Great Bear Wilderness ↫ kaaliksiruk ↬

the wedding of callyope & sólhárr has begun! this thread is for @Callyope, @Solharr, @Aiolos, & kukutux (no posting order) everyone else, please feel free to start other threads in the GBW responding to the ceremony and the feast afterward (& in the titles i encourage folks to put [wp] for wedding party or [ce] for celebration or something else which defines the threads) guests can be tagged accordingly or feel free to just show up :) click for wedding locale!

@Vairë @Ipiktok @Rodyn @Ajei (@Raindrop & @Masa for visibility) @Iruna @Rokkur @Luhtar @Yngvi @Ylva @Pangur @Kalyska @Kinusi @Raen @Y'var'la @Hōkūlani @Stærk @Reilly @Cicero Dvořák @Velia

great flurries of snow marked day and hour of the official union between callyope and sólhárr. this bond would now wrap moonglow and fornesjka in the ties of official kinship, and some part of kukutux grieved.

moonspear. moonglow. moontide. moonsong. nuiruk blood called in her spirit which had as of late felt ancient, displaced. callyope should be walking from the village of her mother and father to claim one of the moonlands, and yet this did not come to pass.

four altars had been set in a clearing. two were of moonglow, simple fallen trees wiped free of snow and set with sacred things: round pieces of blood-stained ivory, yellowed now with age. caribou teeth, a gleaming heap. scarlet leaves preserved beneath firemother in deep drifts, carried carefully to the wedding-place. three red shells to represent samani; three unclouded crystals to stand for ariadne, sisters who by all rights should be here.

these altars of moonglow faced those forneskjan places of tribute standing across the clearing. she too had cleared the snow but did not touch them, wondering even through her malaise what the wolves of the north would bring.

at the base of the nuiruk altars, gifts had begun to be piled. her own carried only the whitest hues, a silent expression of honor for the northern ways which callyope had also chosen as her own. pale caribou hides. a ruff of elk-fur, washed twice and hung to dry inside an ulaq. kukutux had taken careful steps to ensure that dessicated rose petals were brushed thoroughly into the silken hairs, a hint of summertime wind for callyope's wintered enjoyment. deerhide had been chewed into soft leather, small pieces stacked into a bundle; an offering for the future grandchildren.

voices gathered. eyes watched.

from chin to chest she was striped now in a line of fresh hare's-blood and offered the same to her daughter. callyope was in no danger of being forsaken by their spirits, but kukutux insisted upon protection all the same. "today their faces and the faces of other gods both watch. we have no decision over how they may see one another."

her pulse bit into a higher throb.

between the altars in that clearing, the moonwolves stood before their daughter and her chosen. any murmurs spoken now were only for them to know, though soon the duck straightened beneath her wrap of white foxhide and lifted voice for those assembled to hear.

"we gather for a daughter of moonglow, callyope nuiruk, and for a man from the north, sólhárr of forneskja." kukutux spoke in a clear voice, pushing the coalescence of tangled thought from her mind in a smooth motion. this day belonged not to her, but to them all.

"sólhárr has given to sun man and to moonwoman the bride price which was asked. his strength has spilled blood. his power has showed might. and for her, and with her, he has built forneskja. he is accepted, and we see that her heart too has made a place for him to live."

her gaze was thoughtful upon him, warm upon callyope; she glanced to aiolos to see if he would speak before her smile encompassed sólhárr and her moon-daughter.

"here we are not only nuiruk. speak to one another. in this place and this moment, you are both and you are neither. a man and a woman, seen before all our spirits and our gods." to humour the moment, to encourage true smiles and open words, kukutux offered them each a bit of deer fat, frozen white; the natural melt symbolized the ease she hoped for them to share always when sharing words with one another.