Ouroboros Spine avaalaruk ⋕

backdated to june 24th, mostly for reference <3 no posting order, optional responses: @Aiolos @Callyope @Panuk @Kigipigak @Vairë @Valiant @Peregrine @Nasamiituuq @Faele @Kyrell @Tulugaak @Tautukpik

grandmother, i cannot do this.

not again.

ariadne did not stir as she was carried, her arms limp, her eyes silent.

grandmother, i cannot do this again.

aiolos, stricken, silent.

kigipigak; she felt the strident tangle of his emotions.

kannoyak was voiceless.

that they had lost their lives together did not escape kukutux.

grandmother, as her body ached entire, as she felt only numbly the earth of that hard-packed trail, i cannot do this.

you can. you must.

lynx's eyes, flashing.

long shadows cast by many figures. ariadne and kannoyak lay side by side on fine caribou pelts outside the ulaq.

kukutux could not stop herself from staring at the empty face of her daughter, remembering another.

another daughter. another time. a spreading pool of blood dried to cold. a death ulaq built beside the sea.

no blood this time, in thankful chance. this time. this time.

there should have been no more times.

for a long time kukutux said nothing, hardly aware of what went on around her. she forced herself back from the land of shadows for the sake of tautukpik. a sister gone. now a mother. her heart broke for this boy more than for herself, for the children ariadne had left behind.

at last her voice sounded, hoarse, shattered; "we will bury her beneath firemother, so that little fox may know that his mother walks with him." and she would build a death ulaq there for them both.

a soft paw touched the cold foot of the man who had been kannoyak. "i did not know all of his ways and not the ones for death. we will let him sleep in the grove, near to shikoba."
weakness grasped her; sickness; dizziness; rage, rage, an endless black rage which suddenly shimmered under her skin; "i will begin the death songs for them both tomorrow."

a thousand more years descended upon kukutux, crushing her; she laid her head upon ariadne's shoulder and closed her eyes in utter desolation.

ariadne.
dead.
he had only spoken to her just recently, just barely able to catch up with the fiery girl who had never left his mind since that blustery autumn morning. they had never been close, she and he, but they — hadn't had the chance.
ariadne.
dead.
his friend. a young woman with her whole life ahead of her. a young woman with children.
dead.
when he saw her body, peregrine let out a wordless, otherworldly sound. how could a girl so beautiful in life look so — he was going to vomit, surely, his heart dropping to his stomach and knees buckling, extremities numbed with shock and horror.
his breath seemed to escape him, as did his thoughts.
her children.
her parents.
moonwoman, a mother whose child had been stolen from her not once, but twice —! anger anger anger rage this wasn't fair. why her? why her? why —
reticent as he gathers at the sound of the call, at the announcement of death songs; his eyes sunken, his limbs wobbly. anyone who dared speak to him was quickly sent away with a flash of his teeth.
why ariadne?
peregrine did not sleep or eat that night.

She was ready, she had decided.

It would not be easy. It would never be easy. Yet she knew it was better for all to do these things now and not wait forever.

What she was not ready for was her mother's grief. So raw, so palpable. It was another thing she would not know as a woman who still was no mother.

Her eyes closed heavy.

She noticed now how she stood as only child of her litter.

She wanted to be here, but if her mother laid alongside bodies, then she must go help other preparations.

The death songs would be tomorrow.

She would be ready, she had no other choice.

They lay outside the ulaq in an eternal sleep together; she and the pale man he did not know, yet Kigipigak saw himself there when he looked, and he could not look for long.

Soon would come the death songs.

A daughter was still missing. Kigipigak needed to go back to Brecheliant; words must be spoken, news shared, a hunt continued.

Time was still. The world quiet, claustrophobic. Kigipigak had no words.

Aiolos had not spoken a word since the Neverwinter forest. Not since he had told his daughter to wait at the lake bed edge and he had swam out into the waters. Not since he burst from the surface, his scream shaking the stillness of the forest. 

They brought both Ariadne and Kannoyak home. A long, painfully and soul wrenching trek. 

They did and Ariadne was laid to the earth. And his wife laid down with her. And Aiolos laid near her. Eventually, when everyone dispursed - to pass the message on, help with the death ulaq or otherwise - Aiolos retreated to his ulaq and did not come out until the funeral began.

For the third time in his duration at Moonglow did tragedy strike. In many ways these wolves were still strangers to him; as he was to them. But it was as he watched the moonwoman prepare to bury her own daughter did the enormity of the sorrow dawn upon him. Not of just Ariadne and Kannoyak, but of the previous deaths.

Death songs had been sung previously. They would begin again. Songs that he did not know the words to but finally understood the intent. He had no place in singing them, but in the following days to come Kyrell would offer himself however he could. Be it to assist in collecting materials or in breaking earth, he would be present if desired. It was the least he could do.