Ouroboros Spine alivâpuk ⩷

when u have tiiiime! <3

aiolos had come.

kuktutux busied herself. today she fished in the shallows of the lake, singing a task-song to herself. her pelt became soaked with cool water, but onward she pressed, until a she caught a single trout. "rainbow boy!" she chided, wading to the shoreline to lay him in the grass. "@Sialuk would be happy to have you."

kukutux would have returned to the lake, but for now she rested, panting lightly.

Sialuk had busied herself with preparing for her journey to Redhawk. It would be the longest she had been away from home, the longest away from anaa, and certainly something she felt she must do. Lote would accompany her if all went well, and that would bolster her confidence in the quest. Still, she felt her nerves fray in worry that something might go wrong when she was gone. Either to her or to Moonglow itself.

When she came upon anaa, she was hovering over a fish on the shore. Kukutux had always been a keen fisher, and Sialuk grinned at her mother's latest catch.

He is a large one, she said, tapping the trout with her paw.

"he is for you!" kukutux said gently, looking to her raindrop. how very much sialuk had grown! how beautiful she was, with all the skilled things that moonwoman had yet taught to her. 

a mother's intuition, looking behind the pretty eyes. "is there something that weighs upon your spirit?" quiet voice. the mother was willing to be wrong, but she would rather have wrongness than ignorance, and motioned sialuk closer if the girl chose to speak.

Can you re-add me to ranks? My hand is feeling better enough!

Sialuk blushed at her mother's insistence that the fish was hers. So tirelessly did anaa work, and so much did her daughter benefit from that. The raindrop only hoped that one day she could return the favor. Not only to anaa, but to her own younger brothers, younger sisters, and perhaps even her own children.

My trip to the Redhawk village, she said. It is still something I wish to do, and I hope that Lote will join me. But there is hesitancy in my heart. What if something goes wrong while I am away? she asked. There was little she could do if they were separated, and to be without anaa for that long, well... it had happened only a handful of times in the girl's life.

kukutux nodded. "you are already having the thoughts of a wisewoman." she smiled, for it only added to the great confidence in sialuk that she already bore. "you cannot change what is already decided, pukak. you can only look down the way of your path."

a grin.

"and i am here, your anaa. you are strong to be away. i am strong to stay. moonglow cannot be here without the mind of star-speaker," the duck said softly. she had thought of the name once before, but it came to her now, and she gave it as gift to sialuk this day.

As was customary, Sialuk drank in the words of anaa. It was her mother who was a wisewoman, and the raindrop blushed at the word being used on herself. It was true that she had seen her first whole year, and yet she still felt there was much more to learn. "Adult" was not yet a word she could put to herself. With anaa's guidance, perhaps one day she could think of herself in that way.

Tell me of the time you first left home, the girl requested. Surely it had not been easy. Sialuk knew that her mother's home was no more, but surely she had wandered from it at least once before it had succumbed to darkness.

aya, what a thought!

she considered telling sialuk of the seal hunter, but decided that such things must remained under the tongue, to be brought out another time. "i was not yet a year. my mother took me to visit her sister's people. they hunted the walrus. our journey was long, and we walked upon the sea ice for many days."

"finally we came to the village of the walrus hunters. it was large! twice as many ulax as our home. the chief had three wives. my mother's sister gave to me the teeth of a great fish. they sang for us. we stayed a whole moon, and i learned their singing, to take home with me."

As she had done so many, many times before, the daughter listened, soaking up the story that her mother told. It was, in some ways, like the legends anaa spoke of. Tales of the snow, how they came to be, where the plants and creatures had come from. Sialuk wished she could know her grandmother, her grandmother's sister, and more. But they were gone in the tragedy had befallen the island—Kukutux's place of birth.

Did you ever wish for more wives to be with taataa? Sialuk asked. She still felt sorrow in her heart for the absence of her father and brother, but the nine days of mourning had been months ago, and in some ways it was easier to talk about them now.

