Ouroboros Spine kiptaitchuk ⩷

for @Kausiut <3

her children were near to a month old.

kukutux sang a gentle song, working meat into a soft and slimed pulp. when it was smooth, she would give it to her daytime girl.

when you see the leather,

you know that her teeth are sore!

praise her and give her soft fat

she will smile and you will see her teeth are still beautiful!

At three weeks old, whenever Kausiut was not nursing, she was sleeping. Her limbs had caught up a little with the round shape of her belly and she was able to crabble slowly and awkardly, but in the small confines of her world walking great distances was hardly necessary. Mother was always nearby and the girl did not care for the rest. 

At some point her eyes had opened too. To a degree, though... she had cast a lazy look around, yawned and squeezed them shut again. In her mind her way of getting food up until know had been succesful. She was not about to change her strategy now. There was a different point in her timeline, where sound entered her world too. Did she care? No. Food was always nearby.

What about the god inside her head? Mightly disappointed and frustrated, but had come to terms with his new form and life. Lucky for him wolf puppies grew up faster than human babies. He would not have to wait for much longer. For now... he slumbered. Just as Kausiut did. There was not much else to do.

She continued to sleep, even after her mother had arrived, singing softly to her, preparing food (that's quite a skill - to chew and to sing at the same time, by the way). For now she was full and did not need anything else.

she worried for kausiut.

in these hands of days, it had become apparent that the girl had paid a birth-price.

and kukutux could not keep her soul from putting the blame upon nuak.

he must pay for what he had done. the duck blinked. anaa had said that not even the body could show which was the evil twin.

"come, kausiut," she clucked aloud after lying the bolus before her daughter. "taste." kukutux began to brush the sky-girl awake.

Kausiut did not worry. She did not know how. 

The god mi-i-i-i-ight have worried for being spotted under the watchful and trained gaze of Kau's mom, but then the presence of celestial beings were so hard to prove. Especially in children. Those, who were small enough to live just one day at a time and not have any personality yet aside from the need to satisfy all their bodily desires (and those, who read this and snigger - keep your dirty thoughts to yourself - food and warmth were the two things she cared for).

Kau's nose scrunched, when she smelled the mush of meat and saliva, she cracked one eye open, regarded it for a bit, then shuffled away from it, as well as from her mother's touch. She was not interested.

the daytime starchild was not inclined toward her offering.

kukutux sighed and lipped it up herself, savouring the meat despite the blandness of the paste. "we will try again another time, milik."

moonwoman watched over kausiut for a moment. "i wonder what it is you are thinking." she spoke only in their words, in those shared with the little one's eldest sister.

The story about the "eternal wisdom reflecting in the infant's eyes" was not about Kausiut. Not at the present moment anyway. Her tiny brain, yet not molded by too many wrinkles and folds, where they say that the wisdom hides in, was not burdened by any particular thoughts. She did not yet realize her as an entity with a personality, because her most important day-to-day concern was survival and learning the essential skills to fulfill that grand plan.

Progress so far (reluctantly admitting that Kukutux had a say in it and this was not Kau's sole accomplishment):

1. Not freeze to death - Check!

2. Learn to suckle - Check!

3. Beat her sister to the best teats (good thing there were four to each of them) and push her away, if she happened to be at the best one - Check!

4. Be very vocal about every discontentment, until instant relief is given - Check!

5. Master hearing - uh, oh, Check?

6. Master sight - WTF is that for?

7. Master movement - Work-in-progress!

So - she was ordinary in every sense of the word, save for that little piece of god hiding inside her head. The one that took over that slumbering, unconscious puppy brain, opened that single, functioning eye again and stared long and hard at the woman towering over her child. 

kukutux thought of what her kinsman had had said. had she chosen the wrong path for samani and kausuit?

she was suddenly fixed by the single burning from her babe's face. the woman stared and stared, blinking only when her vision began to blur.

why had the qualupilik taken so much from her daughter? kuktutux suddenly saw that the mist was tears, unable to stop as they fell down upon kausuit's downy coat.

Had it been a classical exorcist movie - an ominous music would begin to play in the background. The kid would twitch and turn at odd angles. Would garble out nonesense in Latin (or, whichever tongue the demon chooses to speak) and foam at the mouth or do some other icky and disturbing stuff. 

This was not an exorcist movie. Not the American one. Nor super-simple and creepy as Japanese are. 

This was Kau's version of being possessed by a god, who in a fit of self-confidence of having an actual control over a living, breathing blob of flesh played that dramatic music for itself, opened the mouth to spill out the words of doo...

HICK!

Kau's belly twitched, when a hiccup escaped her maw. 

HICK! 

The god facepalmed and receded in the darkest corner of her mind to sulk. 

HICK!

HICK-ACHOO! 

When a set of Kukutux's tears hit the puppy's nostrils.

kukutux looked carefully at kausiut. her day-star did not seem to know that she had been born without all of herself.

a hiccuping, strong. it shook the child's entire body.

kukutux returned at once to nose at kausiut with gentle encouragement. her daughter breathed. she had a soul that wished to live. "and she has love of her father, even if her mother holds fears." 

the duck refused to be afraid. "i will teach to you all the medicine and teas. sialuk will show to you the tongue of animals. sun man will make you see how to be devoted."

she considered. "i think you must learn to be spirit-talker, kausiut. then no one will decide your place for you in your husband's clan." for her daughters would marry, and make good matches. all of them. kausiut would be denied nothing. she was the child of sun and moon. 

"this your grandmother told to me. she was a woman with much wisdom."

It is funny really, how opposing our perceptions about people can be - where Kukutux thought that Kausiut "did not have all of herself", she would have argued (that is, if she was mentally and cognitivelly able to), that there was in fact more of her than in the rest. If a person can boast with two separate personalities you cannot tell them that they are missing something, can you?

Totally unaware of, what her mother was telling her - another drama-movie-worthy scene with an appropriate, motivating/bittersweet soundtrack in the background - Kau appeared to be listening. For a while. Until a flea bit her in the bum, she yelped, rolled and scrambled in a fail attempt to reach the itch. 

So much for sticking to the script.

it would not do well to dwell forever on these things.

she watched kausiut until the girl began to yelp. and then the mothermoon pulled the child closer to her breast with a sweep of her paw, nipping gently along the bitten flesh in search of the pestilent little insect.

"you will be many things," she laughed, amused despite the ache in her very spirit. "daytime star girl."