Ouroboros Spine snow blade

by rights, kukutux must stop them. must forbid it.

but she understood her words were not able to bind them here; they would only come to resent the land of their sunshine mother.

and this was intolerable even in thought for her.

she had spoken of akmaaksi for one home, for tautukpik for another.

yet they were not to be broken apart. 

kukutux stood, and reached her arms gently to them. but even if they did not come forward, her whisper was for grandson first;

"i gave to your spirit the name nalunaitchuk."

and to granddaughter;

"i gave to your spirit the name ikualiaktuk."

now her eyes seemed to sheen with the same emotion; a constriction to her throat. "do not forget the name of moonglow. do not forget Sedna," she implored them. "and if i do not see your faces again, guard these names and give new ones down."

there was no mention of the father they had rejected. these children were siqniq and no other word might change the duck's mind.

spirit names were to be whispered at the time of manhood, at the moment of first mothering.

but tautukpik and akmaaksi stood now upon a new path.

with them she would send packs of meat and of berries; of good fat.

but kukutux did not allow herself to beg that they stay, not even when her eyes blurred and she knew she must tell aiolos.