Moonspear prophecy girl

I hope I have these noun-endings right.
I *think* the extra "a" is only for possessive nouns?

Something had been on Sialuk's mind the past couple of days, and she knew the right wolf to ask. The _asking_ part was something she had never done before, but this was the first time a question had lingered for so long. It stewed in her brain, keeping her up through the rainy nights, and it brewed in her brain, distracting her during the rainy days. Finally, the raindrop could take it no longer.

Approaching @Kukutux in the rain, when nobody else was around, Sialuk spoke her first words. Ana, how do I become a good ayaga, like you? Little did she know that 1) that was a very, very loaded question and 2) there was plenty of time between now and when she was to become such a thing.

ur doing excellently bc we are learning tgt, and ur correct i believe :D also i got carried away accidentally lol no need to match <3

kukutux startled from where she had been half-heartedly tracking a grouse in the constant misty downpour. she watched sialuk a long moment, tail stirring with surprise and excitement at hearing such eloquence for the girl's first verbal inquiry."you are speaking, sialuk!" she praised, teeth glinting as she invited the growing child to her side and pondered the question.

"first you must have a husband," kukutux teased, then grew considerate. had she not just been thinking of the years to come? saviguk would grow to be a man of moonspear, but her raindrop needed guidance.

 "you become a good ayaga by learning to expect what your husband might want. does he like trout or salmon? is he fond of berries? what smells does he find pleasing?" the duck posed by way of example, lowering her muzzle to scent delicately at the mud for the track that remained. "in the moon of white hawks, sialuk, we shall find a boy to be ugi to you."

 kukutux, who had never disobeyed jarilo's wishes, not that he ever ordered her about as a clan-wolf might, harbored a rebellious seed in her heart. sialuk would not struggle to find her way as her mother had. she would have a husband, an ulaq, and the dowry of skills the snowbird intended to teach.

Sialuk basked in the praise for her voice, her tail swaying from side-to-side. Her mother explained that first, she must have a husband, and Sialuk furrowed her brow, not quite picking up on the teasing nature of her mother's tone. How was she supposed to get ugi? Would one come to her, or would she go to him? Did he choose her, or was it the other way around? She did not know much about how her own parents had met, and it dawned on the raindrop in this moment that her mother had once been as young as she was now. Kukutux must have asked similar questions of her own mother.

When is the moon of white hawks? she asked. How soon would they find an ugi for her? Who found taata for you? Now that her voice had arrived, Sialuk found that questions piled higher and higher in her head. Where will we find my ugi?

kukutux looked seriously at sialuk as the girl began to pile inquiries, but her heart was elated that the child be so interested in the custom already. "after qanikcaq," the duck answered, then smiled. 

"you and brother have not seen snow. the rain is yours. the snow is for saviguk," kukutux declared, continuing on the path. had not sialuk awakened to the stirrings of taboo in the rain? and saviguk, she was sure, would quicken in the ice-time.

"after that, the white hawks come, when it is warm and the green things return. then we will find him." already the snowbird had begun to make a secret list, not only of names but families after which she might inquire. "ajaukuluk brought me here, and taata knew i must have a husband. that was why i was given to moonspear. and so he became that."

a wan curve playing upon her lips. "i will put word into the air, and the birds will carry it to the one who will come for you."

Snow. She had heard that word before, but she did not know what it meant. She knew the rain very well. It rained and rained and rained. It was hers anaa said, and Sialuk wondered if she had any power over it. If it belonged to her, couldn't she make it stop? And if Saviguk had power over the snow, could she convince him to make it come sooner so that they could find her ugi soon? She left those questions unasked for now, already thinking of new ones to present to her mother.

Where did you live before tataa? Sialuk asked. And did he always live here? Somehow, asking her mother these things came more naturally than asking her father, although she was certain that there would be questions only he would know the answers to. Where is... ajaukuluk now? The word was new to her, but she pronounced it as best as she could.

"ajaukuluk is aunt hydra," she said softly. "but the word 'aunt' does not hold the meaning i wish. she is dear sister to your father. we must respect her. it was through her brother that you came to be." she held the first question for last, nodding. "hydra and jarilo, and alya and lyra and yama; they are sisters and brothers. all born to this mountain." she did not mention arcturus, nor revui; her children had never known their faces, a fact that continued to haunt the duck.

a breath. the duck glanced upward, toward the climbing slopes blanketed with the wilderness that held an ageless nature. "i lived on an island." her voice was faint. this day had been writ by the spirits to come, but the duck found she did not know what to say to her raindrop. quietly, the hunt forgotten for now, she gestured sialuk into the shelter of low-hanging needled branches. "first i must explain a sea. think of the biggest water you have ever seen." more than likely it would be a river, for moonspear was crossed with them. "the sea is many, many times larger. it goes to the end of the world, where the sky meets the land. and where i lived it was very cold. it had much ice." she grinned. "you have not yet seen ice. but you will."

