Moonspear [m] tabula rasa

Sialuk smiled. She remembered the uncle-cousin's face well, how he had spent time upon the spear when it was being reborn. He'd sprained an ankle, and there was a time when the moon daughter had thought he might become one of her lovers. Ah, but he had eyes only for Heda, and it was to the island he had gone to seek her hand, not Sialuk's. She knew now that he had gone to the dancing lights some time after his children were born.

I remember him well, she said, a sadness to her smile that he was not still on this earth.

When Killdeer asked if she had anyone similar, she paused to think. My mother, she replied after a time. Kukutux had been there through everything. She was Sialuk's friend and confidant, and she was always there to offer advice at the right time for the right situation. It pained the Ostrega to know that—one day—anaa too would go to the island of the dancing lights. Perhaps a visit with her mother was what would lift her spirits.