Ouroboros Spine piviuttaktuk ⤩

kukutux came back to the ulaq long after darkness painted the skies over moonglow village.

she slipped into the furs, beside @Aiolos; she slid an arm over his chest and sighed against the crimson warmth of his shoulder. "my husband. my sun man. we must speak of what is to come."

beautiful man, wonderful man. she had not yet told him of what she believed to be Sedna's vengeance.

"callyope is gone away. solharr says she had life within. now he wishes to move forneskja." more loss. "yuralria will not return home. will not be moonwoman. ipiktok is filled with the anger of a young man. sialuk has left moonspear, and tiuttuk stays there, almost alone."

"arrluk and ajei will marry. i will ask her to be moonwoman." such a mean thing, this pain! the girl was daughter to her, would be bonded to their son. but she was shikoba's child, and kukutux did not want to cover this with her own name.

"but — sun man. i am tired. these years, i should have only been grandmother. but vaire — i do not see that she will become well."

tired. yes. she shut her eyes.

"and, aiolos, aiolos, i must tell you of agana."

Moonwoman wandered late, thr moon guiding her path. She rest late. Meanwhile Sunman retired for the day before the sun had fallen. So often now he came to almost miss seeing the moon for which he loved, yet tiredness seemed a perpetual state. A winter sluggish hibernation which had yet to ease even into the now spring. He was happy to know when he woke, however, his moonwoman was there at his side. 

He knew Kukutux struggles with all their loss, as she had watched the same in him time and time again. Yet remained blissfully unaware of the spirits which haunted her. Which cursed the name they had created. The Sun and Moon's continued on, when all else was gone. 

He stirs at her side, mumbling and grumbling into awareness. Words he would rather not hear, yet words he must. Callyope gone whilst pregnant. Forneskja shattering. A desperate attempt at finding the next Moonwoman of the Moon villages. Sialuk gone, one of those who had been present so long...

Worry plagues him and yet, when did it not? Daughters left and returned, some did not. Many sons onto their journey into men, never did they return, having forged a path of their own elsewhere. Maybe elsewhere, the name Nuiruk still thrived. Villages thrived. 

I fear our ways are coming to an end, my snow... Maybe they are to die with their Moonwoman and Sunman. The first. The last. 

Aiolos still clung to the idea that Vaire might lead with Valiant at her side. It was not ever to be, it seemed. Then, Agana?? Had he slept so long that he had not realized her return?

aiolos spoke what kukutux feared. in silence she lay beside him, comforted by the warm life in his strong body even as he laid out a future that had been shattered.

aiolos was tired, and it was not an exhaustion she felt could be lifted by more hours of sleep.

"solharr says he will bring forneskja to the place of moonstones."

again, her paw moved over his chest, wakening him, as if to assure moonwoman's heart that aiolos still breathed. "if we die, we will be reborn."

she did not need to explain. he would understand.

"uiga." up she rose on snowy elbow to kiss sun man. "you have the remembering of courtfall. you know the face of agana." in the half light, she looked upon his face. "we were young. almost only girls. we shared a den. a sleeping place. she — her heart. it became mine, husband."

a breath; she lay back down beside aiolos. "now she has come back. now her spirit still wishes for mine."

would he be angry? no; kukutux did not think so. but this was much change for them, for each of them.