Kildeer Rest Show Me The Way

"@Kukutux-" Nyra started softly, coughing as she scrambled to correct herself. 
"Moon Woman..." She tried again with a sheepish half-smile. 
There, that was...kinda better? 

"What are y-..I...uh...could you....teach, er..help...me?" The warmonger struggled heavily with asking for her Alpha's wisdom, if it wasn't apparent by this very instant. 
"I've done really bad things in my life, I've killed and attacked others, not always by provocation, and...I want to do better, especially if I am to try and become a mother again before I eventually die..." She licked her lips as a subconscious show of submission. 
Nyra sighed deeply and dropped into the snow, a respective distance from Kukutux and whatever tasks she was or wasn't currently fulfilling. 

The warmaiden slanted her ears back, uncertain.

the woman nyra found kukutux at her hearth.

the duck set aside the hide to listen. 

she admitted to killing. to war. to blood. moonwoman's eyes became tight with worry. and then her expression smoothed. "these choices, are they how you have gained so many scars?" she had never asked what had happened when the pale woman first came to moonglow.

now kukutux found herself softly insistent on knowing it all.

Nyra saw the brief tightness of worry brush Kukutux's face before it smoothed.

With a heavy look upon her own face, Nyra nodded.
"All my scars are from battle. Though not all of my combat experience is from other wolves. The scars across my face, for example. I fought and killed a cougar that was after one of Rivenwood's young. Druid. But...that was while I was leading the Saints, before the war that drove me and my companions to your border." The Warmaiden responded, eyes dark with some emotion, sadness, maybe.

"The wolves of Ursus especially want my head. And I cannot guarantee all my past wrongs won't bring trouble and danger to the village if they knew I'm with you..." As she said these words, it seemed to bring a fresh light to the reality that she was putting good wolves in danger by hiding within their numbers. 
Her face continued to darken with regret.

a cat. a war. her companions.

kukutux was quiet for a long moment. "i do not know ursus," she said, careful with the unfamiliar name. 

"the woman war and the man xynos are gone from this land. you are alone in moonglow."

her voice was thoughtful and without judgement.

"i must speak with aiolos. but i will offer you a cleansing, nyra, when we have made a path back to our village. you must learn to put aside this anger. what you choose does not only touch you."

Nyra listened with silent earnest as Kukutux spoke to her. 
She didn't know Ursus. 

But War and Xynos had left...

You are alone in Moonglow The Alphess said softly. 
Nyra flattened her ears at this truth, and clearly began to fight tears as Kukutux said she would speak with Aiolos and see about a cleansing, once they returned to their home. 

The Warmaiden tried to blink away the wetness in her eyes as Kukutux advised that she learn to let go of her rage, for... 

what you choose does not only touch you. 

Nyra felt these words strike her hard in her very core, and she bit back a sob. Everything was beginning to draw to a hardened head. 

With a shaky breath, she tried to ask without breaking further "How...how can I help...repay you?" 

"you must choose in your heart to be better."

"in a village, there are many beating hearts. if you take the wrong path, you may end some of these. we are not separate from one another,"  moonwoman went on earnestly.

payment. she blinked. a bargain. "the pack must judge you. they must all know what you have done. we will decide together."

Nyra blinked away her tears as Kukutux offered her wisdom.
The wardog listened earnestly, taking in every word.

However at the mention of being judged by the entire pack, there was fear that flashed brightly in Nyra's gaze. 
What if they casted her out? Where would she go then? 

Nyra forced down a hard swallow and nodded compliantly after a long moment...

"O...Okay." She murmured softly, voice shaky with uncertainty. 

"In the meantime, is there anything else I can do? To help?" She asked, glancing to the hide Moonwoman had been working on when Nyra came to her.

Whether Kukutux would decree personal help or aid to the whole of the village, Nyra didn't know.

she saw fear there but did not move to assuage it. nyra had done wrong. and while it had not been to kukutux, moonglow must know. it was their way.

"these hides," she said softly, indicating a pile of skins with membranes and flesh still clinging to one side. "help me scrape them. i will teach you a song to make the working go faster."

acceptance, despite all nyra had said.

Nyra understood that right now her fate was not entirely hers to control. It was up to everyone. 
All of Moonglow.

And she'd do her best to prove she was worth keeping.

Kukutux mentioned the hides, to which Nyra nodded once and crawled closer, pulling one from the stack and turning it so she could start.

"How do I...?" She began, unsure how to start the process.

kukutux nodded.

she pulled one of the furs toward her, turning it skin-side up. and then she leant forward, carefully biting fat and debris and flesh from the skin. it would be slow going. and at first nyra's neck might hurt. but there was much strength to be built by the scraping of hides.

she pushed another to nyra, showing her how to spread her own pelt flat against the snowy ground.

The Warmaiden watched carefully as Kukutux showed her how to scrape the hide, carefully piecing away fat and leftover tissue from it.

Another was pulled and Nyra mirrored the action of flattening the fur against the snow and keeping it skin-side up, uncertain, but willing to learn. 
A tentative smile flashed from Nyra's face to Moonwoman as she began her work, carefully pulling away the fat and other tissue leftover on the hide. 

Nyra's neck did begin to hurt after a while, but she never stopped scraping for more than a brief moment. 
The Warmaiden supposed she could find this task rather....meditative? 
It was repetitive routine, after all.

very repetitive indeed. 

kukutux rocked back upon her haunches as nyra worked.

"i saw a man high upon the sea ice."

"i said to him, come down, winter hunter."

"he said he had been covered in snow for a long while;"

"he gave to me a shell of blue and said his hunting would go faster,"

"now that he had seen my face."

she laughed. "it is a song of silly words."

smol post from me. Perhaps we can fade?<3

 

Nyra listened to the alpha sing her song as they scraped at the hides. 
A small smile was earned from the Warmaiden as she scraped at a particularly stubborn piece of fat, saying nothing in response but offering her attention all the same. 

Her tail swayed softly behind her.