Ouroboros Spine salummaun ¤

her eyes met his golden ones for a moment but darted away just as quickly again. she could not guess if he remembered her from the few glimpses they'd had of each other around the territory but hoped he did not recall the night he had come with kukutux to the very den they were cleaning out. the dove slunk past him, dropping the ruined pelt where he'd lain the others. she did not speak as she followed his suit, scraping her face against the rough bark of a nearby aspen -- which became stained like the hunter's pale pelt -- for a moment before finding her way back to the path.

she glanced to kigipigak for another second, before deciding against saying anything and turning back. it was a custom of her birth village not to speak or act familiar when laying a dead thing to rest -- lest one draw the wandering spirit of the deceased towards their own essence. she had seen some scavenging animals go mad when they disturbed the village's burials and feasted on the dead flesh of spiritless bodies. 

silently, the woodlander made her way back to the iceman's abandoned ulaq. she was not sure if the pale kinsman followed or if he still lingered behind. inside, she scraped together a pile of dye-stained bone fragments -- the paints they had held splattered against the walls, the shoulder and pelvis bones she had used as platters for the medium smashed to bits.