Ouroboros Spine that dude is a scientist, but i already cured all diseases last week

For @Kukutux

The trip from Moonspear to Ouroboros Spine was short, but Stingray made the most of it. He snuffled at faded yellow marks in the snow, rubbed his sides against the trunks of proud trees, and catalogued what information he could about the short stretch of woodland between the mountains. All the while, he was hypervigilant for bears, but encountered no trace of them.

Stingray followed a worn game trail up the slope of the spine and paused at the top to take in the view. It was a bowl of a valley much wider than the mountains were tall. These were taller than anything the coast had to offer, yet Moonspear loomed higher still, giving the false impression that these squat mountains were hills instead.

Remembering who Sialuk had told him to call for, Ray sucked in a slow breath and howled for the one they called moonwoman.

soft leather, falling in folds over her lap.

a blanket for children not yet born, both sides rubbed smooth and free of fur.

a wrapping-skin.

the call that rose was for her, the voice youthful and unfamiliar. standing, kukutux handed the leather to a wolf nearby and wrapped her shoulders in a grey rabbitpelt.

thus she found a boy at her borders, somehow familiar. "i greet you," moonwoman said, eyes studying him with curiosity.

Fidgeting in place, Stingray looked this way and that, noting the colossal trees and the glimmer of distant water. It was a nice place. If not for the pack residing here, he would have been eager to explore it in search of hidden nooks and crannies.

Alas, there was a well established pack here and soon the leader of these wolves came out to meet him. She was not what Stingray expected. Having been raised in Sapphique, he was accustomed to a certain ferocity when it came to the leading females, but this woman looked almost soft with her alabaster coat and the fur draped over her shoulders. Even Sialuk did not give off the same inviting vibe, though her mien was still far kinder than anything he had experienced in his birth pack.

I greet you, he repeated, tripping a little over the unfamiliar greeting. He thought about whether he should comment on the beauty of her chosen territory, but decided against it. This was a business visit and Stingray meant to take it seriously. Stiffly, even, for he was yet uncertain of how to carry himself professionally and not convey a stuffy air at the same time. He dipped his head respectfully, just the way his ma and da had taught him, but could not seem to chase the formal rigidity from his stance.

Sialuk of Moonspear sent me to find the moonwoman, he shared. Are you her?

kukutux smiled with a flash of her small worn teeth. "i am moonwoman. i am called kukutux. sialuk is daughter of my hearth."

there was much pride in her.

the duck's observant eyes watched the boy. "what is the name that you have, young hunter-man?" she inquired. "those in village moonspear are kin-tied to those in moonglow. come," she said, inviting the boy into the spine.

Kukutux spoke in the same peculiar cadence used by Sialuk, which ought not to have surprised him, but did anyway. He was accustomed to a more direct speech pattern, the harsh sounds of the coast rather than this soft and elaborate tongue. She called him hunter-man, a term he did not understand.

Stingray. Oh, but I'm not a hunter, he clarified sheepishly as he followed Kukutux over the threshold and into claimed territory. He supposed he didn't know what he was. He might have shared that that title belonged to his brother, but Stingray found himself unable to speak of Swordfish except with his parents. The hurt was still fresh.

Sialuk sent me here to tell you that my mom and dad, Meerkat and Njord, have joined her at Moonspear, he shared, somewhat awkwardly, for it was brief news that hardly warranted an invite into Kukutux's home.

"i have known meerkat for a long hand of time. and i knew njord before they became married," she shared with the boy as she set a course for them along one of the well-traveled paths that ran as an artery through the heart of moonglow.

"you say you are not hunter. do you know what you will be, stingray?" they had come to her ulaq, and she motioned for him to sit while she gathered a meal for the young visitor.

Warranted or not, Stingray supposed he had no choice but to follow Kukutux into Moonglow. Was this how things worked in other packs? He couldn't imagine the women of Sapphique allowing some stranger to come waltzing into their territory, much less a young boy whose mission was only to deliver a message.

He listened with interest as Kukutux recounted her connection with his parents. If he had known them before they were married, that meant she must be pretty old! Maybe not as ancient as his grandma Towhee, but definitely old in Ray's books. He wondered how many wolves she knew, how many lands she had seen, and how much knowledge she must hold in her head.

They came to a den, or an ulaq, as Sialuk called it. Stingray didn't think he would ever get used to calling it that. He sat when bid to do so, mulling over Kukutux's question while she bustled about. Uh, well, I don't really know. Right now I just... Wanna get settled, then go looking for my brother. We got separated.

Swordfish's blue eyes in his thoughts, accusing as always. Separated? they seemed to say. More like abandoned.

was there pain here?

kukutux thought on this as she set fresh venison and dried trout upon a strip of bark for the boy. she pushed it before him and settled nearby, pulling a curing hide into her lap.

"have you prayed to the spirits that he is found?" moonwoman asked, looking up from the deer pelt toward the moonspear child.

Everything about this place was strange and new. Ray had felt a little out of place next to Sialuk at Moonspear, with her formal way of speaking and her unique terminology, but Kukutux was several degrees more strange than her daughter. Or maybe Stingray was simply savage and uncivilized for a wolf.

He wasted no time on the venison, but eyed the dried fish on the strip of bark with a little suspicion, but found it pleasant enough when he tried it. The flavour and texture were different than fresh fish. Afterward, unsure what he was meant to do with the bark, he began to chew on that as well.