"i lived there with my father and my mother and my sister. and we built our homes near all the family. we knew each wolf by name. we hunted the animals that lived in the sea, below the ice." kukutux paused, drew a sigh. "my heart longs for that place at each morning."

She had heard that word once before, now that she thought about it some more. Osiris had called Kukutux that word the day that she had taken them to meet him. She fell quiet as anaa explained the vast family tree, and Sialuk scooped up as much information as her young brain would allow. It was likely that she would ask about these relationships again as time went on, but for now, it was her understanding that all the wolves here had been born here, just as she had been.

Something about the way anaa talked about where she came from set a different mood, and Sialuk nearly felt guilty for asking. She moved quietly with her mother beneath the pine boughs, trying to imagine a very large water. When anaa explained that the sea was much, much larger, Sialuk's eyes widened. Ice was mentioned, and Sialuk wondered if it was the same as snow.

When her mother explained that she wished for that place each day, Sialuk's expression turned painful, and she licked her mother's cheek. Can we go sometime? To visit the sea and ice place? Would that make anaa happy?

she leant into sialuk's kiss, returning it, but shook her head. "no. we cannot go back. it is a place for the spirits now." and she thought of the death ulaq, in which she had laid her grandfather to rest before she set off forever. the rain seemed less daunting now, and the gamma ducked out into it once more.

"now we will hunt," she told sialuk, regaining some of her good humour. "and you will tell me what sort of boy you want to be your ugi." her raindrop was young yet, and had not met boys outside her own relatives in moonspear, kukutux believed, slightly dismayed that bronco was many moons older than sialuk. it was he that the duck would have chosen first for such a role.

Sialuk furrowed her brow when her mother said they could not go back. A place for the spirits? What did that mean? But soon enough, her mother had changed the subject, and Sialuk intuitively knew that it was not a good idea to ask further on the subject of her mother's island. She would not leave it forever, but now was the time for hunting and speaking of her future ugi.

Will ajaukuluk choose for me, like she did for you? Sialuk asked. I want my ugi to be like taataa. Her parents were Sialuk's only real model of what a relationship was meant to look like. As far as she knew, that was the only way it could be. What are we hunting today? she asked, already sidetracked by that portion of what they were doing.

"ajaukuluk chose for me because i had no one to speak in my name. the way it should happen is that i will choose your ugi. i will tell your father. if he approves, the boy must come here and stay with us for a time." in the days that had long passed, to be united beneath one roof might eventually inspire children. that was many moons away for sialuk; in the spring months, an ugi was to acclimate a girl to the one she would one day take as husband, if they got along with one another and he provided a dowry.

she found herself pleased with sialuk's remark upon jarilo; it was a wise choice she herself had made.

"and when you are older, and have twenty-four moons, sialuk, he will become your husband. you will move to his ulaq then, either here, if he becomes a man of moonspear, or to the place he chooses." and to the last, "napaaktum akargik," syllables that bound the fat feathered bird to the smell of the pines hanging here.

Anaa explained the process, and Sialuk dutifully listened. It would be her mother who chose her ugi, then if her father approved of him, her ugi-to-be would come live with them. So all she had to do was learn how to be a good wife between now and whenever her mother found a suitable mate for her. That seemed easy enough, but when Kukutux mentioned the timeline and potentially leaving Moonspear, the girl's brow furrowed.

Do I have to wait twenty-four moons? And can you make sure he wants to stay here? I do not wish to leave you and taataa. Let that be added to her list of requirements for her future ugi.

As for the grouse, Sialuk barely registered the answer to that one. Her brain was now hardwired to care for only one thing: becoming a good wife.

in truth, kukutux too was ready to surrender the hunt. the rain dragged at her pelt, plastering it against her figure. she gestured that they should cut into the forest again, and this time they would not return to their path. "twenty-four moons is when mother akna comes to a girl and makes her a woman." kukutux had never been taught the specifics of the situation, only that surely it had to do with that odd heat.

hiding the rush of embarassment that assailed her features, kukutux grinned. "i cannot make sure he stays here. but taataa will be able to do such things. he is leader here, with aunt hydra." dirge had meandered down from leadership, but the duck saw him the same as he had always been.

