Ouroboros Spine tiniruk ⌓

@Aiolos. kukutux thought of the redsun with a gentle fondness. how did island yuelong fare? they had been far from the destruction that hurt moonspear's spirit and spilled into the glen.

today the woman had wrapped her shoulders in the red foxfur given by raimo. she had meant to give it as offering to the mountain, then as a wrap for sialuk. but the stone had already taken so much, and she was not sure she wished her raindrop wearing something that had been created in grief.

she kept it, selfishly, turning her limping steps to the outward borders. each day she forced herself further; each day she would grow strong, preparing for the future of moonglow.

It wasnt long since the arrival of the former forest wolves. The number of wolves which came to join them sparked a new light into Yuelong despite the dire circumstances from which they came. He could only hope that their arrival would help his Empress out of her somber thoughts and patiently the guardian left her to grieve.

Aiolos remained unsettled still, knowing one of those he cared for greatly had been in the destruction. Once he knew all the new members were settling well enough and that Hua (despite her lack now of leadership) was okay with it, he sought on the help of @Maegi. He explained his reasoning for his leave and entrusted her and her mate, @Mou to take charge as Second in his stead. Aiolos had not known the war-torn woman long but their times together were pleasant, fullfilling...

So the Greek set off, determined to make sure the woman he so longed for in secret was making it alright... He followed along the upper reaches of the coast until he could turn inland, straight through the open meadow and plain. Forward, he saw the short and stout mountains of the Spine and the much greater mountains of the Moonspear chain beyond. A great empty pit ached in his stomach in anticipation and his heart would then fluttered through into his throat when he could see the moonlight glow of Kukuktux pelt ahead, a fiery bright pelt draped over her hackles.

you will have children this year.

i will have children this year.

kukutux had attempted to think of such practically. sialuk was too young to consult, as was meerkat. and lótë had no husband. how could she know the burden of a widow? it was not one she wished for the summermoon to undergo. many choices had been given to the taqqiq. 

firsthunter was chief among them. it was the role given to head-mother in a land of homesteads. he was strong and had built this place alongside sialuk. he had made himself a hunter worthy in the eyes of the moon, though the star reserved her judgement. it was right to place him first. and kukutux had grown silently warmer toward him, on more than one occasion admiring the way that his long legs carried him proudly through the winter, and now to the moon of winterhawks. 

but her mind had stuttered upon names. and she was not ready to think of such. wind, catching at her nape, and suddenly red fur appearing over the curve of one drift. greenstone eyes widened; kukutux lifted her head and turned toward him. now he would see her infirmity, the ankle weakened and held up, but now she set all her legs into the snow and forced herself small mincing steps as her plume lifted against the skywash.

come closer.

and when he did, when anugi shifted aiolos close and close and the bouquet of the sea rolled from his tall frame — only then did her breath catch. "my husband did not come down from the mountain. my son did not either."

after nine days, the words tasted of charcoal banked after the death of a fire, grief still ember-bright upon her tonguetip.

Come closer, she sang and he would heed her word without hesitation. His lean build and tall figure catching the distance between them quick with each smooth step. She stood, a leg once cradled now forced to press to the earth. To not show her weaknesses before him. He knew her to be injured, he'd learned as much and he came not only to pay his respects but to ensure her own wellbeing.

She did not easy into the take lightly. Her words quick to speak of the very possible death of both her son and mate. Aiolos had known Hydra had not recovered from the fallen mountain and many else had yet to be seen. An entire empire to ruin, wiped clean from the wilds in one quick moment.

He could only imagine the grief which she felt at the loss of her child. Grief like @Tzila had however worse for Kukutux in knowing how her son had been lost by her. There was much more likely a chance her son was not coming back. And her mate, too? Aiolos frown deepened. He might of felt a pang of guilt, by knowing the husband of the woman he wanted might be dead. But Aiolos would have never wished the moonlit woman any grief in any manner, including the loss of her husband.

