Ouroboros Spine ilukaan ∔

set after this <3 got carried away, do not feel the need to match!

when night fell, after kukutux had persuaded her wearied and beautiful sister to finally lay down with her children and sleep, the duck settled her own into the ulaq. she kissed their small heads and pulled away, leaving them nestled together in the soft sleeping furs.

the moon was half-encircled with shadow. two brothers, one sacrificed to the darkness. she looked up at it for a long while before she slipped just beyond the ulax, to where she felt her sun man might be.

for a moment kukutux wanted only to go to him. but it was a great thing that she would ask of @Aiolos, when he had already given so much. and so she took two heartbeats of time to pull the old words into her mind, and settled before him with downturned head and veiled eyes.

"uiga." he knew her. and he knew when she meant to be formal.

"it has been two moons since the icehunter left our village." by now the knowledge of what he had left behind had come to the eyes of all moonglow. "i say to you now the words i would have spoken before."

kukutux lifted her eyes to him at last. "lótë is my sister. we have a kinship between us. take her as your second wife, uiga. give to her the honor that sivullik did not. give a name to her children. it is your right as sun man." lótë had helped them to build moonglow. she would not see the cloudberry woman so downcast after the words of a man changed by evil spirits.

aiolos had brought meat to the woman's hearth before adrastus. he thought of the woman as his kith. kukutux saw no reason why he should refuse, but kept her tones demure. it was his right. she would not say it was his task. "show to her the same kindness that you have showed to my eyes. i told to her your words, that she is your kin." aiolos had not wished to be a husband in all things to another. it was not her choice to make.

it was her secret hope that when aiolos saw how dutiful and lovely the cloudberry woman was and always had been, and when her sister had seen the soft looks of aiolos and how gently he spoke — that these things one day placed them upon the same path.

"i told to her that this marriage is for protection. she says she may take another husband, one day." kukutux meant to impress upon aiolos that if his heart was against such a thing, she would be silent and accept. but that he would not be tied in a partnering he did not wish.

"she says if it is your wish, she will be second wife to you and second mother to our children."

moonwoman was quiet now.

"if sivullik had not come back, i would have asked you to take lótë as your second mate, so that her children would also have your status."

Aiolos had been happy for the return of their First Hunter. Lote had sung to him, leading him to the den where she had birthed their first children of four together. Kukutux lay in worry, that the man returned was not true, that it was a vengeful spirit in its place. What happiness there had been had not last the night. Had not last even hours, before Lote was determined to take her pups away from a man who was no longer as he once was. Whether Kukutux had been right or it was just bad luck, Adrastus was gone by the next morning, having left the hollow of his former wife and disowned children in wreckage.

The red Sun was more sorrowful for the little woman then he had ever been. It had been better if First Hunter had never returned at all.

When his wife comes to him this night, he is atop Grandfather stone. It reminded him when he would perch upon Ruo's Rock and look out over the Sea and to Moon. Now, he looks over the great lake and to Mother Moon instead.

η γυναίκα μου , said with a smile but as he turns to her he can tell the seriousness of her features and then he tone as she continues. He knew where she was going with this quickly. Aiolos had done well to guard and care for all six of Moonglow's pups, to teach and dote even, as they were his own. But that would not be enough, not when as it were, Lote's four pups were no more then the basterd children Aiolos had grown up to be.

She spoke of his right as Sun Man. The corner of his mouth turned up, opposite of Kukutux so she may not see. His right. Boy if the Nereides could see him now! Not one wife, but two! While he may honor Lote by this, the name given to the pups fell short. It even fell short of his own twins. I've no name to give. What one I might have held was stripped of me by my birthing. She knew this to be so, yet reminded. He was only and ever was Aiolos.

Lote was sister, she was family- kin, as Kukutux remembered. Lote and her pups deserved as much recognition as they did and Kukutux knew Aiolos would give it but also knew where he would lack as a true husband should not.

The tension in his shoulders visibly eased when she mentioned their agreement, that as second wife she was of this for protection, for her goodness and loyalty and trust. Not as another woman that could come close to filling the gaps where his first wife lacked. Aiolos had found no such gaps in Kukutux.

In the end, it was his wish to make Kukutux happy. It was his wish too, to make Lote happy. Whenever he watched the pups play, he wanted them to grow up together and siblings, close to one another, protective of one another. I would do this for you then. He lowers his chin to meet his fire eyes with her earth. For all of us. I'll be every bit of husband required to be before other eyes. But alone... well, Kukutux would remember their prior conversation on that.

kukutux was assured in aiolos' love. a whisper of thanks was upon her lips when she stepped forward to receive his affection. the sun man's embrace was warm and wanting around her, and the duck shivered despite herself. he would be a husband to them both. but he would only share a sleeping place with her.

she was unwise to want more. and yet the duck could not help the warmth that came to her face when she thought of the sun man and his wives sharing an ulaq. it was a familiar feeling, and not one that was altogether unpleasant. there was no jealousy in the conception of it. she must simply wait to see what the spring-time brought for them all.

that aiolos had no name did not matter to the duck. "we will be clan nuiruk: wolves beneath the moon that shows through clouds.'" it was a word she had long loved, and now if aiolos agreed, they might add this not only to their names but to those of the cloudberry woman and her children.

surely the man of red fur loved her dutifully and truly to agree in this way.

kukutux kissed all sides of his face with a slow and loving linger.

Nuiruk... Aiolos tested the odd word on his lips, speaking it as she had. And she would explain it's meaning to him in those moments and be smiles and agrees with a silent nod. The Moon and Sea Goddesses were ones which he had followed from a very young age. Kukutux too, shared her love for the Moon Mother, shown in their village name and the name which she called herself. It was a common devotion between them, one which many wolves could agree.

I like that. He agrees, as much so as Kukutux would expect of him. A man of habit and for the most part, quite predictable and trust worthy in this. Aiolos had never bothered with the idea of a legacy, of a family lineage to carry on through the ages. Being born a basterd and then living where men did not have a place as father to their pups, it was something which stirred a new and odd feeling in Aiolos gut, an emotion he could not place though it shown on his features.

Aiolos Nuiruk.. A small smile tugs at him with the realization that with this new name, Aiolos also had himself a real and true family he could call his own.

she smiled. 

it is a good name, granddaughter. a strong name.

tooteega was quite pleased.

lynx grinned.

he is a strong man. his spirit is not easily challenged.

kukutux burrowed her muzzle against aiolos. 

"uiga."