Ouroboros Spine lifeline

@Kukutux 

The god that shared Kausiut's body and mind had lied quiet lately. Child's willpower had proven to be stronger than the Fallen one had anticipated. It could not make her do anything she did not want, which did not mean that it did not try. Again and again. This conflict between two driving forces was a source of Kau's permanent anger. She heard it talk in different tongues, she refused to answer. It refused to be ignored. 

There they were in constant battle day after day, not realizing that gradually it and her merged together. One could not longer be separated from the other. One would be nothing without the other. If one's body and soul were to perish, so would the other. A consequence it had not predicted, when it had chosen to attack an underestimated target. 

It could not control her, but it could show her a glimpse of his world. And there she was one winter night, her single eye fixated on the Northern lights dancing above her head. She was eerily still and quiet, frozen still as if in a trance, unaware that she had sat like this for hours, that her paws were numb from the cold, that her body no longer trembled to keep her warm. 

Kau had forgotten that she was here, mind travelling thousand miles away there amidst the stars and the lights and all, who inhabited the realm inbetween.

she speaks to the ones who you cannot see

she speaks to those beyond

kukutux searched for kausiut in the snow. she called out to her daughter. but she knew that there would not be an answer.

piksiksuk.

moonwoman swung in desperate circles.

kausiut was not so distant from the village.

the dancing lights grew tall and at last in their glow, she discovered her daytime star, pierced through with a horrible cold with her gaze unmoving upon the place of the spirits.

all that kukutux had ever believed of kausiut was known in that moment. that she was not in their present. that she had been touched not by the creeping monster of birth but by the old ones. and third, now, as she wrapped herself around the girl, third: that the gods had seen the loss of her son and made a way for her daughter to speak.

"sacred child," she sobbed out, seeking to warm and soften kausuit's too-cold frame. "please do not leave this face that i love."

Colourful geometric shapes and fractals, a kaleidoscope of images that Kausiut had no name for, but perplexed her and held her captive. She was unable to look away. They were everywhere, where she turned her gaze, also when she closed her eye. She wished it to stop, but it felt as if this abstract scenery had life of its own. Completely independent of her. 

Nothing up until this moment had ever scared her, but now she felt afraid. Her source of courage had been the firm belief of her being invincible. She had never doubted herself, but this thing that was going on seemed to be inextricably bound with, who she was. Her steel willpower was not enough to stop this. 

Suddenly someone embraced her and the surprise of this made Kau snap out of her trance, long enough to bury her face in the soft fur of her mother's neck, "Anaa..."  she spoke quietly. "Stop it..."

she spoke!

anaa

kukutux pulled herself away and stared with wild jadestone eyes at her daytime star. she felt kausiut's breath upon her fur. "i cannot. i am your mother."

she did not know why she had been told to stop. it did not matter. her daughter had spoken words and kukutux felt her spirit ease in burden. the birth of this child had shaken the duck's faith in herself. now it was soon to be restored.

Before Kukutux had shaken Kau's belief system that she was invincible and all-powerful, she should have started with simpler things. Such as telling that Santa Klaus, Easter Bunny or Tooth Fairy were not real. The truth that parents are just humans, doing their best, but failing just as much as anyone else, is something to learn gradually. Definitely not like this. 

Kau would remember those words later. For now, she let them slide, content that in the safety of her mother's embrace, she could close her eyes and see nothing but darkness. That was the level of help she needed and seemed to work for the time being.

she had thought kausiut meant to push her away.

but kukutux had shown her weakness.

only both aspects of what she had said were each true.

she could no more keep kausiut from the spirits than she would forbid them her daughter.

the daytime star slept. kukutux too sighed into slumber.

After few peaceful minutes together, Kausiut felt her usual angry energy seep back in her veins, warming her from within and waking her from the dizziness the experience had caused her. While still in Kukutux's embrace, she opened her single eye, a low growl emanated from the depths of her chest and she swiftly removed herself from her parent's presence.

She shook her coat, as if this moment of closeness had been a brutal breach of the unspoken code "I don't need anyone". She shot a disdainful glance at the aurora that still shone bright above her head, bared her teeth at it and yelled: "YaarK!" Which was as close to "go to hell" in her vocabulary as possible.

as swiftly as their time had been soft, kausiut was away.

her teeth were bared. there was a threat in her throat. kukutux blinked in pain and in helplessness. "come to sleep," moonwoman urged as she stood to her paws and strode a short distance away.

it was too cold to be alone. but did her star feel the touch of the winter when she was away at the lights?

Kausiut looked away from the sky and met her mother's gaze. She furrowed her brow, not understanding, why was there sadness all of a sudden. The girl was unable to connect her indirect actions to the sorrow (for disappointment would be too strong of a word) Kukutux may have felt for having a daughter that did not yet fit any traditional frame. That resisted every attempt of being guided onto a certain path.

She shrugged and followed her mom now, stubbornly focussing her gaze on all things that were on the ground, refusing to look up even just once.