Ouroboros Spine putulapâk ≬

kukutux knew @Meerkat had come. she chuffed out to the girl now, trusting that the firefly was well but wanting to see for herself. the fox skin must be soaked. she would ask @Sialuk to do this for her before dusk.

a sharp claw along the edge of her spirit, a tightening of the belly.

she lay before the ulaq. meerkat was family. she would be allowed closer than the others who were not. greenjade eyes settled watchfully upon the horizon, her dirt-snow ears swiveling to and fro. her ankle stretched before her; kukutux practiced the bone-pulling with only a hint of pain upon her jawline.

She finally found her way to Kukutux's ulaq, though Meerkat didn't deign to approach. Instead, she rested nearby, quickly getting lost in her thoughts. She realized, with some surprise, that she hadn't really cried over this latest tragedy. Her emotions had run the gamut, so she couldn't guess why. She imagined the events prior might have toughened her, a bittersweet thought. Meerkat dropped her eyes, gazing disconsolately at her paws, thinking of all the lives lost and the wolves she'd never see again.

A low woof drew her out of her morbid musing. "Kukutux?" she called out, rising and moving closer to the invalid's makeshift den.

a raw sort of energy clung to the girl's limbs. "come and sit with me, iksriktaayuuk," the mother clucked. "it has been a time of many sorrows, and it feels that it will not end."

surely it must. surely it would. but kukutux could not find it in herself to speak without plainness; she offered meerkat a tremulous smile and pushed the hock joint of some animal toward the girl. food she could not offer. comfort, perhaps.

Kukutux invited her closer, using a strange word. She intended to ask what it meant, though as she came to sit beside the pale woman, her attention fell upon her injuries. She inhaled quietly but sharply, only dimly registering Kukutux's words. The sight of her wounds made the situation feel much worse somehow, while simultaneously taking her back to that moment when she'd held her maimed friend's paw as she passed away...

Swallowing thickly, Meerkat politely shook her head at the proffered food. She wouldn't be able to eat if she tried. "I told Sialuk I'd stay here for a few days to help you get your pack—your village—established." Being faced with Kukutux's condition, Meerkat realized she wouldn't be able to take off that soon, at least not in good conscience. "I'm going to the caldera soon, though I'll be back. I'll stick around at least until you're back on your feet," she decided aloud.

Her honey eyes skirted away for a moment, toward the glen where Bronco and the others still searched for survivors. She still intended to go wherever he went, though she doubted he would hold it against her if she stayed here a little longer to provide support before rejoining him. Perhaps he and the others might end up here anyway. Things were still up in the air and anything could happen.

she followed the path that the amberglow eyes tracked across the mountain. kukutux wanted to tell the young one to return to bronco, to go to the caldera. not from a place of malice, but of worry. and yet sialuk was happy that she had come, and the duck was grateful for the offer of help. "i thank you, meerkat. we are stronger for you here."

if the girl allowed, the duck meant to sit somewhat closer, reaching to preen gently the wear of travel from the other's pelt. "bronco is a good leader. i have heard him calling. the singing of firefly gave me strength."

If there was one topic that could lift her spirits and get her mind off the disarray of everything else, it was her older brother. Meerkat's lips twitched into a faint smile as she agreed, "He really is, isn't he?" By taking point, he had kept the survivors not just together but on task too. "I'm so proud of him. Can a little sister be proud of her big brother?"

Coaxed by the woman's ministrations, Meerkat dipped forward to rest on her belly, forelegs outstretched. Being here with Kukutux, it was sort of inevitable that she would think of Toad and that day she'd met them both. It seemed like a dream, or another lifetime. She had been so carefree and young then...

"of course. i had much pride for my elder sister, and she had a whole span of moons to mine." but sister had told her many things and taught several more. kukutux still held those lessons within her inner heart. jadestone gaze shifted thoughtfully in a veiled glance toward meerkat, wondering if the girl would enjoy the same sort of stories she had told the blackbear's children upon moonspear.

"i had not seen fireflies before i came to this land," the duck chose to muse softly. "when i heard the name that they had, i thought they might bring danger. so i kept watch on them in the evenings of summer. i learned that their light is a dance, and it is a dance they use to speak to one another. their kinship ties are strong, and they move together."

a wan smile creeping now to her lips.

Both Kukutux and her daughter spoke with such silver tongues. Meerkat listened as her hostess mused on fireflies, murmuring, "My dad calls them starbugs," when she finished. She swallowed, her throat feeling a little thick. "He lives at the caldera, same with my mom and Neema. That's why I'm going there, probably tomorrow or the day after. I'm sure they're worried."

And she would take along anyone who wanted to find refuge there, though Meerkat realized she was rambling a little. She'd interrupted Kukutux's story. Meerkat offered her a sheepish smile and fell quiet, ears pricking attentively to catch whatever else she might say. She'd always enjoyed the way she spoke, from their very first meet, and found the sound of her voice particularly soothing right now.

starbugs. kukutux nodded. "it is good to seek out your family in such times. they will give you comfort." quietly the duck counted meerkat in her own number, but had not sialuk missed terribly the presence of her own father? it was right that a child seek out the one who had reared them.

her own gaze traveled up as always toward moonspear. "perhaps when my husband comes back i will come to visit you."

the words tasted as soot in her mouth. it had already been seven days.

Meerkat missed the forest for the trees. "Oh, I'm coming back," she reminded Kukutux, before admitting, "I don't know where we'll end up. Bronco and me, I mean. I plan on staying here for a little while though." She didn't want Kukutux to think she would just leave them like this.

Then the rest of the woman's words hit her and she frowned apologetically. "Where is he?" Meerkat asked softly, pretty sure she already knew the answer. But she had said, "when my husband comes back..." Perhaps, like Meerkat, he had been elsewhere when disaster struck and he would soon materialize.

