Ouroboros Spine two moons

Anyone is welcome to answer :)

He felt useless.

Things happened outside of the den he lived within. He could hear it all. Calls that rung through the spine, scents that drifted on the wind.

Two moons, he had been told by @Kukutux . Except he never saw much of the moon. Tucked away in his safe haven as his ankle mended from the damage. Back to the world often, mind rattling for ways to stay sane in his long days.

There were only so many times one could sleep in a day.

So he had attempted to try and repeat the words the moonwoman had spoke to him that he remembered the most.

Sivullik. Iḷitqusiq. Piluk.

He then hummed the songs he had faintly remembered hearing Kukutux sing on his first night here. No words remembered, only the tune of her song on the painful walk home.

Then, when he finished his round on that, he grew lonely enough to let out a soft call. Wondering if anyone might return it. If anyone might investigate.

kukutux was tired.

consumed by a restlessness she remembered from the time of long snows, she paced, searching for the cold that could be found in the highest recesses of the spine. something flickering to life inside her, something distantly recalled, for it had been many months since the time had come for the duck.

not yet, it came to pass; the time before rain; the petrichor of a season. 

the man with a new name called, and the moon answered with a low sound, moving beneath the slant of the denmouth. "i will help you to stand, and then i will make a path for us, until you must rest." iḷitqusiq must not forget the use of his bones.

He should not have been surprised to see (or hear) that it was moonwoman.

Nor was he surprised, but relieved. Relaxed by her presence. It always lightened the strain of his existence some to see her in the mouth of the den.

Yet her words stirred something within him. Stirred multiple somethings within him.

Excitement. Nervousness. Dread.

He needed this, though. Even if he failed. Even if it ached his lacking muscles or angered his ankle. So he nodded carefully. This was, to a degree, what he had wanted.

I am ready. He assured her with an adjustment to his form, eager to rise and attempt the path she would set.

kukutux let the man lean upon her as they moved from her den into the light. it would hurt, she knew, and gave him moments for this, until they had come to the well-tended clearing just outside. and then beyond, she urged him, along the shallow curves of a small path leading downward to another, wider trail. 

the scent of the needle-trees punctuated the air. she would take him to the tangles of berries some minutes away, settling the healing man beneath a birch as she looked to the skies. "soon there will be storms of lightning."

At times, he felt as thought the pain was unbearable. Yet Kukutux gave him those moments to grit his teeth and breathe through it. To find balance within himself again.

Eventually they make greater distance than he had expected. It instilled a hunger in him to go further, except his muscles already ached and his ankle protested with burns of pain.

He found rest under the birch she placed him under.

Her words, while they could have been cryptic, lingered in his mind. He sat in thoughtful silence before he responded carefully.

Would you let me stay out here to watch them?

Foolish, unsafe, but he yearned to stay out in a storm again.

Silly the things he had grown to miss.

kuktuux studied iḷitqusiq for a small moment. "yes. i will sit with you." furling herself beside him, an alabastrine banner that turned verdant gaze from the heavens to him.

"would you like to hear the story of how the lightning mother and the rain father learned to dance?"

remembered words from a time-walk buried in the painstaking past.

kukutux was silent for a long while after the telling.

He welcomed all of it. Her company, her stories, he listened intently to her as he always did.

It was long. It was beautiful. There was so much detail to remember from it all and yet, he did not worry. It did not feel as though he would be quizzed or expected to remember every word. His big take away from it was the unity of Lightning Mother and Rain Father. They came to the lands together now, they thrived off of each other after their mistakes.

For some reason it opened a hole in his heart. Some odd sense of loneliness as he stared out at the dark skies.

Of course, Kukutux was here, but it was not the kind of loneliness that the moonwoman by his side fixed.

Do you think they are happier like that? Together? Married?

The loneliness was present in his words, thick on the last.

kukutux thought of how she had felt during her slow courtship with the blackfox. it had begun after their marriage began, deepening when the raindrop and the ice crystal boy had been born. "yes." her voice was simple in its firm softness, the tone of a woman who could feel the edge of a boundary with her foot.

"that is why as well as moonwoman i am atsak here. i arrange the meeting of a hunter and a woman who may want one another."

balance, the world in two suspended halves.

Astak he mumbled softly. Tasting the new word along his tongue. Eventually, he hoped, he would be experienced enough to sound like a natural with her words. Alas he was not there yet.

His lips thinned in thought.

What of men like me? I am hunter, but I am injured. I'm not as strong as other options. He paused. Pregnant with worry in the mind. Are there still women who would want a hunter like that? Were there...hunters who would want a hunter like that?

I know I am no Rain Father. Some poor attempt at humor to lighten his feeling of burdening Kukutux more.

she considered this, lips quirking at his joke. he warmed quickly to her stories, in the way that she meant to give others when she told them. 

"you are like rain father in the truth that we do not know where he will make a storm." she studied the man. "and you will not always have this," she added, gesturing to his leg. "you are not yet whole, iḷitqusiq. your mind is like the sharp grass. you listen to the words inside a story. wait until you are well, and then you will see the things that i do."

but it was not an answer, not truly. "the leader of the village that my father traveled from, he was a man who had been hurt by aivik." pausing, for she did not know the common word. "aiviq live in the black water that holds much cold. they have two long teeth that reach to the ground." a terrifying sight, but the fat of them could sustain wolves through the long dark on only a few bites.

"his leg was not well. but his village was strong. and he had two wives."

she grinned.

She complimented him, reassured him, told him to wait. He was hushed through it all. Allowed her to speak another tale. This one shorter but just as fascinating.

An aivik (something he was not familiar with, even with her description) had hurt a leader. Only for the man to still be well even with hurt leg. A strong village, two wives. His head could not wrap around the latter. If only because he could not imagine many who would be okay with such an arrangement.

He sounds like a role model. Perhaps my role model now. Some amusement in his hummed words, but honest nonetheless.

Have you wedded any here?

the duck laughed. "he is a good model to have!" especially for a man with a greater heart than his body might show, as with her companion now. his next question provoked a sly look from kukutux; she thought of the cloudberry woman and firsthunter. 

"we will see. i have made the path for two here." she did not say their names, lest bad luck fall upon them all for speaking of a future not yet assured. and yet it was, and she knew it would be. but tradition demanded observation, and moonwoman was nothing if not kept in rigid line by her own beliefs.

Hushed secrets, it seemed. Although her sly look prompted a toothy grin from him.

I see. He hummed carefully in response, not pressing any further. He still had much to learn about the way of things but he had already been taught the importance of conversation. Perhaps this was the kind of thing she could not discuss with him. Yet he took no hurt in that.

She had done so much for him. She seemed to do so much for all her people.

Thank you, Kukutux. Unprompted, but he felt the need to speak it all the same.

small teeth showing in a pearled grin for a little moment. "it is pleasing to me, iḷitqusiq." to make him smile, to teach him the ways of her people. his people, now; he had taken one of her names and given his loyalty in its place.

a breath.

"do you have a need for anything?" the duck asked then, brought for a moment back into her role as the healer. and yet the softness of her gaze remained; she sensed his appreciation and was touched by it.

close it here? <3

Not now. He admitted with a soft shake of his head.

Perhaps they could simply enjoy the storm before he would need to rest in his ulaq once more. Revigorated by the trip into the storm, by the fresh air that dared to ruffle some of the flattened fur along his body.

He truly did start to feel like a new man.