Moonspear inca mummy girl

The tawny female listened to Sialuk's voice as the girl formed the words that were foreign, and yet understandable, to the new Moonspear's ears.  She wondered if all tongues had similar sounds for mother and father names.  She spoke only the common tongue herself, and had only rarely encountered those who spoke another language.  Something in Sialuk's name and snowy appearance, and the terms of taataa and anaa, seemed to speak of tundra and ice; this was perhaps a holdover from stories heard in her youth and stored unconciously, for Tehama had no real recollection of why she had the association.

"I will have to tell Jarilo and Kukutux of your skill," Tehama smiled.  "And I'll bring by something to thank you."  It was indeed a minor wound, and surely would soon be healed and forgotten, but with luck Sialuk's intervention would keep fever and bad humors at bay.  

"I am new to Moonspear, and haven't met many of the pack yet," was the woman's explanation.  "I have made the acquaintance of Bronco, Keres, Dirge, and Altair."  She knew that Hydra, Jarilo, and Kukutux were names she could now attach to a part of the scent of Moonspear that clung to her own fur, and could tell something of their individual markers by the differences in the composition of that smell that Sialuk carried.  She resolved that she would meet them soon enough and know them by sight as well as scent.  

She mused then over the fact that Hydra and Dirge were not the only mating pair with pups in this pack; perhaps, like Thousand Rivers, they were lenient enough and prosperous enough to let other pairs bring forth new life.  That was how her own half-siblings were permitted to come into the world, but she knew not all pack leaders would allow such a thing.  For that reason, she had not really considered her own prospect of motherhood since her future as leader of Mount Mirror had been shattered, and she remained oblivious to considering it now.  At three years of age, she felt like something of an old maid, and had entertained little to no thoughts of romance or procreation in quite some time.  She was an older sister, a puppysitter, a spinster, even if only in her own mind.  Only meeting a promising youth like Sialuk reminded her gently, and a bit painfully, like an old bruise, of what might have been.