Ouroboros Spine puyuk

He had gone to the water to wait patiently, and to watch for fish. The surface of the water was very still; there was ice upon some of it, drifting by, and if there were fish they were very lazy. He didn't see any movement except a few birds flying overhead, their bodies in a vee-formation, and he watched them until they were gone.

The working places, the ulaqs used for the tanning of hides or the drying of meats, looked to be full. The caches had been well stocked from the winter hunting while Mojag was gone, which meant his attempt to fish was futile and unnecessary. Still, he waited there by the water. He waited until he was too cold from sitting still, and had to get up and move to warm his muscles again.

He drifted there beside the water until his path ambled away from it, down in to the village proper; it felt as if the whole world had moved on without him while he'd been on that island, and now he did not fit within the village.

long traveling had made him lean.
but it did not matter, now that he was a seal-hunter, made full. a full twelvemoon had passed since he had been given his manhood scars.
chakliux had left his village then and went out. he had walked. he had not looked back.
now the hungry hunter came to the heavy border of another village, one of several he had passed. he blinked warily, throat clenching at the scent of meat and water.
and women.

Mojag was there for a few more minutes, agonizing, pacing.

There came the scent of a wolf, but he did not know this one. When he turned he thought he glimpsed Kukutux - but it was someone larger, and as he drew close he saw the scars upon his face. This was not a wolf of the village.

Who are you? He blurts without thinking, and strides close, as if they are friends. Mojag has never had to defend this village or the island home from anyone or anything, and the instinct does not come naturally to him the way hunting does.

But he is aware of how his mother behaves at the borders, as he's watched her enough times. He stands a little taller and says, This is the village Moonglow.

chakliux did not have long to wait.
"i am not a threat, brother hunter," he rumbled to the boy who came confidently to meet him. he showed the bottoms of his paws as if to insist.
"who is chieftain in this village?" his stomach growled and he pretended to ignore it.

Brother hunter? That tugged at something inside of Mojag which put to rest his misgivings.

The sunman, Aiolos. He answered; his ears flicked to the sound of grumbling and as an afterthought, Mojag moved back. He welcomed the man with the subtle movement of his neck as if to bade him enter. And the moonwoman, Kukutux.

Was he here for them?

chakliux did not believe it at first. sun man. moon woman. kukutux. "ducks-in-snow," he mumbled to himself, trying to think if the name fit into his lineage.
but hunger drove him upright. "thank you, brother hunter. i am chakliux, of the seal hunter people. i left my village much time ago. but a storm covered the tracks i hunted and brought me to this place."
yes; as he moved over the border, he smelled many wolves, much food. he heard voices. "are you child to this sun man?"

I am son of Shikoba, star-hunter. He named his mother first, because she was most important to him, and he felt the need to defend his connection to her somehow; but as an afterthought he named, Inutsuk is my father. To further remove himself from Sunman, not that he disliked the possible connection.

You come from very far away? That was what Mojag presumed. He had not seen a seal before, and did not know where to find their dens. He had spent some time on an island but there was nothing called a seal there either, so maybe it was farther.

mojag, son of shikoba and inutsuk. his mother bore a title but his father did not. chakliux wondered if such things were common in this village, of which he was becoming more curious. "yes. it is many, many hands of time from moonglow," the scarred man said solemnly. "i did not think i would go back. but i did not mean to be lost!"
his teeth shone in a grin. "my mother is k'os and my father is called waking shark," he told mojag, wondering what else the young hunter would say of his kin.

Even lost, the man sounded happy. He carried a certain kind of mirth within himself that Mojag thought to be rare, or at least different, and he was curious of the man the longer they walked together.

Being lost is not always good, he knew from experience. But at least you have found my village. If it is agreeable to sunman and moonwoman, I will feed you and you may be safe here. He wanted to ask so many things, but did not.

The man spoke of his own parents, and the names were as interesting as the rest of his story. Are they all seal hunters? A moment after this question he asks another: Do they all have marks like yours? And, What sort of village is it?

