Ouroboros Spine [m] ⊡ ukaksitaak ⊡

so much of this common sound! cen, despite his terror, bristled with rage in the grasp of the one who was called first-hunter. 

the doe woman spoke to take up her teeth against him for this punishment, and he flashed his own fangs in defiance. no caribou man would sacrifice his throat, loins, or eye in peace. they could pluck all of these things from cen after he was dead, after he had killed the old woman and scarred the rest of the doe bitch's face.

the great scarlet man loomed over cen, and he stared up in hateful ebbing of that fear, readying to be agonized and exiled, and perhaps killed all the same.

"sulukinak!" cen gasped out as he twisted toward her, his shock lost in the rush of her own words. she spoke for him! for him! relief vied with horror; his stomach lurched, and cen snapped his head back to the village mother as she too rejected the shadow.

but she did not deny what was said! 

before his kin could answer or anyone else could speak, cen tried to approach the dais of stone, fighting valiant, supplication clear in his face. "i go! we go, far from sunshine lands. red leaf — i throw her away!" the caribou man declared, eyes darting frantically. "never go back to moon sea village, yes? go far, far, far, with sulukinak, so far you forget name of cen, yes? please. i go."

he did not want his eye taken, his manhood scarred; he feared the pain more than the anguish of his wife, feared the pain and humiliation of maiming and exile more than his anger controlled him.

for now.