Ouroboros Spine anittaima ◬

The gleam to her eyes was not a figment of his imagination. Like gemstones they sparkled when she informed him of the price she asked; and while he felt relieved that she tasked him with hunting something which normally wouldn't have presented an issue- had she not specified the colour of the pelts she wanted. White like snow...Even in the higher mountain ranges, he suspected that most of the rabbits would have lost their winter coats by now. They would be fawn-coloured, he thought, like the woman he chose to wed. He frowned softly; did she wish for him to delay his marriage for a year? Or was this a test to see how well he knew his quarry? Was she asking him to do this to see if he would travel back to the North from which he'd come, to hunt down three white rabbits? Even by the time he arrived where the sun never slept- the rabbits would no longer be flawless and white.

He hadn't expected himself to want to bargain for a different brideprice. After all, there were harder things to hunt, and rarer species to track down than three rabbits...Still, he was surprised to be tasked with hunting something that he wasn't sure he could find. It was frustrating, how simple the task seemed, knowing all the while that it would be nearly impossible for him to find three white rabbits this time of year. He sighed softly and nodded; though the frown on his lips deepened.

He couldn't help but feel a bit slighted to have been given a steep brideprice, even though he did feel that she was worth every bit of effort it might take. Perhaps he should have asked Kukutux some time ago roughly how difficult a task it might have been- and he might have begun collecting such particular pelts then. She asked of him, then, that he give his blessing for her to take Aiolos into her hearth; and for a moment, in his disappointment, he considered denying her what she wished.

"I will consider it." He said. He'd need time to think, given the crushing disappointment he currently felt. He was quiet for a moment, his gaze cast out through the mists that rose from the hot springs. "Please forgive my disappointment...I will find three white rabbit hides; but I will not find one as white as snow until the snow falls again this winter...Even to the North where I am from, they would be the colour of slate and fawn by now. I had not expected for our marriage to be delayed so long." He confessed.