Ouroboros Spine Waiting on that morning sun

they trailed up a path of beaten ground and snow. whiteness swirled in the air; wind bent the good tall pines.

kukutux kept her head bowed until they had come to the clearing of the ulaq. it was spacious inside, pelts upon the floor, strips of meat set out in the snow to freeze on racks of wood just beyond the entrance. it was a well-traveled place; even now several members of the pack sat nearby, or in the other ulax.

moonwoman offered to nasamik a strip of good and fatty elk meat. "i will allow it. i have many hunters here. my sons. they will need wives one day." it was a gesture of goodwill, to hint that the girl might become part of their family.

she could think of no better wife for her hunters than a woman of the north. "here women hunt until their time comes. then they go away into their homes to have their children. many are born in the winter." she pointed with her chin toward a stack of uncured pelts in the corner: fox, ermine, deer, elk. 

"i will give these to you. they are yours to cure, when you have found where you will make your lodge."