He was becoming incessant, and knew his childish need to know things was too strong, so he held back the rest.

mojag was polite and curious. it made chakliux proud, to think already he was teaching. "my mother is a shaman, and very known. my father is a seal hunter, as was his father, and so on and so forth."
any boy knew his lineage. chakliux found it boring. only mothers cared about such things, and men when they grew old. "only men have scars. we get them when we kill our first seal." he stopped to show them to mojag, the ones on his shoulders as well as his face. "it hurts very much to be scarred. sometimes your older brothers sit upon you and hold you while the shaman makes the marks. it is weakness to cry. i did not," the young seal hunter said proudly. "it is a village of strong ones, like your own, hunter mojag!"

Chakliux sounded proud, and Mojag saw no reason not to be! He was the embodiment of everything that the boy imagined a hunter should be; strong, capable, and bearing the marks of his strength for all to see. Was this the kind of person his mother wished him to become? Was this what Kukutux sought for him, when she spoke of the hunter's journey?

He unabashedly gawked at the scars when they were offered to him. Hearing the man speak of being held down and marked was harrowing, but he was still proud and his voice filled the air with something like mirth! It might've been frightening, but he was strong. I hope I am as strong when I go on my journey, he remarks.

We are people of the caribou. In fact, I am to go soon to become a man - but, I do not know what that means, really. It was weakness now that plagued Mojag, who left his doubts on display before he could catch himself. Surely Chakliux would not appreciate such a show of worry! Not after praising him for the strength of his village!

He stood tall. I have been to the sea though! I have hunted the things there as well as the caribou. Maybe that would impress the man?

"ha, you are very generous, brother hunter," chakliux said with a more level tone. "if it is acceptable, i will stay in this place and i will show you how a man prepares."
chakliux laughed again. "what did you hunt in the sea, mojag?" his flower-eyes held great interest. "i will tell you of men. let me ask a question: do you want women yet?"
for that was the mark of a boy's starting journey. chakliux remembered when he had woken and seen that the women of his village were beautiful.

He felt it was most agreeable that this man show up now, when he was in need of someone. Perhaps this man had been summoned by Kukutux and her spirits? Perhaps god had chosen to send him to the path of Mojag, and the boy held this in mind for later, when he might say a prayer the way Bartholomew used to, and speak to the wind.

The man was laughing and any thoughts to spirits or gods vanished with the sound. Mojag was smiling and letting himself be happy, his tail waving. There was this creature called a turtle, it was like a wide stone with fins; and there were many fish, and sometimes I would watch the wolves of the sea - what my friend Heda called a whale - swimming by, but he was caught and tongue-tied when he heard the man mention women.

Ah! Um, he did not know what the man meant, to want women. It sounded like a riddle and so all he could do was laugh a little bit, and move alongside Chakliux, to watch him for clues. There are many women in my village. I am friends with some of them, and he thought of Callyope, mostly, but did not know if that was what the man meant.

a turtle! chakliux listened closely. he had only ever heard of them, that they lived in warmer seas. he would like to see one, he decided. "wolves of the sea!" the young man exclaimed. "i like this name. we also hunted smaller whales," he added, "but it was very rare."
friends! but he would not laugh at this proud strong boy. "are they your sisters and your kin?" chakliux asked. such was the way of his own village. it was part of why he had left.

He was glad to hear the man so enthusiastic! It meant his story had been a good one, and that he had perhaps impressed Chakliux with the tale. This pleased Mojag a great amount - he had very little in the way of male companionship these days, and felt that he had found a friend at last.

As for the women he held as friends, They are... sisters, but not kin. Or... Kin, but not true sisters? He knew that was confusing. He was confused by it himself! I am my mother's only child, he explained. But the village raised me too, and so I.. suppose, they are my sisters in that way.

He did not know if what he said mattered to Chakliux. He didn't understand why blood bonds would make these women taboo, or any of that. The boy was fortunate for being unrelated to those of Moonglow, truly, but he did not see the truth of that yet.

chakliux nodded. "hearth-sisters. we have many of those in the seal hunter village. it means you cannot marry them sometimes." but that was for the chieftains to decide. the man's attention was suddenly drawn by the scent of a woman, and by the meat he had yet to eat. "your mother is star-hunter? is she powerful as sun man and moonwoman?" he asked, not wanting to hurry the boy but wishing that his near future was decided.

