Northstar Vale cradle songs of comfort & bones gnawed by teeth

since that day, kukutux had avoided agana as much as she was able, given their proximity to one another. her slumber had been convulsed with wakefulness, wonderings about the sensation in her chest which made no sign it would be leaving, and intensified when the mink's visage crossed her mind's eye.

kukutux threw herself headlong into winter tasks: she gathered what little edible grasses there were, stripped gristle from the underside of hides and chewed it into paste, spent long hours along in the frosted vale searching for those rare snowflowers that only grow in empty fields. she fished when she was able, jealously guarded her catches from bold, hungry rooks, and froze sticks of hare-meat and pika flesh in the caches.

so many tasks she took until nightfall finally brought an exhausted sleep that chased away all other thoughts or considerations of what had happened between herself and agana.

it was a quiet girl who met their silent pale undómiel upon a frost-hardened path. she let her lips light with a friendly smile, small crown dipping in a bow — but she did not wish to be stopped, oh she did not wish it! for then all those things might return.