Ouroboros Spine xlviii. one day, we'll reveal the truth

She had known on some level that the village would not let her or her children suffer, that they would help her when she was unable to hunt her own meals -- confined to the ulaq she had so carefully painted with the story of brother sun and sister moon, hoping it might draw the pale hunter back to her like it had drawn the sun's ivory lover, and her children's bedside. It was still a relief to hear this affirmed aloud, however, and the moonwife's kindness offered some conciliation. 

She would not be wife but widow.

But there would still be joy. She would bring Sivullik's children to her hearth and Moonglow would see them raised as part of a second generation -- a testament of how the moonwolves had grown and flourished since the star struck the land. Like Kukutux and Sialuk, she would rebuild here in the Spine and draw stength from their example. 

"It is good that they will have family -- even if the spiritbear does not return," she did not want to give the horrid thought any weight but she could not cling to disbelief and allow it to become delusion. She must prepare for the event that Adrastus never came home, that she must do this alone. 

Lótë nodded, rising to follow after the wisewoman. If dreaming was where she could see him again, then Lótë could bear it -- at least until the day gave way to nightfall and she could sleep again. That was all she could ask for: to get through it, one day at a time. 

Even as they walked side by side through the dens of their village, resolution sank in her heart like a stone in water. 

If he had not returned by the time she healed from the delivery of their litter, the death songs would be sung.