Ouroboros Spine sinnigik ⍼

aw! tags for ref!

the place that kukutux had found had made her resolute. the stone overhang could be climbed, though she could not yet do this; it would be a place to hang hides for curing, to dry strips of meat and fish. it was deep within, more than large enough for herself and for @Sialuk — as well as any siblings that might join the girl this year. but the raindrop could not stay forever. she would have her own ulaq, nearby, kukutux hoped, and there she would begin to expand her training to become moonwoman after the duck.

in the year to come, the children of sialuk and the thirdbirthed of kukutux would be raised together. she enjoyed this thought of the future, allowing herself to latch to the brighter edges of that while her jaws worked the pelt of a weasel into leather. the lynx @Adrastus had brought; its pelt lay within the ulaq, visible to those who passed by. she had buried its skyblessed flesh in the coolness of the new cache, dug alongside the edge of the entrance.

kukutux set aside down pulled from the belly of a rabbit for @Lótë. perhaps she might use the soft hairs for her dyes; perhaps she might use it for her sleeping place. this thought reminded her of what she had told adrastus, and what she herself had asked the cloudberry she-wolf.  kukutux thought of @Zane now, amused still at how he had greeted lane. for him she had a long otterbone, sharp upon one edge. she suspected his teeth might enjoy more than speaking.

there was a new young hunter among them; @Dragomir; and he too had come from moonspear. he had a year more than sialuk, but the duck was pleased that her raindrop might have a more familiar face in his dark features.

and @Raimo — he had become kingullimik and had gone off. he had not returned for some time, not to her ulaq and not to moonglow. kukutux had wondered with pain clutching her spirit if he had departed in a final way, after the hurt and shame he had suffered just out of her arms.

but it seemed this had been calmed by another; he had not bothered to wash himself and so the next time that kukutux had seen the shadowhunter, the scent of another cleaved to him. she stared now at the edge of the red foxfur he had given her; it shone even in the semi-darkness, and held the fragrance of them both. anger and humiliation chased across her features; the duck sharply inhaled and slid from the ulaq, stripping a nearby plant of its wide verdant leaves with an almost-anger.