Ouroboros Spine lavender

maybe @Shikoba? <3

in the wake of everything else, antigone had up and left chickadee behind, a fit of anger between them. the girl felt as if she was reeling from multiple blows. she hunted, patrolled, ate, and slept, but did little else, for she dreaded going to brecheliant and facing the potential of her sister's anger that she was not coming home.
today she wanted her mother. today the moon woman grieved in the mountains, and chickadee found herself listlessly wandering near the densite where ajei often occupied her time.

shikoba was growing older and greyer these days, and often she wondered about the young boy who walked the path of second hunter. she thought of her children, her husband, and her ever growing family here within the spine. shikoba had never dreamed of leaving behind a legacy, but the blood of herself and her father flows strong through each of her children. the pheasant tail story lives in.

but pain still clouds the mountains, and moon woman grieves in her silence of sun man. shikoba knew not of any easy solutions to lose a child and handle the impact of loss. she wondered if an offering to sedna may offer comfort in the growing nights for kukutux.

rounding through the densite and nosying for something she could offer, sulfur eyes come to land onto another figure before her. shikoba knew her face, but at the time had been so busy, these two have perhaps not crossed paths directly like this before.

"looking for someone?" she asks, looking towards the girl softly with a tilted head.

ajei's mom arrived then, and her soft eyes felt as though they were peering through chickadee. "no. i mean, yes. maybe? i mean, i was just — looking for something to do," she sighed out, wondering if she looked as flummoxed as she felt.
"kivaluk asked to court me and i said yes," the girl finally said, kicking a little stone. "antigone was my friend, but he wasn't — happy about it. when i brought kivaluk before, to visit my family, my sister was such an ass to us. to me. we figured it out. but now i'm — now it feels like i can't, or shouldn't, say anything about this, to anyone."

she listens to her, a girl who appears to need help with untangling the many threads that tie back into her very heart.

"sit with me" shikoba offers for a moment, coming to ease her own body down as she pats the spot beside her. if joined, they would overlook part of the grove and eventually the lake. the air grew still for a moment, if the silence would allow for it. "it sounds like quite the mess," shikoba says thoughtfully to the girl, "no matter what, you should always feel freedom to express yourself honestly."

"what would make you happiest in this situation?"

chickadee sat down, and surprisingly she was touched with the sense that her own mother was about to speak, which brought a wave of homesickness into her brain. so much so that she almost leant her head against shikoba!
for a long time she considered it. mulled it. "i want to marry kivaluk," chickadee said finally, in hardly more than a whisper. "i'm more afraid of what my sister will think."
antigone hurt, but the ferocity of his response had only morphed into dwin's shouting face.
she wilted, and this time she did inch a bit closer to shikoba.

"we cannot please everyone. sometimes, you must remember that you live for yourself. not for others."

it could sound selfish to the wolf trained to give up their life. taking care of oneself, taking control of what they want and what they wish for -- it sounds selfish to a pair of ears taught to always give and never take. "if your sister loves you, she will understand." a soft breath.

"kivaluk is a good man, he has faced trouble, and yet comes back stronger." yellow eyes come to search over the girl softly. she has watched him grow into his position as their first hunter, training and becoming more than what his prophetic father left behind. his mother had gone too, and what of his family? the spine is what gave him purpose. 

seeing the girl come closer, even if just an inch, shikoba leans her shoulder into the other softly. "you are important. never forget that. what you feel matters."

shikoba spoke in soft words that did so much to reassure chickadee, she could hardly remember why she had been so upset. it was all right that she wanted this for herself. love should outweigh what others wanted for her.
she listened intently to what shikoba told her of kivaluk, filing away these details. her intended was a soft-spoken man, someone who shared more as the time went on. he was careful.
at last, tentatively at first, chickadee did lay her head on shikoba, relaxing at once as the sensation she had expected washed through her stressed body. "he taught me how to swim, did you know that?"

"i didn't," she says thoughtfully, "that is a valuable lesson to be taught."

shikoba could feel her motherly heart swell with a certain affection, a protective nature over a girl that wasn't even of her blood. is this what rearing children creates within you? the blooming flower of a maternal nature, meant to protect and nurture? perhaps she was just only growing soft these days...

she rests her head against the girl's for a tender moment, as a mother would to her daughter to shoulder her doubt. "and what have you taught him?"

"to smile," chickadee said without thinking, but after lapsing into a thoughtful silence a while longer, she felt truly that she had introduced some measure of joy into his life. "and maybe, how to communicate. a little. he was never bad at it. he's just more — expressive now," she mulled.
feeling infinitely better, chickadee sighed against shikoba, thinking guiltily of her mother and her disconnect with brecheliant. "were you nervous to be a mom? either time?" she inquired, looking up toward the woman's scarred, warm face.