Ouroboros Spine tuvragaa ⊪

it was there, the meaning. the reason. kukutux listened. a boy raised only by men and hardly any memory of a mother; he would have been turned to stone and quickly. she saw the struggle of the opening, and sensed it had been some long while since the doors of his heart had opened so.

still he did not eat; "you do not look cruel to me, masa," moonwoman murmured, feeling the bite of winter again in her toes, the pads of her calloused palms. "do you hold fighting in your spirit?" was he contented by it? did he wish to be freed from its clutch?

"perhaps anger must be given a test. there are many such things among the sunshine people. once i was given such a test."

briefly did moonwoman tell to masa the story of cen, of his capture, his trial, his blinding, his exile.

gently she gazed now at the hunter beside the sheltering ulaq. "tell me. did i worsen him? the granddaughter who has given up her place in lineage, aya, she spoke of his hunters. you see? it is a curse, and it is one i have made."

she was fearful for yuralria! where had she met the caribou hunters? who led them?