Ouroboros Spine atanik ⫏

it was not long before ajei approached with her usual politeness. kukutux did not want to send the girl away in spite of her heart-ache; she lifted a foreleg to invite the girl into her embrace. "did anything important happen while i was not here?"

before there could be more words, chickadee arrived, and with her was kivaluk. the young woman fairly glowed with excitement, and sivullik was reserved, though her discerning mother's eye would attest that this delight was shared between them. "come to my ulaq," she told them fondly.

when they had come to the well-loved clearing; when kukutux had offered each raspberries and deer fat, she settled beside ajei and turned questioning jadestone eyes first upon the daughter of shikoba.