I'm so sorry, Kukutux... His flaming gaze searched the earthy spring of her own, for any doubt she might have. He'd move forward then, to brush his snout along the pale of her cheek and should she not pull away, drape the length of his muzzle and throat over her cloaked shoulder. To hug her, comfort her, if she would have it.

aiolos moved to embrace her, and kukutux answered with a figure that followed in wonder. legs she had believed would stiffen with resistance notably did not; she went to him swiftly and with a sharp little sob that belied the great salt sea behind her aching eyes. and somehow for the moon it was as if the nine days had not passed — at last hot rivulets cut trails along her pale countenance.

her tears she hid from aiolos; kukutux had managed to be silent with them, and now stood with her delicate crown tucked tightly against his shoulder, the slope of her neck warmed by his throat. muscle and muscle the duck relaxed, folding herself close with a single choking sound left. she tasted the bitterness upon her lips. it was unseemly to have aiolos so close. it was untoward to be alone with him. it was forbidden to be touched so by a man who was not her husband. 

all taboos that bound the woman no longer. she was uigganik again. and so the duck clung grimly to the redsun, as much from desperation as affection. aiolos had been a constant in her life before the gods bid moonspear its end. and here he was again.

"you are far from home." breathless in the next, clasping for composure, drawing away to a more polite distance, greenjade eyes suddenly empty, empty.

A sob and she melted to him. He had not expected it but was glad for it. Kukutux was a very reserved and traditional woman as it were. She held her feelings behind herself. It was good for her to release the sorrows which overwhelmed her and he was honored and proud to be the one she did it with.

Silent moments lingered as tears fell from her eyes quietly. He didnt move, didnt speak and maybe in those moments he didnt breathe either.

She steps away and he shifts, his eyes moving over her empty, broken gaze. He doesnt want to have to look at her so hurt but he must.

I had to see you... He breathes, I had to make sure you were okay... He knew she was not, by the expression on her face and his own features acknowledged that too. But she was alive. Aiolos hadn't ever truly known how much she loved her mate, if any true meaning of love, but he did know she very much loved her children and thought Jarilo in the highest regard for being the man to seed them onto her and to be there for them and her.

again, aiolos returning. his voice was only for her. kukutux was reminded of where she had placed the redsun: between man and woman. he was not the latter, but every taboo she had broken in his presence had not harmed either of them. there was a safety granted by his innate respect. jawline tightened; no more tears cascaded along her palewater cheek.

"i live." a bitter intake of breath. the duck turned away from aiolos, pulled away, stared off toward moonspear. "my daughter sialuk lives. we waited for them. we sang death songs for nine days." features contorted again. her gaze fastened to the earth. she would weep no more. "my mind tried with all its strength to remember the correct words. so much, that i forgot that i too must mourn."

and now she had come to it, a widow, emptyhanded. "i am taqqiq here. i was helped to build this village. the mountain that speared the sky toward the moon is a place of death ulax. the glacier of moon songs is a sacred and bitter place. i am here, aiolos."

it felt as though some part of her had died.

And as such, he could only hope she could trust him. That he may never do her any harm and may do for her anything in his power to do. It was something a good friend would offer to another but there was no secrets between them now as to how Aiolos had come to care for her beyond just friendships. He had admitted such before and it was her knowledge of this and given her sudden circumstance that he felt the pang of guilt in his gut. Not because he wished for her but because he wished for her and now Jarilo was gone.

She lived. She had this much but she also had her daughter to live for and, unknowing yet fully to him, a new pack. He listens as she speaks of her daughter, how they waited, how they mourned by a tradition of songs to those fallen. He was silent still, allowing her to speak. She was... moon, here? He thought perhaps he remembered this word. To build this new village, to pick up the pieces of what was left of Moonspear, a guide to those lost after such devastation.

I've all the faith you will guide them well, Kukutux. As you have guided me. She had been a wolf of advice for him a time or two. If there is anything I can do to help, to ease your pain...? He trailed off, his lips pressing to a frown and he cast his eyes downward. He had not been much good for Tzila when he had tried to comfort her. Maybe he could do better with Kukutux. But with how much horror had bestowed his allies as of late, what could he do, if anything, to make it right again?

to help ease your pain.

there were a half dozen plants drawn to mind that could do such but none as she wanted, as she wished.

she thought of raimo and what had come to pass between them;

but now her desire converged with the deep and nameless feeling that kukutux had kept carefully wrapped and carried in a quiet place. she had loved the blackfox as much as she had understood love; even now she felt clawed with sudden guilt upon the name she could no longer speak.

but he had not come down. he had gone to the dancing lights. a last stream of tears and she inhaled. aiolos had become a companion to her spirit, though always and cautiously had she kept him at a distance within her mind, a safe island of acceptable rift. and she found now, fiercely, that she no longer wished to do this.

that she might claim her right a second time;

she was not bound to raimo. he was not bound to her.

