Moonspear uuliutik ◯

their paws clasped beneath the duck's smile; emerald eyes searched that young face, brightening with a smile as tiuttuk attempted the oyster. it was a taste not immediately acceptable to one who did not live beside the sea; for kukutux such morsels evoked her time in upon the salt ice.

it was those memories she drew now, shaking her head. "first you must know that the villages of the sunshine people in the shadow of the long dark, we live far from one another. marriage was made early, but not in love. a boy's father would bring him to the ulaq of a girl's family. they did not know one another. a marriage was made for a time that had not yet arrived. the girl was able to say she would not have him. my sister refused," she laughed softly, "but i did not. he was a seal hunter boy, and we had nine moons. i was sent away, to live with him in his village for a time. then he came to live in the ulaq of my father. in this way, two grow to know one another. much more time meant to pass before i was ready to be wife and he husband, but it was made early for the cold and the ice took so many hunters, and women as well."

a breath. "i tell you this, granddaughter, so that you see i did not see marrying as love. i did not think of love, and i did not seek it with blackfox." her green eyes shone. "though — i felt that we found this." sorrowing, her chest swelling with an inhale; "the storm took that first new love and killed the years that might have come."

she looked off now, toward the sunspire, considering.

"aiolos lived in courtfall, once. we shared many words over hands of time. he brought to me once his son, huojin, who i felt sialuk might accept as an ugi." an irony; an irony.

"he was friend to me. he did not seek more. i did not offer more. my spirit loved your grandfather, and had broken when he did not come down from this mountain."

"there was one man in the new village of moonglow. raimo."

a pause.

"we lay together. but we did not share — we had harshness, between us. he did not stay. it was not a good thing."

remembering; lingering.

"aiolos was chieftain in the place of yuelong, a village built upon an island. yuelong fell and moonspear also. we found one another not long after." softly, eyes closing. "aiolos gave me his love through my grief. he waited for me to love him." 

grandmother's gaze found granddaughter again. "and when my heart came to love, it was full. and it has been the same for all the years that have come after."