Moonspear illulikpak ⇌

for @Atlas! <3

she had come here to look for sialuk. it had been some time since she had seen her daughter and so worry had bloomed inside moonwoman. she knew the star to be a wanderer but this somehow differed.

perhaps it was the time of things: kukutux had given her the name of rodyn but then her child had gone away. toteega had not called her to be a wife, nor anaa, and now samani moved like a first woman.

there had been no new scents upon the mountain the last time the duck had visited. it was again empty. 

she found herself tracing the old trails upward to the pool of hot water which steamed in the abrupt summer downpour.

you are a shooting starrrrrr~ <3

Moonspear’s grounds had not been traveled by a pack in many months. The grounds had been washed of pawprints and markings alike. The rise and fall of the natural stone had not changed. When the swarthy figure of the Ostrega wolf found the base of the territory, he was overcome with memories.

Atlas began by walking the familiar paths, those he had known in his childhood. He traced the stone with his gaze, following it until he had reached the dens that his family had shared. Their scents did not exist there anymore. The inkjet figure still paused, waiting to see if their familiar smell would find him, to see if something still existed in the remnants of Moonspear.

From the dens, he journeyed to the hot water. Steam rose and met rainfall. Scattered droplets marked their place on the surface of the pools. Atlas debated bathing himself in them, to soothe his weary figure and return strength for the days that would come. As he stepped forward, his sunset gaze found a pale figure nearby.

These grounds will be claimed before long.

There was little point in approaching that subject tactfully. Atlas wanted it known.

no uuuuuu <3333

antares. the blackbear. the blackfox.

jarilo.

kuktutux started, as much from her own thought as from the sudden appearance of the other. she saw him at once as ostrega-clan, for she recognized the same confident, long stride in her own daughter. the man spoke. he was not spirit. he pulled the duck from her contemplations of sedna. she lifted her chin and turned to face him.

"the mountain should be returned to those who are kin to me," moonwoman said gently. her jadestone eyes missed nothing about him, and the sense of familiarity grew larger. "i am kukutux nuiruk, but once my name was ostrega."

she knew him but not the title he wore. she was quiet, ears swept forward.

That woman spoke to him as though she knew – she boasted a sense of pride in her words. Atlas was not moved by them, only angered. His eyes narrowed upon her. The swarthy figure’s brow was furrowed into a frightening expression. Were it not for his weary body, he might have snapped his fangs at her. The desire to fight for what he saw as rightfully his would be an easy one. The mountain belonged to his family, to those who still carried the name Ostrega.

Do not speak to me in that way, if you have abandoned the name Ostrega.

Sadness took a hold in the pit of his belly. He felt he had seen this pale she-wolf before… many years ago, perhaps. The light of her green gaze was familiar and still foreign. Atlas could not restrain his contempt for what she had said.

You are no kin if you are called Nuiruk. You have shed the binding that might have tied us.

Atlas drew himself up, swelling his chest and stiffening his shoulders. The fire of his eyes remained on her features. Though she spoke with the voice of a woman wise in her years, the inkjet titan did not wish to see it. The pride that he felt for his family name overcame all of it. She should know who she addressed. She should know, after all this time, that the only one who would return to Moonspear was the one who sought to claim it again.

I am Atlas Ostrega. This mountain will be mine again.

he was angry. but kukutux had seen the rage of many ostrega men. it reminded her that this mountain had been held with their blood and their fire. he was a fine hunter as was his kith.

but he was disrespectful and to a wisewoman of his line.

"omât, nukatpialugruak!" she growled, rounding toward the brash man with bared teeth. "i knew your mother and all your brothers." grey brother. arcturus. jarilo. "i knew your father." despite the disparity of their sizes, kukutux advanced upon atlas.

she wore the scar of a tupilak. she did not fear him.

"i knew the glen of fire flies. and when this mountain fell, it was i and my daughter sialuk who kept the name ostrega alive. it lives in me. it breathes in me. it speaks in me. my village moonglow was built from ostrega-clan and my own ways."

her eyes flashed green fire. "you will not stand upon this sacred place and bring disrespect. i will drive you off with my hunters."

damn we kicking this  off good

The pale she-wolf’s advance – snapping teeth and anger – struck him. Atlas did not move against her, did not attempt to step aside to allow her advance to move past him. He was steadfast in his disinterest with her words.

