Ouroboros Spine malitjuagak ▱

before dawn, kukutux had woken @Wilwarin and her mother. "i take her now for the healing," she murmured, touching her sister's shoulder and looking encouragingly toward the daughter they shared.

where inkalorë more and more wore the parka of their mother, wilwarin was the child who looked like the one to whose hearth she had been born. kukutux did not speak his name. to her he had died when he spoke in such ugly words and then desecrated the place of lótë. she believed truly that a spirit had taken his place.

it did not escape her that out of all the children, wilwarin had suffered the most. and it did not escape kukutux that it might be the evil of the former sivullik, attempting to take his child.

but she was not his. she belonged to her mother and to moonglow.

kukutux led wilwarin high above the spine, to where her altar waited. here was blood from the cut throat of a rabbit, cooling rapidly. she daubed it to her paw, then forehead and chest, and reached to do the same for wilwarin. "when we come before the spirits, when we speak to them, we must wear this so that they see us through the veil of the dancing lights," she explained.

moonwoman settled herself across the limp body from wilwarin. ukpikivikak. she closed her eyes and began to sing into the air.

mother spirits, we call you now.

we bring you a daughter who has been wounded.

aya, we cannot see her pain with our eyes.

we ask that you lift this from her.

Amil had explained it somewhat -- she did not go into the woods blindly. Anaa was going to take her up into the mountains but not for fun or to hunt. They were going to speak with the spirits so Wilwarin must be respectful, listen to what her pale mother instructed her to do. It would heal the parts of her that had been made sick with fear. 

Her mother had taken her to wash in the hot springs, to purify herself the way people did in the Land of the Many Elms. It was not supposed to be fun but there had been a small thrill that zinged through her chest to rise and bathe while the stars still winked in a night sky the color of Ló's coat. 

When her father's first wife came to collect her, Wilwarin touched her nose to Lótë's and moved to Kukutux's side. The wintry nymph trailed along with Anaa in quiet alertness, filled with anticipation. The girl touched her muzzle to moonwoman's ribcage as they set off, almost like the way a child would take a guardian's hand. 

The altar was a curious thing to see, though not altogether disturbing. Her mother sometimes used blood for her paints. The youngest Nuiruk let her honeyed eyes drift shut as Kukutux dabbed the ruby liquid on her face and chest, opening them to take in the words with an owlish blink of understanding. 

She sat close by the pale healer as she sang, trying very hard to not wag her tail as she watched the wind dance in the trees as if in time with the melody. 

wilwarin was gentle and acceptant. but kukutux wished to reach beyond the veneer of the dutiful girl.

her breath sharpened in the pit of her throat and the greenway eyes closed tightly for a long moment.

"they are here."

the watchful eyes. the knowing ones. the soundless tread of lynx. the aged shuffle of tooteega. kukutux turned to face into the cold air and opened her gaze.

she looked upon the place where the dancing lights might dance.

"speak to them, wilwarin."

moonwoman's voice was firm with encouragement. "tell them of what you have suffered."

Wilwarin glanced around but did not see anyone but then, perhaps spirits weren't meant to be seen. Or perhaps it was only the butterfly who could not see them. Even so, she could not deny that the air did feel different -- charged with some electric force that the youth could not comprehend. 

Her brow rippled with a hint of perplexion, uncertain if the pale dove meant the words literally. Wilwarin could not speak, not in the same way that the other villagers of the Spine could. Would that matter to the spirits that her mother had called? Would it make any difference, make her unworthy to them?

With a deep breath, the runt nodded and rose to her feet. She padded a few hesitant paces forward, gaze searching the place that Kukutux seemed to be peering into. 

'I was lost in the wilderness...away from my Anaa and Amil, away from Taataa and my siblings. Away from Amil 'oba. I was alone...and didn't know what to do. Amil found me...and then the bear found us.'

Her gilded gaze dropped to the earth, ashamed to admit what came next.

'It was my fault. I wandered into the bear's ulaq...I didn't know it lived there. It hurt my mother because I was stupid.' Tears filled her eyes and she squeezed them shut to keep the salted drops from falling. 

moonwoman's heart hurt to think of what wilwarin and her mother had experienced.

"no. you are not stupid. you are young. you do not understand danger until you have been taught. until you have seen."

her voice was soft. she closed her eyes and lifted her voice in the same words again, a chat that undulated to and fro.

"when the one who is called adlak comes to us, it is for a reason. bears have much strength. your mother is marked by its totem now."

kukutux looked deep at wilwarin, searching the sungold eyes. "you were born of a bear. now a bear shows itself to you again. in you there is a great thing you have not yet discovered."

Wilwarin opened her eyes, sniffling back the tears in embarrassment. She was half grown, she would not blubber like a baby. Her mother's words reassured some part of her, the unspoken part that had been rattled by the event and blamed herself. The nymph had not considered things in the same light, hadn't given herself the consideration that she was still a child. 

'Amil was protected by the spirits then? By the bear? Not punished?' her brow furrowed as she tried to understand. 

Her gaze searched Kukutux's in return, trying to decipher what the moonwoman meant. She didn't know what it meant to be born of a bear. With a deep breath, she asked, 'How do I discover it? The bear in me?'

kukutux nodded. "each spirit chooses in a different way how to show their face. for many, they give pain first and a lesson after. a powerful totem has chosen your anaa. do not fear it."

the duck smiled encouragingly. "when i had the age of you, a lynx chased me upon the snow. i was frightened. for two sunrises i hid. but when i returned to my village, i saw that no fear was inside me now."

wilwarin and her mother had faced a great and harrowing thing. it had broken neither of them. the look of their strength was great.

"what is the feeling in your spirit now?" the duck's jade-gaze was soft, affectionate.

Wilwarin blinked at this revelation, golden eyes widening and a deep breath sucking into her lungs as she found herself captivated -- spellbound by the story Kukutux told. A nod punctuated moonwoman's words, a dip of her wintry crown borne of understanding. She knew the fear that came when predator became prey. 

The pale child's brow furrowed, ears tilting back as she grew still and tried to concentrate on what she felt in that moment. 'It feels strong. Like I can be not afraid anymore too. I can be the bear like Amil.' She glanced up at the healer, almost as if checking that she was correct to feel this way. 

kukutux closed her eyes with a reverent relief.

when she opened them, it was to lift her gaze to the heavens.

the strength of grandfather bear resided now in wilwarin.

"the bear is now the totem of your mother. when you become woman, the bear may become yours as well."

a woman with a strong spirit inside her may not be mother, but perhaps she would be many other things.

or perhaps she was both.

the ceremony was ready to be concluded. she lifted her voice, willing wilwarin to do the same.

Wilwarin allowed a small, wonder-filled smile to grace her features at Ajâtsuk's words -- a sense of pride and magic flowing through her veins at the thought she and Amil could claim such a powerful animal as their protector. 

Tipping her head back, the sprite howled with her stepmother -- a song of release and courage, a song of strength. A song for her mother in the village that they would both be okay.