Ouroboros Spine Behind every tree is a cutting machine

she was close; kukutux was sikukiak among the nearby trees. she was not sure that she would return to the ulaq. raimo's scent clung to her; it curled beneath her ruff and scorched her lungs, the wood-ash and fire of him. how he had scorched her! how she had allowed him to do it, had gone wantingly, and even now, even now — what was this that chained her down so fiercely;

a mess of fur that stood halfway along her shoulders in trembling spires of snow; she let out her breath and swore dourly beneath it.

why must i be alone? why did you take him, sedna?

it was the closest she had come in many weeks to saying his name; the duck had moved in belief that her agonies would be singed away when the nine days had passed. but it had not been so, she had not tasted a moment's peace until the night that raimo had taken her into his embrace. bitter memories now. his wrath kindled against her words, and her own against him.

how could she let him go also? but if he continued as sivullik, it was not right for moonglow.

and there was no one to ask. she was mother here. she was the one who must give guidance.

the sound of snow clasping hands around the edge of a stone-spire; adrastus had returned. kukutux bit the inside of her jaw, waiting, waiting; at last with a clear reluctance the duck drew her feathers from the woodland and limped until all of him filled her eyes.

gaze falling first to his wounds. her expression brushed itself with a glimmer of sympathy, that he should be so hurt. even now the healer suspected some might become scars — and then her attention rested now upon what the snowhunter carried.

niutuiyik —

adrastus had no mark of sleep upon him; he was hard-travelled and smeared in the musky scent of the beast. kukutux was mesmerized by its glassward eyes, but bent her head at once in a sudden and remembered reverence for its spirit. "this was the test you were given," breath ragged, for once more her totem had showed itself and in this, surely, was the sign of the spine-circle's favour.