That wolf spoke to him as though he did not know, as if he had not been one of the founding members of the glen. Atlas curled his lip, and a low growl was emitted from the deep boom in his throat. Still, he did not move from his post upon the mountain Moonspear.

All of her pride meant nothing to him when she had given it away. The words calling Moonspear a sacred place, that she would remove him with her hunters. Atlas laughed. It was a bitter, tired, and unhumorous sound. The hackles along his body bristled with indignation. How dare this nobody speak to him? Nuiruk was not Ostrega. She was not his kin. She was a stranger who had once had a glimpse into their lives and she had walked away from it without returning. She had built a foundation elsewhere.

Silence your tongue, woman of the moon. You and your hunters do not frighten me. You could not chase me from this mountain if your lives and wellbeing depended on it.

Atlas snapped his teeth.

Moonspear is mine.

The inkjet figure grew cold. His brow was knit above his eyes, his lips curled down in a deep frown.

You preach and preach of your sacred ties to my family. But where are they? Those Ostrega wolves that you knew? And where have you been in all this time? Not here. You should be ashamed to be so bold as to say that you are Ostrega, too. You are not. Not anymore.

IKR <3

her jadestone eyes glittered. "if you will test moonglow, then i will accept your challenge." he knew not of what he spoke, nor did he comprehend that her sister's village and perhaps sacrarium as well might come to her aid. she could ask natigvik, the wolves of duskfire, or even those in brecheliant.

she broadly swept her plume to indicate the mountain. "this place has already been spoken for by my daughter. she is child of your older brother. her claim is stronger." kukutux regarded atlas with a saddened irritation. how many more men of his clan must be thrown down upon stone before they understood they they owned nothing unless the land invited them to stand upon it?

"many ostrega are dead. and yet the blood lives on in sialuk." yes; her mind worked as atsak. but it would cross a kinship tie, and besides that, this man was not deserving to take a wife.

not yet.

"do not make an enemy of me, atlas ostrega. those in village moonglow are your family. i am your family. the last brother who rejected his kin lies dead in a place of snow and ice. no one could save him and it was his own doing."

grey trader.

her heart ached, but she faced resolutely into the fierce, cold face which held such resemblance to those she had known.

Another laugh reached his throat. Her daughter had claim upon the mountain? But where was the little wench in that moment? Her scent had not been marked on Moonspear’s borders. Her paws had left no prints in the dirt. There were no signs of her figure having hunted on or near the mountain in months. The inkjet man wanted the absurdity to reach the proudful white woman. He wanted her to realize how foolish she sounded to state that her vanished child had a stronger stake in claim on the mountain than he did.

And where is your prodigal daughter? Are you really so bold to claim that an absent child is more entitled to these lands than the son of the last ruler? If he could have spit at the ground, he would have. There are no signs of her here. There are no signs of anyone seeking to claim the mountain here.

A deep breath was drawn, filling his lungs with the fragrance of the white wolf’s pack. It was not the smell of Moonspear. She had only visited the mountain that day. Kukutux did not have a claim to speak of. She was bluffing, or prideful, or something in between. Atlas did not care for it. He did not find himself swayed by her words or her threats.

Your scent belongs to somewhere else, as well. I understand if you feel a connecting tie to this land, but you will not come here and tell me that I am in the wrong in my desire to reclaim it. You will not. Present your daughter or hold your tongue. The inkjet titan squinted sharply at her. His brow was furrowed in a tight line.

If she wanted to claim that he was making enemies, he would show her what that meant.

I did not come here to make an enemy of you, but I will not stand by and allow you to stake a claim on my home – the land where I was born – when you have none. These mountain paths have not had the scent of a claim on them in some time. You will not walk on me, woman of the moon.

kukutux listened.

and in the secret places of her heart, she saw how hate and anger had twisted atlas. he responded not to the name of ostrega. only his own wants. only his own desires.

by the end of his words the moonwoman's eyes had welled with tears.

but it was not for the scorn he aimed at him. it was for atlas himself.

he would not take the mountain. she would not have his rage so near her home.

"tupilak."

their time was at an end. kukutux looked at him a long moment and then turned to leave the place that had once been moonspear.