Moonspear aliuktuk ⚶

"i am as ready as a woman might be." which was to say, not at all, but it was how a wife must greet her husband's concerns. she must not allow jarilo to fret, and therefore did not tell him of her fears. not for pain, nor for the death of her young brood; nor for the monsters that surely lurked to kill and to claim the babes for their teeth.

leaning closer, kukutux allowed herself a moment of peace, closing her eyes. "in the next hand of days, it feels," she murmured, thinking of the ache in her lower back, the tightening of her abdomen in steady rhythm through the night. at length she glanced down at the snowy rise of her flank, considering. a need? kukutux could think of nothing she wished, only that against the taboos she ached for this man to be with her during the harshness of it. "come to me when it is over," the duck whispered, raising her gaze to his own. "be with me then."