Ouroboros Spine taaqtumi ≜

she listens, and shikoba cannot hide the disdain from her face. for a woman who proclaimed she knew the man she loved, she has yet to even notice how he pulls her away from her home, her family! she must fight off the low thrum in her throat for a moment as she takes care in her hearing.

her eyes are upon vairë, and for a moment, shikoba could swear she thought back to the moment the girl was born. she has grown, and perhaps the very soul within moonglow ages another moon. shikoba ponders the changes quietly, the wisdom she hears is pleasing from the young doe's mouth.

"there is forgiveness in my old heart," she says once they have fallen silent, "but a strong woman, a strong leader, does not abandon her family, her village." her mother, her father, her tradition. for a man who changes himself into a walking shadow to hide the true beast.

"we will support moonsong, for they do not deserve punishment for decisions they have not made. send either firsthunter to them, or perhaps someone else of our own if it must be. she may run with him, and perhaps her ulaq is left untouched. but her village will remember this day. and perhaps they will not welcome her back."

they did not walk the same path as the sunshine people. and even now, shikoba remains still an outsider. "i will go, if kivaluk wishes to remain with chickadee here." her children were grown, they would not need her.