Ocean's Breath Plateau ⩸ ukigiyummiktuk ⩸

aw but please let @Ariadne post first! <3

breath. breathing.

jadestone eyes upon the sea.

breath;

she had built a death ulaq for her daughter, of branches grasped and gathered into a point beneath which the still body slumbered. trembling limbs laid the final bough and the entrance was closed.

unless rodyn wished her interred beneath the ground, here would the almost-mother, the lost-girl remain until she was only bones.

only bones; it caught kukutux with the force of a kick behind a gasping ribcage, and she crumbled to the sandy soil in wailing before the ulaq.

she had failed. her daughter had not married rodyn in a proper ceremony. perhaps the breaking of some taboo had angered a vengeful spirit. it was more likely that the kind soul of her passed-on offspring had attracted a soul which wished to be reborn again in a new place.

this was little consolation to kukutux. her limbs were heavied; she raised her left foreleg and bit into its wrist, hardly wincing as blood welled to its surface.

the first time she had done this, the duck had been unsure.

this second, she daubed her breastbone and the planes of her face, and as she had done with sialuk so long ago, kukutux reached to anoint ariadne with a trailing of stark crimson across the untainted brow.

"a spirit who has left the world in so harsh a way may be angry, may be confused. the blood will hide us from her eyes. we must sing her to sedna, encourage her to leave this world and travel through the throat of the sea to the dancing lights."

a breath; her springjade eyes emptying; she explained to ariadne that to say the name of her older sister now was to invite the spirit to stay. those shades tied to the earth lived mournful lives. the next nine nights must be spent singing their island-walker to the land above.

upon the edge of moontide, surf lapped sand beneath somber golden light. kukutux took the sound into her ears and reached for those words once said to a wintertime moon following the deathly fall of a star.

it is time to leave
it is time to leave this place of sorrow
it is time to lift from flesh and walk to home
do not be afraid
our voices walk with you, beloved spirit

salt dripped upon her mouth as she formed the words again, repeating them until ariadne too understood.