"he was upon the mountain." kukutux was wan as she spoke, her mind searching back for the last time she had beheld her husband's face. he had been with her to rise, to wake; he had gone off to his duties as leader with hydra, and in the night — only blackness somehow. still.

"yes, you are coming back," the duck repeated with an apologetic blink of her lashes, to have been so distracted. "bronco has a rest here as well, if he wishes to take it." shy quirk of one mouth-corner. "what is the name for this place?" she gestured to the shorter mountains, how they cupped the forest and stone-slopes. meerkat had said caldera; perhaps there was something in the common words that could be used as a description.

It was as she'd feared: he'd been on the mountainside when the meteor struck. Meerkat's brow furrowed. She wanted to offer her condolences, yet Kukutux's earlier words stayed her tongue. "Perhaps when my husband comes back..." She reminded herself that there was still hope. That was the entire purpose of the search parties. It was only then that Meerkat realized how little hope she personally held.

She managed the smallest of smiles at the woman's open invitation. "Thank you." When questioned about the name of this valley and its surrounding stone walls, she hummed thoughtfully. "I think I heard someone call this place Ouroboros Pines. But I don't know what an ouroboros is, do you? Oh... that reminds me. What is an iksrik—that word you called me earlier?"

ouroboros. "i do not know that word," kukutux said, though a note of wonder remained in her tired voice. what was the meaning of it? it was easier to answer meerkat's next question. the bruised line of her lips softened. "iksriktaayuuk. it is a bird with many spots upon its chest. it lives beside the sea. has much quickness. you wear the same wrap of color."

easier to talk of what had been than what was. kukutux considered ouroboros again. "you must make a circle to say it. perhaps that is what it means."

Although she didn't say it aloud, Meerkat's expression said, Oh? She wondered if she knew of this bird by another name, though she didn't pursue the subject. She proffered a small smile, which morphed into a considering expression when Kukutux guessed at the meaning of "ouroboros."

"I'm not sure," she replied with a lift and drop of her shoulder. "I'd be happy to ask around, find out more about this place." Meerkat's lips pursed as she hummed thoughtfully, looking around briefly before focusing on Kukutux again and adding, "Is there anything I can do for you right now?"

kukutux felt her mouth curve in grief before she could stop it; a tear shuddered to life upon her cheek. a quick intake of frustrated breath wishing to become a sob. "aya," she spoke wryly, hoping to dissuade the grief. "i am not so strong today."

she glanced toward the mountaintop again and thought of her son; where had he been? perhaps he had hunted below, perhaps her husband had been with him. "ah," she said in delayed answer to meerkat's direct inquiry. a sniff. "tell me of the most striking place you have discovered in these wild lands." an image to be painted, to dream.

she wanted to dream.

The tear surprised her, though only momentarily. "That's okay," Meerkat murmured comfortingly. If she had known Kukutux better, she might have attempted to nudge away the tear, though she didn't want to violate the woman's boundaries. Instead, she shifted her forepaw to rest gently over top Kukutux's uninjured one.

She wanted to know about the most striking place Meerkat had come across in her travels. The yearling mused for a moment. Although she wasn't a storyteller, this was the sort of task she could manage: distracting and possibly uplifting her cohort's spirits by reminiscing about some of her favorite destinations.

"Have you ever heard of Yuèlóng?"

kukutux nodded, grateful for the warm pressure of meerkat's paw over her own. "i have made a meeting with the empress and aiolos is my friend. but i have not seen more than the sea. i have not seen it for myself." she knew it must be striking; she had only ever known the colder island of her birth. did meerkat mean to speak of what was there?

many times the duck had imagined it; the meandering took her from her pain, until she remembered, "this year, after the snow, we were to take our children there. aiolos and i had introduced our own already." thinking, waiting, scarcely daring a breath.

Meerkat briefly worried she'd made a faux pas by mentioning it, as Kukutux's recollections seemed to take a sad turn. She frowned sympathetically, wondering what to say. She hadn't intended to trigger such bittersweet memories, of course.

"You and Sialuk should visit sometime," she said gently, just hoping it was the right thing to say. The paw loosely clasping Kukutux's patted a few times, then squeezed. "It's impossible to be sad there. It's all sand and sunshine. Going to the island is like going to another world altogether. It's paradise."

meerkat's gesture was comforting. kuktutux tried to picture it within her mind. quite warmer than the place of ice, but even in summer she had lain beneath a wide warm sun upon the blooming tundra. "it sounds as if this is a place that brings calm," the duck commented after a moment, blinking sidelong at meerkat.

"sialuk has worked very hard. i have agreement with you that she should visit a place that is happy." unlike this snowy land, held in thrall by graves on either side.

kukutux refused to let this too become a world of desolation.

"I'd be happy to guide you both there sometime," Meerkat said sincerely, "when your ankle's better." That made her look down and gently withdraw her paw, just in case Kukutux's other legs had taken damage as well. She didn't want to inadvertently cause any more pain.

"I think I'm going to get some rest. I'll be nearby, so just call me if you need anything and I'm happy to help," she said after swallowing a yawn. "I plan to dream of running with my friend, Nǚwū, on the beach." It was much more likely she'd have nightmares but it was a lovely thought nonetheless.

meerkat's kindness and subsequent ask for leave happened swiftly, in the duck's tired mind. a nod, and then another. "i thank you, meerkat," the woman said softly. "i will be happy to go one day."

and to the young one's statement of rest: "i will have dreams of walking on sand under moon. may your sleep be restful." for it was what they all needed in this place: a respite from all that had gone on. a follow of warm green to meerkat's gentle face. 

kukutux breathed. when she was alone she would look toward moonspear.