"yes," she whispered; let him see the meaning in the way that she looked to him now, curious and trembling against the warmth of her redsun.

Sorry for slacking! Was out of town last weekend. :3

The silence lingered. He waited, breathlessly quiet his heart pounding heavy in his chest. A last soundless tear trailed down her snowy cheek in a silver shine. Aiolos shifts, his muzzle lifting to press his wet nose delicately to her cheek, to stop the tear's flow, to try to stop her crying. It was almost unbearable to see. A mix of emotions, his gut dropped and heart fluttered all the same.

He pulls away there after, not wishing to push her, but wishing to draw her away from him. Once before he had fallen for someone so unattainable... distant like the stars in the skies that they often sat and watched together. Aiolos had been a selfish man. He had been wanting more then she had been willing to give- too attached, too emotional, too clingy.

He wished not the same with Kukutux. Of course their relationship was quite different, unique of it's own. Still, he did not wish to make the same mistake...

And then she whispered but a single word, an agreement upon her lips as she trembled so near to him. The red man takes in a deep breath and he moves in closer still. Again he reaches now to her with more confidence, embracing her in a manner he had secretly wished for so long now. His muzzle moves along her neckline and burrows into her scruff then a kiss to her cheek and ear. Anything you'll have of me... Its yours. I'm yours.

ur posts are lovely anytime they arrive! <3

the redsun was stepping close, and kukutux realized far too late that the aspect of aiolos she had always felt might have been love, and in her chest the great want to answer.

but he was of yuelong, and she was of moonglow; she could no more go to him than she could ask of him to reside here. the rotted truth, the fact of such was that kukutux must think of her home before all else; she must sacrifice her desires to the greater build of what they attempted to achieve here.

but now; for now; she and the redsun could entwine beyond themselves; here they could be nameless, fulfilling only the silent thing that had existed between them, mutually ignored out of an unspoken politeness; kukutux ran her teeth through the crimson hairs of his shoulder.

her injury; she would not let it bar her. such things came at a cost but this the duck was willing to pay, eagerly so; aiolos would embrace her; she hoped he might compel the painful void away from her innermost heart.

Thank you! Back at ya. ;)

Their bodies pressed, she returns his words with silent gestures of affection. He'd not question her judgement, never would. For she perhaps out of all women he had met before was a woman most certain of herself and the decisions which she made.

Moving along her side, his nose would trace the length of her figure. A bit curvier then she had been in Courtfall before motherhood. Her furs thick and plush from winter. And to her broken leg to which he touched gently. The Greek would grasp the fox fur draped over her shoulders and disregard it with a toss the the cold earth so that he might burrow his muzzle into the full white furs at her nape. And then they did the deed.

Aiolos wouldnt know what would become of them beyond this day but for the time being shoved back any and all worries he might have in order to just be with her. It was more then he could have ever hoped for, surely something he never thought to happen, yet at what cost? A quick glance, fiery amber eyes turned to the beaten and broken mountain of Moonspear, now left cold and lifeless as all those who had fallen along with it.

aiolos moved now with a confidence she had sensed in him but not seen; lips parted as he pulled the pelt from her shoulders and warmed her skin with a kiss. it did not matter how they managed, only that they came together in something that danced a good part of the darkness from her spirit. her mouth found the edge of his jaw, his neck, his earlobe; the duck folded herself against him with a tight breathless sound and allowed aiolos to engulf her fully.

***

she stirred against his chest where they lay, greenjade eyes adjusting to the nightfall that had come to envelop them. making no move to pull from the tangle of his forelegs, kukutux yawned, felt the warmth of them together and the soreness of her ankle, tried in a different way. for a long while the duck only lay and watched him, wondering at the stirring of a hundred things in her heart and refusing to name a one of them. not now, not now.

Together they laid, watching at the sun settled to the west, lighting up the mountains in a glow of red and gold. Mountains that Kukutux had now named for herself and those who had survived the onslaught of the Moonspear's defeat. He wondered if she was happy there in her new home, wondered if she only lead as obligation. Much as himself, really, who wouldnt have ever imagined standing next to a woman as equals and even more now standing on his own. Perhaps the woman at his side stayed for her daughter to insure her a good place in her future. Whatever it was, thoughts of her being with him on the coast flooded his mind. Thoughts of what the future may hold for them...