Twenty-four moons?! That was so, so many. She did not know it now, but those would come and go much quicker than she was ready for. Who is Mother Akna? Sialuk asked. She was pleased that taataa would be able to make her ugi stay here. In fact, it was likely that Sialuk would refuse any suitor who had ideas that were anything else. She loved her family dearly, and parting with them was not on her list of things to do. If she was to be a good ayaga, she needed a good ugi, she decided.

What does a leader do? Aren't you a leader, too? Sialuk pestered further, the questions coming at a rate that she herself could not even control. Now that her voice had been found, it was like a dam breaking loose, and she found that her questions grew by an exponential number with each one that was answered.

got carried away meeow

kukutux grinned; sialuk kept the pace and also the flowing of their conversation, an unstemmed brook for which her mother laid the bedrock with each question. and she was happy to answer, delighted to be teacher now. "i am not. i am first wife of the first hunter, jarilo." she was not sure how to class hydra; she had seen the blackbear clash more fiercely than ever her husband. it was not that she was not assured of his strength, only that he chose when to wear such a mantle. his ferocious sister wore it always, and kukutux often found herself wondering how a woman had come to be so.

but she would not confuse sialuk now with her own wandering thoughts. "a leader makes a ring around his territory, and says 'this is the land of my people.' and he defends it, with his life." a flash of ash-grey in her mind, granite surging against the blackstone of arcturus. brothers, clashed. and of the trio, her own husband in the end had been blessed. jarilo, the next bloodline to the mountain. hydra's children would be made ready for leadership, but only one would be ready for that kusunnak when it was ready to be handed over.

moonspear was leather threaded carefully together by kinship ties. and now arcturus had stricken his own from that birthright, deliberately. insofar as kukutux had decided to believe, he loved a woman who might never conceive. love, the duck felt then, must not run over into foolishness. and revui might never have a legitimate wife; he was a wanderer, a trader of things that could not be gotten from the mosscovered scapulas of his birthplace. he was all of hydra and all of himself, all of the violent essence in ostrega that kukutux knew now had always carved this place into their ancestral land.

she had been silent a long moment; the snowduck blinked and smiled apologetically at sialuk. it was her white robes the daughter had been given, but there was something else to them now, some shadow of snow both in hue and in the growing grace of her gait. already she had taught the girl to downturn her curious sunbell gaze when a man was near, but here sialuk was now, curious, trusting, filled with the confidence that kukutux would answer. "mother akna takes many forms. she wears white. she is sister-god to the moon." the mother watched her child a moment, then traversed on.

. "when the snow comes, sialuk, i have decided you will be taught to hunt. it will be how you say 'i am ostrega-girl.' a kill mark," kukutux chuffed, gesturing to the scar along her own shoulder. sialuk would be the perception of femininity, as the duck had decided, as she herself was, but she would not be without an innate dowry of knowledge. hunting was one such thing.

Carry on and away! <3

There were times when it seemed Sialuk's mother went away. Not in the physical sense, but in the sense that she wasn't really here. Sia would not understand this for some time, although she would continue to notice it. She did not ask where her mother went for fear that it was a place that might make her mother sad. As for the information, Sialuk was like a sponge, soaking up all the information like the good pupil she was.

As her mother explained that she was to learn to hunt when the snow comes, Sialuk's tail wagged erratically behind her. She took a closer look at the mark on her mother's shoulder, having never really noticed it before now. Is that how you got your kill mark? Did you learn how to hunt? Of course, Sialuk figured her mother could hunt, and she could certainly fish. She smiled fondly thinking of the times there had been dried fish laid out to dry on warm rocks.

"i did not hunt when i was your age. i earned that here, in this land." she did not mention that she had been alone with astaroth, for by now she had surely prevailed upon sialuk how unseemly that was. married women did not keep company with men of their own age. arcturus and revui did not count against that, she told herself, face heating with shame. unmarried brothers were still kin.

"but now i hunt, and you must too, pukak," kukutux instructed. "though not today. it is too filled with rain." she shook out her fur again, nudged the girl. "we will go to find your taataa now." hunger now, energy needed to answer the questions sialuk enjoyed asking en masse, and a sweet thing in her mother's heart as well to give knowledge.

Sialuk's mouth formed an "O" shape as her mother explained she had earned her kill mark here, not when she was younger. She was nudged, and ever-obediently followed her mother's command. The mention of taataa reignited the curiosity in her brain, and she was already lining up question after question to ask him about his own childhood, if he had a kill mark, if he would bring her a good ugi and so on and so forth.

I think we can archive here! <3