Heart-sisters. Marriage. Was this man a matchmaker then? Oh; was this what the conversation had been about the whole time? Mojag was suddenly warm all-over, thinking about that and Callyope and -- then his mother, as she was brought up again.

Um, yes, she -- yes, he wasn't certain but Mojag always thought she was powerful. She was star-hunter, that had to count for something. I can vouch for you with her. I can tell her you are a proven hunter to your village - and your marks, they will prove it. His tail fanned the air.

So he would share with Chakliux the way to the ulax, where he might find Shikoba or Kukutux, or anyone of great esteem. He was until now a guest of Mojag's, and the boy did not think it strange at all to show the man the way.

set before she takes off w sakhmet lol

her body was coming alive.

kuktuux busied herself with work.

when she looked up, it was to see strong mojag with a stranger. the duck rose, putting aside pelts. he was young and handsome, with traditional scars upon his flesh. "this woman greets you," she said to him, sensing he was one of their own.

chakliux nodded but said no more. mojag led him to the ulax and there he saw a woman, ripened by age and children. she was beautiful. but he dropped his eyes.
her formal greeting brought his eyes up. "this man greets you," he said automatically, then smiled. "this man is chakliux, of the seal hunter hearth held by waking shark. his mother is k'os."

Chakliux introduced himself and spoke of his ability.
Mojag was smitten with the idea of another hunter among them, and was particularly charmed by this man, so it was hard to hold back his tongue when there came a quiet moment; he did not stop himself in time, and blurted, He is a hunter from far away, and he was lost, but I found him and -- please let him stay?
The boy sounded so childish! He didn't mean to, but he was glowing with his enthusiasm.

kukutux smiled brightly. a son of her northern places then, a wolf of the long dark and the sea ice.

"you are kin to the siqiniq people?" she asked, a shine to her emerald gaze. "what is your lineage?" she asked, guessing at his village. 

hunters of seals.

and for a moment she was a girl again, not yet a year, meeting the seal hunter boy that she would later marry.

he had not received his scars. and they had not been completed before the time of falling rocks.

the memory soured and she returned to the more pleasant place of her current time. "i think yes, that this hunter will stay with us," kukutux said to mojag. "it is wise of you to bring him here."

his lineage. he might have good-naturedly rolled his eyes to mojag had he not been in the presence of the village mother.
"they are my cousins," he said in a near-tongue, and then grinned his wide smile. "k'os is daughter to aqamdax. aqamdax is daughter to kiin. kiin is daughter to chagak. waking shark is son to green stalker. green stalker is son to hunting fox. hunting fox is son to gray bird."
chakliux was quiet now. reciting lineages was the way of the seal hunter people.

First the boy was overjoyed to hear that this man would be welcome, then he fell to dismay while the two exchanged information. A fluid string of names and relatives spawned from Chakliux! Names that perhaps moonwoman knew.

Mojag thought of his own generations - but he could only truly count Shikoba, and that was where it ended. Did he have more? Were there cousins spread out somewhere that connected back to him? Feeling displaced from the conversation he piped up with another little quip: They are all seal hunters?

Of course they were! Stupid boy, wanting to be included in something he didn't understand.

she nodded. "i know of kiin. her sister married a cousin of my own. and of course, chagak." chakliux had a fine heritage. "yes," she said to mojag with a warm look. "his people are like mine. but they recite the names of their lineage at the first meeting, so that they can find if their people are known to a new village. in this way, they avoid tight-marriage. relatives cannot marry so close."

moonwoman nodded toward chakliux and mojag. "walk the village. soon we will need a hunt. the village will grow larger this spring, if sedna gives us her blessing."

she was ready to allow the two of them away.

chakliux grinned his wide smile. "ah! this is good. maybe we will have more stories to tell."
when the village mother moved to dismiss them, he dipped his head at her then turned to mojag. 'come and show me all the good tracking-places, brother hunter."