Ouroboros Spine [m] ⊡ ukaksitaak ⊡

no posting order!

blood must be taken.

blood would be given.

kukutux was still as deer-woman gave her fierce order. the scarlet marks upon the face of mother and daughter caught the light, as did cen's terrified eyes as he was turned onto his spine and laid out before the teeth of vairë.

for a long moment, moonmother gazed steadily at sulukinak. dutch had said she was unsure, frightened, and indeed she herself had seen it at their long hunt.

but fear did not keep the woman from bartering for the life of this man proven now to hurt those he loved.

kukutux would not stop this. sulukinak was not a girl, and perhaps it was best that she was gone from morningside, if this sort of man was where she placed true devotion.

but the anguish would come. as aiolos and valiant held cen, kukutux found the eyes of her daughter. she did not nod to signal. this was a moment for vairë, and she did not need her mother to decide.

but as it happened, the duck's face would remain unreadable, even as blood flowed and the voice of the caribou man rose, and when it was over, she gestured him roughly to sulukinak.

her words did not come. she waited for her daughter to speak, for sivullik to answer, and for sun man to pronounce the judgement he had only suspended for now.

and red stained the dirt there beside the grandfather stone.