Ouroboros Spine salumaruk ⇑

when she woke it was, she felt, beneath the weight of an unseen gaze. green falling from her pelt; kukutux: pine-scented and miserable. miserable though she should not be. she had sent the pain to the dancing lights. and now it had become a weariness. muzzle lifting to taste the air. 

but there were many fragrances here now. she sorted through them, knowing that it was beyond time for her to begin her meet with each of them. but for now she remained. the duck tucked good foreleg beneath the soft pale hairs of her chest and extended the other, managing the expected hard twinge with a quick grimace.

her ears remained alert, listening to wind whispering gently in the woodland. it was good to be free of the mourning, she thought with a vestige of guilt. but it was the way of things. she and her raindrop had waited. they had sung. they had observed the death taboos. 

suddenly weary again, kukutux closed her eyes, the smell of clean lake-ice filling her senses.