"Is it healing well? He spoke after quite some time of simply relaxing and enjoying one another's company. His ginger and cream muzzle moving to touch ever lightly to her injured limb with the tip of his snout. It seemed to be and he was ever grateful to the Goddesses that this was her only physical damage done and that he daughter too had made it out safely. He hadn't ever the pleasure of meeting her lost son.

"it heals, aiolos," kukutux said slowly, turning his name upon her tongue. a mischievous look crossed her features, half-hidden by the fall of shadow upon her figure. "but now i must rest another hand of days." her voice, dancing, alluding to what they had done.

shame rising suddenly to choke her. what would the shadowhunter think if he knew? but this knowing was not hers to give him, nor his to know. only those that need understanding would have the words. she settled against the redsun, languid, unwilling to be parted from him yet.

"we have had the names of each other for many moons," she commented, thinking to courtfall, to the plateau where they had met again, and how kindly aiolos had treated her though she had carried the blackfox's children.

and the thought — kukutux felt pain and dread stealing into her moments of respite once more.

Her look, shadowed of it's full force, is seen in the dim lighting of the moon and stars. A devious little expression new to him on the face of Kukutux. A new look which pleased and excited him, causing his russet tail to thump on the rocky woodland ground. I'm sorry to have delayed your process... A smirk of his own rises, pulling at the corner of his mug.

If she held shame, she did not show it, aloud her focus upon the present. She rests the length of his body back against him fuller now and one of his front and one back leg lift up to both rest on her shoulder and flank now as they lay.

Indeed we have... He hums, thinking back then when he was months beyond two and now months away from four. Maybe not too long in the grand scheme of things and yet much had happened since.

kukutux moved closer, smirked at him. "i am not so filled with sorrow." yet their words had moved beyond. she thought of what she had said and how he had responded, this redsun of yuelong. a peculiar sensation spread through her comforted figure: he reigned upon the island and she was the moon in the spine-land.

what could be left to them, then? "tell me of your home, aiolos," kukutux urged suddenly, wanting to be shut of her own thoughts.

She'd ask of his home then, of the island. There had been a time or two Kukutux mentioned returning to the coast and Aiolos wanted to be there when she decided such. To see her toes wriggle in the sands, salt water dampening her pelt, the tide of the ocean in her eyes.

Well... He took a breath, letting his words carry him to home, letting them carry Kukutux, so that they may both not worry about the world around them or what the future may hold.

He would explain the island and how one might cross the sandbar to get to it easily if not a skilled swimmer. He spoke of the hillside and the dense coniferous forest in the middle- trees that turned color, died and grew flowers with the seasons unlike many of the evergreen on this part of the mainland.  He spoke of the fresh open beaches and the rocky outcrops with tide pools on the eastern side. He spoke of the plentiful sea food including the 'free food' in the tide pools the the gull eggs on the ledges and how the majority of their large game consisted of sea lion and seal just on the mainland.

When he was finished, his ginger ears perked and he made a grumbled noise under his breath. She could ask more, speak of her own nee home or maybe she had aloud herself to drift off all together.

kukutux was glad that aiolos had chosen to tell her all these things.

she was brought alive by the warmth of the sand described in his soft tones, the taste of salt, the spray of the ocean. not a cold place of forbidding ice that must be respected or else dark sea beasts would arrive — something that inspired the same in the heart of the moon. a place where she might go to be with the redsun. 

but moonglow

"one day i will come to see this place," she said softly. she thought of the eggs and the sea lions, the gulls, and the way the trees shifted their hue through time. "i want to be alone with you there," the duck murmured with a boldness she had rarely felt. but languid here, sated, the snowbird felt a certain kind of freedom working its way through her soul.

The woman laid at his side speaks of coming to visit his home, the home of his Empress in which she founded for them. He couldn't help the thump of his gingered and cream tail against the earth as they lay on at the outskirts of Moonglow's new claim.

I think I'd like that. He would murmur, the corners of his mouth turning up in a playful smirk. And it was obvious his words were not left to question. He knew each time he was able to see Kukutux he cherished so.

fade here? <3

kuktutux would also.

the thought of being free inside his own dominion titillated the duck, comforted her; she mouthed his cheek his chin his throat, folding back against the earth with a look that beckoned aiolos again.

come and love me until the dancing lights no longer waver in my memory.

Yupp! :)

 

Her touch lit a fire inside the man, far brighter then the show of his coat in new morning's light. She beckoned him and as ever did the man obey. He'd give himself to her wholly and would never look back.