Shadewood maquktuq ⛈

dizzily, kukutux watched as gwen drew closer, touched her softly. for a moment she felt as though she might drown in the eternal blue of the queen's knowing gaze. perhaps it was the idea of family that calmed her, set her lips to trembling with a new emotion; perhaps it was gwen's revelation that she too had lost a husband.

if there was any creature who understood the scar left upon kukutux' soul, it was this woman. she could never be wife to cry in good spirits, not with the rift of love having taken so much from herself and from gwen already. fear, yes, but fear could be dealt with, and harshly. the keep had other men, and if kukutux must travel away from the lands to find another with which her soul might blend, could she not make it so?

"sh'udla'a," came her soft whisper, unfurling from a throat made thick with unshed tears. kukutux lifted the verdancy of her eyes to those of gwen, and for the first time, felt a thawing in the ice that had come to encircle her heart. "it is good to have a sister again."