Moonspear This is a thread

for @Sialuk!

Keen kept to the slopes near the bottom of the Moonspear for now, hesitant to ascend further than she had to while she acclimated to mountain living. She did, however, want to see about collecting some stories; Meerkat's words about the long history behind this place had stuck with her. It didn't seem right to ask the sandy woman herself, who was clearly grieving a lost son right now.
So Keen looked for Sialuk, even if her trail led higher up the mountain than her comfort level permitted. She had to get used to it sometime, and she wasn't that scared little girl who hid from the world anymore. A mountain was far from the worst she'd had to brave.

*sweats* i almost missed this one.

Sialuk had met Keen only briefly, having been occupied by other things at the time of her arrival. Now well-rested, the raindrop spotted her and made a path to Moonspear's newest sister. It is good to see your face so soon, she said. Moonspear welcomes you.

The first thing Keen had noticed about Sialuk was her strange way of speaking. Never in her life had anyone told her that it was good to see her face, for instance. She wasn't sure how to take that. Was it just another way of saying it was nice to see her, or was Sialuk really invested in her face?
Smile and nod, Keen, smile and nod. Thank you, She said first, but wasted no time in getting to the point. It's good to see you too. I wanted to talk about something, actually. Meerkat mentioned that Moonspear has a long history. I'd be interested in compiling it and passing it on to newcomers and children - with your consent, obviously. What do you think?

Ah, Sialuk replied, thinking of all the ancestors that had come before her. Much of that knowledge had been lost during the strange storm, but the raindrop knew also that anaa would be able to add to that story where Sialuk could not. She thought too that Kukutux would enjoy helping to craft such a story.

This is a good task, she said, her tail waving thoughtfully behind her. What knowledge do you need of me?

This was a new one for Keen. Usually when she started collecting information for a particular story, it wasn't her idea to begin with; someone else always asked, so they always had something in mind. At first she wasn't sure where to start, how to answer Sialuk's question. Then she remembered that she had been doing this for a long time. Right. Professional. Or something.
It's usually best to start at the beginning, but people rarely remember the real beginning. So... we could start at the beginning of what you remember about Moonspear? There. That sounded like she knew what she was doing.

Sialuk reached back—far back—to her first memories of this place. In my culture, we do not speak the names of the dead. It was my aunt—my father's sister—who led this pack when I was small. She had a husband and children of her own, some older and some born of the same year as braataa. This means 'my brother' in my mother's language. I was not yet a year when the strange storm rained down and killed many of my kin. Few made it off the slopes, and only Kukutux, my mother, and I regrouped on the ring of mountains there. The raindrop gestured with her snout to where village Moonglow still stood.

There, I stayed nearly two years. But when summer came last year, the cloud of what happened still hung heavy over my spirit. I took a journey north to see many new places, new villages, new peoples. I learned many things of them, and it lifted my spirit once more. Always, I knew I would return to Moonspear and turn it to a village of my own making. Before I had gone, I had listened to the ancestors who lay here, and they said I would bring sons and daughters to the mountain once more.

Sialuk began, and Keen was immediately enraptured. No names for the dead — tricky, but workable. Already she was beginning to form a plan, but first she focused on absorbing all that Moonspear's alpha had to say. Meerkat hadn't been joking; this place really did have a lot of history, along with a heavy dose of something strangely like fate, from Sialuk's telling. It was all kind of tragic. But between the big things, Keen saw all the tiny details that needed filing away. Little tells about the culture here, like the way Sialuk referred to her spirit with great importance. Ancestors, too. At the end of it all Keen had many questions, but she started simply.
Can you tell me anything more about your aunt and her reign? A title, she would need to start with a title. For the dead queen first, and then for the others; something that would accurately portray what they were in life. She thought briefly about offering condolences, but decided against it. The loss was years old, and sympathy didn't fit with their purpose here.

Sialuk let the question simmer in her mind for a moment—steeping like a fine tea—before she answered. She was a fierce woman. Stern, but loving of her family. Unforgiving to those who did not follow her way of things. Sialuk did not have more to add. Her aunt had been distant when the raindrop was a child, busy with her keeping of Moonspear and her own young children.

Her husband... I did not know him. He had been even more distant than Moonspear's matriarch.

Mental notes, mental notes! Keen filed this away to sort through later; for now, it was all about gathering information. She nodded as Sialuk spoke. And this... strange storm - how was it strange? Relentlessly into the next question, because that was always her way. This wasn't conversation, this was work. At least, for her.

Large rocks fell from sky. The eastern slope still bears the wounds that it left behind, but they are healing. In a year's time, perhaps two, Sialuk thought they would barely be visible. By then, she would be telling these stories to her grown children. The thought brought a smile to her face.

Keen continued nodding; she would have been furiously scribbling notes if she wasn't a wolf. And your mother, Kukutux, would she know more about Moonspear's history before the er, storm? It didn't sound like any storm she'd ever heard of. But she had heard stranger things, and she did not doubt Sialuk's recounting of the tale. It was just another of those inexplicable, awe-inspiring things that sometimes happened seemingly without reason or precedent. History was full of them, though Keen regrettably had seen nothing so monumental in her life.

we can prob fade here!

The starwoman nodded. She does, Sialuk confirmed. I will take you to her village when you are ready. She can tell the story in her own way. Sialuk's mother had always had a way with words, and many of her stories had sent Sialuk to sleep when she was a younger wolf. Each one a little tale, a small lesson, a guiding moral.

Thank you for the thread <3

Feeling she had collected enough for one day, Keen nodded and prepared to take her leave. Sounds good. Thanks for your time, Sialuk, She said, and with that she said her goodbyes and scurried off to start putting something together. Names, she would need to start with names. A list, maybe, to present to Sialuk and Kukutux for approval. The final decisions would be theirs, of course. It was their story.