Ouroboros Spine sure would like some sweet company

kukutux was quiet for a span of time. she thought of how long the sea ice stretched over the dark water, of how many days a band of hunters might wander through the blackness before stumbling upon meat. 

"moonspear was too prosperous. they did not know the names of the spirits around them."

but she had known them.

"i did not teach them then."

kukutux did not mean to shoulder the burden entire of the mountain's falling. "when you do not know these names, you do not know the proper way to be. the way that has respect. a wolf gives back to the womb that bore it. and the earth is our womb, ruenna."

the telling of such things had taken much from the duck; she sat silent and wan beneath the curtain of steaming water. but eventually she stirred, and looked at her friend with a soft look.

"there is a man here who should have your wisdom. he is of a good age, he is strong. a fair hunter. he is not unpleasant to the look of another." 

"but he wants no role in this village. he acts only as a man with half his years might."

moonwoman's eyes cleared for a moment of their melancholy. "but zane gives back to moonglow. he helped to make it a village in the first moons. the spirits do not want what is perfect. only what is honorable."