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.

A quiet. They both new that a great reigning generation was coming to an end, without any security of what might happen when they were gone. It was all out of their control, now. 

Maybe she will come back... He murmurs, after she speaks of forneskja moving it's location. Ariadne did. Yet she had left with her husband, not allowed. Then she died, too. Maybe Callyope and her children were safer while gone. Aiolos would never speak this thought. 

His chin then would rest on the snowy paw touched to his chest. I know... They would walk among the dancing lights. The spirits would call them to their eternal home. The Moon and Sea goddess would bless their union into the afterlife. 

Agana. He speaks the name of the woman again. I had promised to show her the sea, once. So very long ago. It was not meant to be. Kukutux was married off. Courtfall had fallen. Aiolos had followed a Nereid to the sea. 

Agana still held love for Kukutux even after all these years apart from her. She meant to pick up where they had left off, as though Kukutux heart did not already belong to another. As though their current marriage did not hold weight. Aiolos was not upset with Kukutux, yet more so to Agana at the thought that she sought his wife without consulting him of this. Nevermind that. All the mattered was, And what does your spirit want? Last time Kukutux opened her heart to a woman, she left not only her but the children they had created. What would Agana do now?

she did not know.

and she was silent, smoothing her paw across the fur of his proud broad chest.

"sakhmet." a long while had passed since such a name was uttered. "i loved her. i have the thinking, aiolos, that it was also the same for you." he had not wanted a second wife, but for kukutux he had embraced the firestarter, the flame-woman. and with her he had made galana, another daughter gone into the four winds.

her eyes blinked up at the ceiling of their ulaq. 

"i do not know in trueness. but i do think agana wishes the same."

not a union in triadic form; she wanted kukutux. was that not what danced in her eyes? was she wrong to assume this of the minkwoman?

"could your own spirit open again?"

honest words had always thrived between them. kukutux did not intend to change that now.

Sakhmet. It had been long enough that now the children the three shared could have children of their own. 

Sakhmet... His voice purs, the sound of her name on his tongue a happy memory. Yet also a sad one. Sakhmet had a spirit so filled with strength yet a heart so painfully broken. Sakhmet was incredibly beautiful. He did not need to speak it for Kukutux to know. I think at first it was the laughter in your eyes when you two spent time with one another that my fondness of her came. 

What love came, I think that it did so the day our latest four were born. To see you two among our children. Sakhmet was not just Kukutux lover then. She was mother of their children. A pleasing sight. A feeling that.... It's was hard to think back to times when so much warmth and love filled this ulaq. 

Now he thought of Lótë. While their marriage was not one of physical nature, it was she which she often thought of most of all from those long gone from their lives. 

Aiolos ponders now and after a moment longer, I don't know. Another pause. Think on it, Kukutux, as will I. The answer will come in time. Her uncertainty was not only spoken but seen in her eyes. Once a long time ago the two women were close and very fond of one another. Yet many, many years had passed between them. They hardly knew one another now. Kukutux always opened her heart to others, yet Aiolos did not wish Kukutux to give herself to someone to make them happy unless it meant her to be happy too.

happy to fade <3

the answer would come in time.

she lay back then, placid, not quite contented but comforted by the mien of her steadfast mate.

it felt, then, a barb to even ask.

agana; she willed her heart to know its limitations, and yet thought of the courtfall woman there for a moment.

she had loved sakhmet.

she had loved their children.

she was not certain her spirit could be wounded in a such a way again.

---