Ouroboros Spine momentum

after moontide, kukutux had returned to her own village, as much to tend her ailing doe-daughter as it was to visit the secret place where she had kept the greenery given to her by a trader who had never returned.

she knew now why, if not the story then the conflict which surely had followed such a man and his own warriors.

three days of fasting; kukutux envisioned that cold altar and her place alone beside it.

but she had not scarcely turned from vairë when a relievingly familiar voice sounded over the bare oaken trees.

valiant.

she closed her eyes for a moment; searching.

rhaegal had abandoned vairë. valiant had disappeared in search of nutuyikruk.

a great chasm of difference was there.

she did not know if her daughter would see it so.

it was kukutux then who went to meet valiant; she did not at first speak, only drew him into motherly arms. "it is good to see your face, valiant. vairë has been beneath a sickness for a long time now."