Ouroboros Spine suagutsik ⏧

kukutux listened but for a moment she thought of her sister. 

kigipigak might have been her choice for the cloudberry woman at one time, but now that he was her kin, she was a sister to him, as moonwoman thought of him as brother. add to that the knowledge that the young hawk-in-snow had not yet become interested in marriage. lótë was woman and mother. she would not want to teach a young man how to be angutik.

her kinsman would grow more easily in a first marriage. she thought then of meerkat, and considered.

kigipigak was flushed and warm with his storytelling. she grinned. "maybe we will have such festivals for men here. they bring you happiness in the telling of them."

"here there are caribou, kiggavik. they make their winter eating place over the mountains," far east of them. "five days' travel to duskfire and the chieftain wintersbane."

"in the heavy snow, the caribou will wait. moonglow is strong enough now to send a hunting party to them when those days come to us."

the hinting hung in the air. aokatti she did not understand, and moonglow did not yet have young hunters to stamp and bellow. but there were other ways to be proven, even to oneself.