Ouroboros Spine tuttuvak

He smiled and nodded. Of course. You are aaka now, your children need you.

Whenever she was ready, he would be available. It made his heart feel full when he thought of having a mother as present and attentive as Ariadne. He was fortunate now to have many—but he also wondered about his birth-mother suddenly, and set her image aside in his mind. Now was not the time to think of Nasamik or try to compare her faded memory with yet another woman in his life.

Raiyuk looked up the path again, wondering if he should return to the sleeping place of Kukutux.

I will be staying in that ulaq over there, he motioned up the hill some ways, where he knew the princess was staying, and focused on an adjacent space. It wasn't his duty to guard her but he felt compelled—as that seemed to be the right thing for a man to do for a woman.

With another bow of his head, he stepped away and began to march back.