Moonspear hush

YEEEE <3333 please lmk if anything about this post isnt good! <3

to be anaa was to be the blessed of sedna.

to be anânsiak was another of these things.

inside her, motherheart stirred and kukutux woke that morning with a quiet sense of anticipation that did not stem from her own flesh. a stirring in the blood; a latent knowing that perhaps all mothers experience when their daughters bring forth new life.

the call roused. she rose on slender limbs and gathered the first of the bundles she had made for her three daughters. sialuk, first; star woman. moon daughter. mountain walker. and now she called down the moonwoman herself, from mother's village into that of her own.

kukutux did not stop her steps; she hurried to find her eldest, following sialuk's scent with a sharp eye and mouth muted by her burden of teas and good pelts, leather items and fruited offering.

the third moment of pain brought moonwoman to her daughter's side. "ask tooteega for strength," she murmured into sialuk's ear, helping to hold the young woman upright as the pains grew in their charging ferocity.

there was another woman here, elentari, and kukutux laid out her herbs inside the den, smiling softly to see towhee among them. "we will both be grandmothers today," she told the redhawk, before she turned back to the laboring mothers and began a birthing chant, low old words designed to hold back the creeping monsters who would prey upon the newborn souls.

their cries mingled with her steadying voice, the touches offered to both those who were agonized in childbirth. kukutux was filled with understanding sympathy, watching sides tighten with the birthing pains, their eyes dilated with the anguish of it.

she began to rip small leaves for a milk-tea, administered soon after birth.

sialuk's shriek pierced the mountainside air, and kukutux leaned forward to see the tiny girl, grinning with wet eyes and a low, shuddering inhale. "a daughter, sialuk," moonwoman murmured, completely enthralled by the sight of her first grandchild. soft fawnskin leather to wipe blood from the tiny muzzle, and she helped to guide the pup toward sialuk's breast.

though she could scarcely look away, kukutux too turned toward elentari, murmurming the low-sung words of encouragement as the younger wolf crossed the arduous threshold from woman to mother. a boy-child, loud as his age-mate was quiet. moonwoman would offer the same to elentari, adding her assistance to settle both of them before she retreated back to divide out her medicines.

with towhee here, and with more villages nearby, kukutux was not so worried for the awfulness of bloodloss, nor the fevers. they had much care here, eternal devotion.

softly she kissed sialuk's brow; "you will be a strong anaa for this one."

like the redhawk, she too wondered if there were more children to be born, and meant to stay close until it seemed as if both sialuk and elentari would be able to avoid the claws of the evil ones without her.