Ouroboros Spine amaniittuk ≐

as of this thread, kausiut will be leaving moonglow to go offsite with a visitor from a village considered to be cousins to kukutux' own people <3

the woman who arrived was not at first familiar. it was not until she used the tongue of the walrus hunters that moonwoman knew and understood. the visitor wore a black parka and sharp blue eyes that missed nothing. "cousin," she said of kukutux. "it is good to see that you are strong and that the stories of your people go on."

she had the name of murre. kukutux brought her to the hearth of herself and aiolos and lótë. she declared the walrus woman to be deserving at once of their hospitality. food was brought. she said the names of moonglow to murre, who looked approvingly at the large family.

but it was @Kausiut who truly took the eye of the trader. kukutux saw how uncommonly warm her daytime star was toward murre.

"the walrus hunters are not so unlike moonglow. but our women are hunters as well as shamans. sometimes we do not marry. or sometimes a walrus woman takes more than one husband," murre told to the ears that listened.

by the third day that had passed, it became clear to all who saw that kausiut had grown close to the journeyer. this was not often done by their daytime star. kukutux found this curious but welcoming. yet murre still brought surprise when she spoke to moonwoman and to sun man, saying that the walrus spirit-talkers might teach kausiut more.

murre was fond of kausiut. she saw her already as a kinsoul, even if there was no blood tying them.

it was with much reluctance that moonwoman relented. she stood with the sunman and the painterwolf. she kissed kausiut gently and looked into the bright single eye.

One usually imagines life as a river that runs through a set course. It begins somewhere and it reaches its destination elsewhere and the path inbetween is defined, even if the endpoint is not known. There are occasional obstacles in the way that cause the water to rush and ripple. There are steeper drops, where a waterfall forms. Despite this one looks in the future and takes it for granted. The grand sea is there and nothing will stop us from reaching it.

A fine metaphor, but is it a true one for all?

So far along her life Kausiut had struggled to run the path chosen for her. Rather than a steady river, she was that first little rivulet of melted icewater, snaking through small cracks and crevices in a glacier. Fighting against ice was hard. Many bumps along the way. Many hard falls, dead-ends, set-backs and moments to pool up and decide, where to go next. It could have been easy to branch off her family as a small river. As her siblings and cousins had, all connected in that complex web of relationships they shared. Yet easy had never been interesting for her. Kausiut had first fought against the odds of survival and then, when this had no longer been a novelty, she had chosen a different opponent.

Breaking the glacier - the mold of life set out for her, where she did not belong.

It was not clear, why Kausiut liked Murra from the moment she met her. She did not ask such questions to herself, but it might have been that she had longed for a friend. You had come very close to being such and, perhaps, Murra had filled that gap. The walrus hunter did not seem to be bothered by Kau's oddities - either she was not a woman of many words herself or she a gift of connecting with people intuitively. Whatever it was, she connected with Kau, first, by playing her game of items, second, suggesting the girl to explore more and learn new. By day two Kau cautiously hung around the walrus-hunter, observing her comings and goings, how she interacted with others of her village. By day three Murra had a little four-legged shadow, who hobbled after her everywhere.

Often a good friend changes the way we behave. Inherently Kausiut possessed all the same characteristics that made her both genius and both downright pain-in-the-ass around others. However, Murra could see past the outward expressions of them. Kau's signature stubborness and refusal to obey became strong willpower and independent mind. That's, what the elderwoman could work with. Put in the right setting and properly challenged, this mishapen thing could prosper and achieve great things. Or not, in case that rivulet decided that there was a different glacier to break.

Kausiut had not thought of leaving, because she had accepted that as many other strangers here, Murra had come here to stay for good. It was not clear to her until that moment, when the hunter asked her, if she would like to go and her family somewhat reluctantly proposed the same question to her, did she began to wonder, what if... There was an imminent danger of losing yet another friend. Kausiut had had the bitter taste of unhappiness, and her child's logic was, that, if shde were to go, she would not have to go through that again. Only few days down the road, when the novelty of the journey would have worn off, would she began to long for the family she had left behind.

Yet... one can't say that she did not spare a single glance at her mother and father. She moved in to touch her mother's cheek gently, pressed her forehead against her father's neck. A rare moment of affection from the wayward girl. Then she retreated and joined Murra.

Perhaps, breaking the glacier together would be easier.

To see her sister happy brought great joy to Sialuk. It was an exciting time for Kausiut, and even more so when Sialuk learned that sistraa would begin a journey with Murre. A path was shown for her sister where one had not been before.

Sialuk had carefully chosen one of her bones to send with Kau as a gift. It meant “finding one’s path,” and she thought it most appropriate of them all. She set it gently at her sister’s front feet. Be safe, sistraa.

Murre's arrival had not only opened up a path for Kausiut -- it had also opened Lótë's eyes. The painter had not quite considered that there might be other villages that were blood to Moonglow, that their family was larger than the Spine. Nor had the second wife considered that a hunter could take more than one husband. 

Such thoughts lingered in her mind as she gathered in the ulaq with her sister and husband, their many children, as food and story were shared alike. For the first time, she invited @Makan to join her large family and drink in the stories that caused his eyes to dance with life. 

The cloudberry had accepted her place in the mountains and found happiness in it. But...her thoughts occasionally trailed to the future, to the idea of finding what sparked between first wife and Aiolos. It was only her duty to the clan of Nuiruk and her reluctance to break the hearth of their many little ones that kept her heart from similarly wandering to fulfillment. 

Perhaps it would not always be so. If the walrus women could have multiple husbands, if it was the way of their people, then mayhaps someday Lótë might take a second mate without severing ties from Aiolos and the family they had built. 

She stood with her kin to send Kau off, smiling and offering a brief embrace to her stepdaughter if allowed -- for the daytime star had always been distant, though she still held a place in the herd-stalker's heart as daughter. Wistful inspiration stirring as she watched the first of their children leave home, an ache beneath her breastbone both for the loss of moonwoman's child and for something unnamed as the figures grew smaller in the distance.