Ouroboros Spine because chaos is all they know

their time in moonglow is waning, kivaluk knows. and though he has enjoyed this trip, enjoyed all the knowledge he has learned during his time here, there is a homesickness seeping into his bones. it spreads through his veins until it begins to consume him. he tries not to let it show, tries to hide it behind smiles and tail wags but it lingers in his gaze all the same. he misses qeya river and the familiarity of it's serpentine paths.

older now than he was when they had begun this trip, he can hardly wait to return home and begin exploring it on his own.

the misty morning dampens his mood, worsening his growing homesickness until it is present in the small slump of his shoulders as he trudges along, determined to explore and with any luck, lift his own spirits.

Stratos hums through the early misty morning, picking with a tune he’d heard @Callyope singing earlier, and putting his own little spin to it. Her words had been quite different than the ones he jotted down to memory… and far less pretty being the boyish bootleg they were. But he likes them, none the less. Better, even, than his sister’s (though he will never tell her!).

“Kivaluk!” he recognizes the sulking figure and the firebrand rushes to catch up with him. He notices something different about the way his cousin carries himself, and Stratos chalks this up to tiredness. Something that Stratos isn’t feeling. With a broad grin, the boy asks, “listen to the song I’m making, cousin!”

And though not phrased as a question, he waits a beat, with an expectant smile, to gauge the other’s reaction. Chances are he’ll sing whatever way Kivaluk’s own smile turns, but to wait at least a second is only polite.

the homesick kivaluk peers up at his name; feeling a soft swell of surprise that in his wave of melancholy he'd missed stratos' firekissed form. a slow blink is given and a jovial wag of his tail in greeting as the other boy comes up to him.

for the moment — and the sake of his host — he pushes aside the heavy feeling of longing for home.

hiya stratos! kivaluk chirrups though even he can hear the lack of his whole heart in the greeting. a soft noise is given, hoping that the other boy doesn't notice. okay — kivaluk says though he senses ( without perhaps fully understanding it as such ) that it was a rhetorical suggestion and he was going to hear his bardling cousin's song regardless.