Firefly Glen everything is(n't) going to be okay

kukutux could not have explained why she came to the glen.

antares had gone and had not come back. her never-departed sense of ostrega-blood had sent her out to look for him. but his scent was not here, and she feared that he had gone farther than she had wanted. that he did not intend to return. it would fall to her, then, and to sialuk, to remember their family through stories and recollections.

she came also to see if the boy had traipsed through, and as she walked, the duck's voice lifted in a lilting song. its words would not translate well to the common tongue; it was a working song, something to while through the hours and greet the spirits that walked alongside travellers.

night mother came and put her arms around kukutux. fireflies, they had been called, these bobbing dots of light in the air. the voice of the blackfox in her head, his smile haunting the place behind her eyes.

when she returned to herself, moonwoman found she was not alone. a man lay near, clothed in a loamy parka, eyes trained toward the sky. kukutux lifted her own head, watching the velveteen spread of obsidian exist above them. 

she said nothing.