Firefly Glen ivalu ✦

pukkeenegak, kukutux thought silently. please prepare me for what is to come. be with me.

it would be her last trek alone for a long while, and the duck had made her way to the glen. at her feet, an offering of fish and the early buds snipped from a willow. i have observed pittailiniq. if i have earned your reward, give breath to my children when they decide to be born.

she paused, considering the formality of a prayer; the girl's frown deepened as she stared toward the earth. may @Jarilo find me worthy if i give him a son. i ask you for this, kukutux added, and then breathed with relief to be completed. the fish was left, the new leaves as well; she bowed low her crown and began to trek back toward her ulaq.

As ever, the glen was a suitable place for hunting. At least parts of it—there were places that he did not dare to venture, not quite willing to stray too far from Moonspear’s reach. Though truthfully it wasn’t the necessity of hunting that drew him out there. Osiris had gone out at some point, his scent weaving past the borders into the fringes of their claim where these hunting grounds existed. It wasn’t fresh, but it wasn’t old either, and Dirge’s features had set to a frown if only for the memory that it was here his son had been attacked, and it was here that he felt prying eyes most certainly lurked.

But where exactly Osiris had gone was a mystery to him, one that he wasn’t so sure that he wanted to pry into, and thus the guise of hunting became a more fluid reality. His son had returned, presumably, and there would be much to occupy all to whisk away thoughts of ventures long term.

He found an old trail to follow, one still in use, and carried on in his attempt to lay wonder to rest… when Kukutux cut clean into his line of sight through the part of tall grasses. Now this, he could have a more present interest in and so he called to her gently, his course altering to join the trek she made. Was she alone? He wanted to doubt it, and his gaze wandered all the same, curious if Jarilo had come out with her.

it was done in silence as she plodded, but kuktutux offered also a prayer to isitoq for arcturus, and then another to aulanerk for revui.

the inner words were followed almost immediately by the soft voice of dirge, and the duck paused to greet him with a deferential backfold of her pale ears. "ai, brother," the rounded girl greeted. 

what had brought him about? perhaps he looked for danger that threatened his newborns, though belatedly wondered if dirge would not take warmly to her small outside journey.

Brother.

It had been a long while since such a term had been handed to him, and if it had disturbed him he went to pains to hide it imperceptibly even when the thought of his own sisters crossed his thoughts then and there. It was far easier to greet her with a jovial wave of his tail, a faint smile tugging at his features as he met her pace.

There was still no sign of Jarilo yet; he would forfeit his hunt to keep her company.

“Enjoying your final days to stretch your legs?”

she knew he was near, her husband. jarilo had never been ignorant of the changes in his new wife; he had perhaps paid more attention to kukutux than any other man she once knew.

there was a sense of finality stealing over the girl, driven into formal state by dirge's words. though directness about the ways of women were commonplace in moonspear, it took the streambird off-guard. "yes," she answered rather breathlessly, lowering her gaze in respect. how had he known?

"i think ... i feel it will be soon." the spirit shouted in shame as kuktutux had spoken — so crass! — but how else was she to make conversation?

“Most likely. Even Hydra gave in to fits of restlessness towards the end. This time and last time,” he recalled with a humored note. Kukutux does not strike him as much different at this stage, though he was notably ignorant of what she had been out there to do. Ignorant of just what worries could have possibly consumed her, though that too he would have likened to those his nursing wife had.

His gaze turned to her then, curious.

“Are you ready to meet them? I must admit, it is exciting to know our children will have more company,” and he felt that way in part because of Hydra, who seemed most thrilled for it of all. For whatever reason, Alya had not progressed to motherhood, nor Lyra, and yet the two partook where they could. Yet his happiness for them was genuine—Jarilo too, was deserving of what this event would bring.

so much to take in at one saying. kukutux had been a fixture in moonspear for some time now, but realized only now that she had just begun to settle. with the brotherly upheaveals, hydra's pregnancy, the she-wolves in heat that had trailed too close, and the edict that there were aglux killing in the lower lands, it was a wonder peace had finally come.

dirge was mentioned more for his children, and kukutux realized belatedly that he meant her own could offer companionship after they had grown somewhat. it was a taboo, but so many had been broken. yet this swayed her more, for it was unlucky to speak of a child's future until they had reached nine moons. and for she a new mother, to think of the breaths her children had not yet taken — kukutux swallowed. why must things always be so difficult in the translations? dirge meant no harm.

but it was all she had known. "jarilo is happy, and i am grateful for having the way to prove myself," she finished awkwardly, hoping it would satisfy her leader. but she had done nothing yet, only carried them. "osiris told me he had excitement for his new sisters and brothers."

When she mentioned Osiris, he couldn’t help but smile; he was proud of his son, of his children. Though the excitement one held was known, it pleased him to hear it secondhand as much as he was glad that Osiris did not shy away from making connections with the rest of Moonspear. Better that he had excitement for those things instead of fears, or to harbor jealousy towards his newest siblings.