And what of Aiolos? she asked, suspecting that he too had caught her mother's eye. The story would be different this time, Sialuk knew. Anaa was not something to be bartered with under the Ostregas. She was wisewoman here, as her aunt had been in her own way upon the mountain.

kukutux smiled. "he would not have taken another wife, let alone two." the blackfox had known her customs and learned her words, but she did not think he had such a willingness to go so far. "the reason that a man has more than one wife is because his first wife cannot bring sons to his hearth, or is of an age where her body grows stiff and she moves more slowly."

it was a cruel fate for a first wife. she would retain leadership of their woman's circle, directing the tasks of an ulaq and being granted a favored new name. till the end of her days her husband would bring meat to her, and would find marriages for the daughters born to them.

but gone was her place in his sleeping-place, too swiftly, and too often; gone was her time to rear and to give milk to children. 

aiolos.

"he is a good man. i think that the mothers have sent him here, for a purpose. but i do not yet know this thing."

Sialuk did not understand why taataa would not have taken another. His death had made an impact on her life, she knew this much, but he felt so far away now. She wished that she could know him now, even though it had been many months since they had sung the death songs for him and brataa. Anaa elaborated on why one might take another wife, and Sialuk thought it practical. A husband and wife were meant to make children, if she could not, he would seek another to tend to that need.

Aiolos sent for a purpose yet-unknown, though Sialuk felt somewhere that she knew his purpose. A woman, no matter how wise, would need a man to bring sons to her, too. Perhaps Aiolos was that man, but Sialuk kept that to herself, not wishing to intrude on anaa's feelings about the matter. If she did not yet know, she soon would, the raindrop suspected.

Might a woman ever take more than one husband at once? she asked. It stood to reason that it may not always be the woman's fault for being unable to give her husband sons and daughters. He too had his role to play, and if he could not...

kukutux began to shake her head, but stopped. "i do not know. it has not been done."

yet she paused a long moment, facing in the direction that her island must be, and thinking in the presence of her raindrop. sialuk was patient, and so kukutux was free to choose the correct words.

"i have told you of the walrus clan. now i will tell you of the reindeer clan. they did this thing. each woman had two husbands. they gave husband prices, not the price for brides. men wished to be their husbands, for they were a rich village."

"but they did not have a path that was equal. the hunters of reindeer had far less children than the other clans. and because they gave their daughters in exchange for husbands, their numbers became lower."

"if they had kept their daughters in the village, and made husbands come to them, their way would be kept. and so it must be this way, if a clan has moonwoman only without sun man to balance. it is possible. but the spirits demand more of women, sialuk."

her gaze said this was unfair, but it was the way of things.

Another story, and one that Sialuk would think on for some time. Such a thing was possible, but the way anaa spoke of it made it sound more difficult to achieve. She had learned in her life that women and men were much different in their responsibilities and how they were treated. With respect, always, and Sialuk was protective of her sisters. But she also remembered the way Raimo had looked at her and at anaa. He had looked hungry even when his belly was full, and Sialuk had hated him for it.

Raimo demanded much of us, too, she said. He had wanted to be first hunter, but that had gone to Adrastus. Perhaps Moonglow's women would always been stronger than the men who came to the borders. It had been built by women, after all.

raimo.

"my mind has not given me a thought of the shadowhunter in many weeks."

moonwoman spoke truly. sialuk spoke truly. kuktuux looked at the daughter of her heart and smiled to see her wisdom. the girl was no longer a child, and had not been for some time, but it was still a thought that brought anxiousness to her mother's heart. "he could not take forever. it is why he is gone."

"what words do you have about aiolos?" she asked, curious.

Sialuk did not think of him often, but she did think of him. The way he had prowled around in the beginning, bringing them gifts even when they did not ask it of him. Perhaps if his manners had been different, she would have cared deeply for him. Instead, she saw the snake that slithered under his skin. Sialuk was glad for his absence, whatever the cause.

I do not know him well, Sialuk admitted. Is he here to stay? she asked. "Will he take too much, as Raimo did?" she thought.

"he is." kukutux gave a nod. "if i am given the blessing of this year, i will bring children to his hearth, i think."

she looked at sialuk, wondering how her eldest would see this. "it is good to join two clans, even if they are not the same. aiolos has much to teach."

she clucked her tongue. "bring rainbow boy," kukutux said of the trout. "i will give you mushrooms to eat with him."

Sialuk thought of little brothers and sisters that might warm the ulaq. Aiolos would make a good father, she thought, though he would never be her taataa.

She glanced at the fish, then plucked it up with her teeth and followed her mother with ease. She had always been Kukutux’s shadow, and she did not think that would change when the new children came into the world. If she reminded herself. There was no guarantee of this thing.