Kildeer Rest suammaktuk ≜

towhee's laughter was like the call of birds. kukutux found it to be a familiar sound. and the other's amusement informed her own. her own laughing had come by the end. she wanted to say that a woman who was free to seek her own pleasures and her own path might be encouraged to do so now, before the warm months returned.

the duck nodded with a new reverence. she had been mother and grandmother. now she was ready to live the next years of her life. kukutux felt quite young suddenly, in a way that was awkward and jarring. 

guardian. advisor. and a choice to do one's own path. 

crotch fruits; the word provoked an audible chuckle.

kukutux looked out toward the herds of caribou. "it is not so important for you to follow my ways if there is respect." she watched the shadows of wolves, cutting sickness from the collective of the living. "my kinsman who you have met, we are both of the north." she turned her attention back to towhee. "but he has his ways. i have mine. my husband who has the name of aiolos, his stories and words are not the same. but i learned from him. and he learned from me."

it felt good to speak of him.

"every wolf of my village learns the words we speak. they are said so often. shikoba is sivullik. firsthunter. listen also to her voice when she calls you for hunts. that is all i ask." towhee had her own years of wisdom. kukutux would not seek to bend her into something she was not.