return down in the forests below the spine.

I must return to him! Then I will bring him here, before you.

Her eyes were warm even as her gut softly tumbled and twisted.

"halmudaxs."

each side of her daughter's face, granted a kiss. moonwoman embraced the budding anatkuk and stepped back.

"i will pray to old mother tooteega for you."

and with that, moonwoman sent her daughter off into the wild winter and the promise it held in this dying sun.

And off she went!

Off, off, off. Down the spine and into the woodlands to collect her treasured Dying Sun.

To whisper things to him for only them and to bring him home.