“I am glad that he is excited,” he murmured, “as am I. For yours, and for mine. I have never been an uncle,” though that, was untrue. He had not forgotten Nyx’s unfortunate litter, but that was neither here nor there now. Something else better left forgotten, at least in spoken word.

He forged ahead, humored.

“But I think you needn’t worry about having to prove yourself still. Hydra is fond of you, and we haven’t scared you away, at least, and that’s more than enough.”

the leader's pleasure in his son satifisfied some small place in kukututx that this was truly a clan. his words upon the babes she carried now elicited her own grin. "where i am from, the word we use for one's uncle is akkaq." a pang now, thinking of arcturus, of revui. yet her children would not be without that familial pillar. dirge remained in moonspear. "i look forward to their first meet," the waterbird murmured.

his next statement turned her gaze downward in contemplation. she would not outwardly agree, but only until the duck brought her children from the formless place of their womb would she warrant such. he was a kind man, a kingly man, but it was something kukutux did not know how to explain. "you and hydra have given me a home here, and jarilo is here. for that, moonspear is in my heart." an honesty, for this verdant wild place had become her soul's ulaq.

He smiled again with her words.

It was reassuring, perhaps to some degree, to know that she held Moonspear in her heart. With all the turncoating and core rattling events that transpired in a short amount of time, it was a wonder that they didn’t crumble or fall in on themselves. And for as much as he hoped that they would move past it, he also could not help but entertain what the next twist would be from the keening blade that sought to cut them.

But it would come another time; he could busy himself otherwise.

“Akkaq,” he said slowly, testing the word. Languages were never his strong suit, at least beyond that of their shared tongue; it was cumbersome, he found, but not impossible. “I’ll have to remember that. Quite an interesting language… did you come from far away? I’ve never heard a tongue like that before.”

"yes," she murmured softly, unable to keep herself from contemplations of the island. "a cold place, with ice upon the sea. we hunted the seal," kukutux offered, wondering if dirge would know of the place she spoke. "i find i think in that tongue, and also your own, now." 

everywhere it was spoken, and moreover she could go nowhere without speaking common. thus, as moonspear, it had become a second nature to the duck. "have you always lived in these lands?" she inquired politely, though kukutux was genuinely interested to know from where hydra's mate hailed.

A cold place, a northern place. He had been to northern lands before, but they had not been to his liking. ‌While abundant with its own treasures untold and unseen, it was a bleak place with a mute palette. He thought the same of deserts too, in fairness, but also knew that both required a certain sort to reside there. Hardy and clever; many wolves that resided here had those qualities too.

“No, I’m not from here,” he said vaguely. “I’ve been here for quite some time now though, perhaps arguably most of my life. Where I came from isn’t northern and cold like your own, but more… temperate. Better weather, if I‌had to cede a positive over here. It was much more south of here than this place.”

He discovered that he struggled to recall the place. The emotion, however unpleasant, still lingered… but the overall memory of the place had given way to dust and rot and perhaps all the better for it. But none of this he found himself inclined to let on about—he felt he could remember enough to conjure an image.

In the spirit of their conversation, he decided he would try.

“Instead of icy oceans and seals, we had mountains and their waterfalls with deep valleys; rivers that cut through them, fast and wild. I’d almost be willing to say the mountains there made this one seem small,” he recalled loosely. His brow furrowed as he grasped for what he did remember. “The eastern side of mountain range was a dry place. I think it led towards the sands. It was a very long time ago now,” he admitted with the shake of his head.

he too had come from mountains and rivers, and kukutux listened raptly as dirge described his homeland. she had not heard so many words from him, but they did not rush like falling water. instead, the snowduck found that her leader was as kept and controlled as the other men of moonspear. 

they kept themselves beneath their tongue, though dirge seemed passionate in his creation of images for her. "even if you do not remember it all, it seems to remain in your heart," she ventured, wondering if her suggestion would be seen as insult. "some seconds i wish to go home, and then others i know all i have come to love is here."

"I suppose it does remain there," he said, and thought it best that it did. Though he did not recognize the futility in such, he still tried to strip away the pieces and parts that had once been for favor of what would be. With such he found he did not quite understand the pull she had for home, but could liken it to the same pull he had simply to go, to wander. It was a mute thing even now, a whisper behind veil like the ones that filtered through the many crevices and divides of the mountain range like fog.

"Moonspear makes for a good home, even if it does not match up to what we came from."

i am so sorry you've waited so long. i'm so busy. :(

ur writing is worth the wait! <3 i hope u get a break for u soon tho

kukutux could not have picked up the threads to weave how she felt toward the sun-isle. it remained in the forefront of her mind. she would teach her mother's lessons to her daughter, given that she was granted one. and she would ensure her father was placed in the heart of her son. 

but her last memory of the land in which she had been born were stained with death.

a swallow; her smile darted away for a moment, and then kukutux returned to herself. "i felt it must be, the first night that i came." that was the evening she had met jarilo, after all, and refused to let herself think of arcturus beyond a fleeting wonder.