By then Kukutux had pulled a hide to herself and asked about the spirits. He had to work a shard of wood bark out of his teeth before answering. I don't... Really know how to do that. My mam and da are making a shrine or something. Is it like that? He didn't know that was for Sobo rather than Swordfish.

"aya, do not eat that. it is only for holding. chew willow bark for the taste," she offered, wondering if his teeth still ached as he grew.

moonwoman mused a moment, paws moving along the skin.

"it is like that. but it is making words out loud, to send to the ears of the gods." she watched him for a moment. "a hunter makes a sacrifice of blood, and he asks sedna, 'send back to me the one that was lost.'" her jadestone eyes were soft. "you say you are not hunter. but it is only in searching that he finds his way home. you ask sedna to help him find his way."

Aya, said Kukutux, and Stingray dropped the bark with a bashful flick of his ears. He gave no visible indication that he had heard her suggestion; he was in no need of bark to chew on, and had only misunderstood the purpose of what he had been given.

Everything Kukutux told him next was confusing to his ears. He had not been raised on spiritual stories or rituals. Sapphique had an affinity for the sea, but the way they tied femininity to the ocean was still a lot different than what Kukutux was suggesting.

He couldn’t help feeling out of his depth. This was not the way he had been raised and even thinking about it felt as unnatural to him as walking on his front paws only. He was raised to be polite, though, so he nodded at length and said, I guess I could try, despite knowing he likely would not.

If wishes could bring his brother home, then Sword would be with him right now. They would listen to this wise older woman and talk amongst themselves later about the strange ways she worked the pelt between her paws, and Sword would liken it to the fish traps he had made with Suzu, and instead of being homesick for his brother, maybe Ray would be homesick for the coast instead.

He did not realize he had lapsed into a long and uncomfortable silence.

the boy was silent for a long time. kukutux did not speak, only turned the hide over in her small paws, continuing to search it for scrapes or toothmarks.

a red bird sang from the trees beside the lake. moonwoman heard the cold wind in among the sacred oak trees.

at last, she gently set the worked skin beside stingray. "take this home. it is for your sleeping-place." perhaps the presence of something to work a hunting spirit would encourage the young man.

many things weighed upon his heart.

Kukutux snapped Stingray out of it, proffering the hide to him as easily as if it were a stick. This was no small, easily acquired gift, however; no matter how strange he thought the practice, Stingray knew something of value when he saw it. This hide had been stripped with care of all coarse hairs and worked down until it was smooth and supple.

I can't possibly take this, said Stingray with an uneasy swallow. He had been raised to be polite and knew it was rude to refuse a gift, but this was simply too luxurious a hide for him to take. I have nothing to give you in return.

such things were made for those loved. kukutux gave a soft smile to stingray.

"i ask for nothing now. when you are older, come to join a summer hunt with the villages. i know you say you are not hunter, but we have many to teach."

the hide remained, proffered. she would not be offended if the young moonspear man did not take it, but her green eyes suggested that they were family. "i have many to help me make these things. maybe you would like to learn, one day."

A summer hunt with the villages. Ray had never run with his pack in a hunt before, with the wind in his fur and the scent of fear and blood in his nose. Sapphique had been blessed with a great whale carcass to keep them well fed during the months he would normally have been learning that. A small hunt here and there was all the practice he had. So it was true that he was no hunter, and held no passion for it.

But there would be others there like him, wolves who were learning to coordinate with a larger group. Wolves who were learning the correct body parts to target. He could not deny feeling compelled by that. Okay, said Stingray, mustering a more genuine smile now. Deal.

He gathered the pelt to himself and marveled at the softness of it, the leather supple and pliant under his wandering nose. Something about it all felt a little unnatural to the Sveijarn wolf, who would find in the coming months that his was a wilder soul, but it would warm his sleeping place nicely and he might come to appreciate the quality of it someday, if not the practice itself. Thank you, Moonwoman Kukutux, he said. It might be nice to learn.

she was pleased when the boy took the gift. he was polite, and the moonwoman knew she would invite him to her home again.

of course, now the matchmaking mind grew curious; she thought of kausiut and also callyope, along with ariadne.

"i will send you home with things for your mother," moonwoman decided aloud, her paws moving to gather small herbs, pleasant things, and dried meat for another carryskin. 

"she is like another daughter," kukutux smiled. "maybe i will come and soon visit the mountain."

green eyes flicked beyond him, to the expanse of moonglow. "do you have the want to look around before you return home, stingray?"

She was very kind, Ray thought, no matter how strange he felt about being here or accepting all her gifts. If Kukutux had offered these things to him, he would have declined, but since they were for Meerkat, he dipped his head in gratitude. She is pregnant, he shared. She'll appreciate this. Thank you.

With her guidance on how to carry both, he slung the hide across his back and prepared to lift the skin with the supplies in his jaws. He set his gait beneath the shockingly heavy weight of the skin. Maybe next time, if that's okay? he said. Where I come from, it's not normal to go walking in another pack's territory, so it feels uncomfortable just being here... But maybe next time, I'll be ready.

"yes." her small teeth, worn from chewing hide into the soft leather of her craft, flashed in a genuine smile of pleasure to know stingray would return. "i will give thanks to sedna for her blessing of your family," kukutux said, and now she glowed with a mother's pleasure.

"it is not the way of any but the moon villages," she commented when the young wolf had gathered the things to himself. "and so it must be a stronger way when it comes to those of both homes."

but she had spoken many words! "i will see you again. make a good journey back, stingray," kukutux said to him, intending to watch the boy walk down the path once more as she stood beside the ulaq.