Moonspear feeling

Maggak and Acrux grew like little beanstalks. Now began the very beginning signs of bony adolescence — and, along with it, awkward proportions. The pale paws were now larger, and the starbabe was still figuring out how to deal with them.
Her adventure today takes her toward the strange craters in the pristine mountain ridge, just a stretch beyond the home of herself and her mothers. Darkwood clings to her, and the soft pink-orange glow of early morning filters onto the downy coat; a welcome relief from the harsh bite of mid-autumn.
She knows little about what these earthen marks mean to her village, nor what had taken place here. But something haunting settles over the back of her neck as she scans her surroundings.

The girl's mother followed at a distance, letting asxinua move in the world of her own free will. The Ostrega was a lenient guardian, stepping in only when she felt her children needed guidance away from harmful things or perhaps a lesson that could be learned.

As Maggak's path led her to the marks of the strange storm, the head's stomach tightened, a knot forming around her heart. It was an important part of her history, her ancestors, but it was not a place the starwoman revisited often. That moment in her life had been a tumultuous one.

Announcing her presence with a soft sound of greeting, Sialuk came alongside her babe to stand shoulder-to-shoulder, her own eyes scanning the strange marked earth. Much had regrown, but the scars remained.

This is a place of great tragedy, she said, her voice solemn. Sialuk turned to her daughter, wondering what thoughts ran through her mind.

Anaa appears behind her in a flash of milkwhite, a chuff rumbling in a gentle wave. The starlet's head turns, chin uplifted. Anaa is sad again! Why was everyone so sad all the time? Even if it wasn't all the time, it may as well have been to Maggak!
A tragedy has happened here, she says. Maggak, still far too young to understand the weight of such words, but ever inquisitive, drags a paw across the caked earth. Dirt piles up; when she removes her foot, below her lies a divot in the shape of five tiny pads.
The somber air between mother and daughter is not lost to the babe, even in her naivety. Dark nose gingerly brushes up against the leg of birthgiver, sweeping up toward her shoulder in quiet affection as if to say, I'm here! Don't be sad! What happen' here, anaa?

Maggak appeared worried, distraught, and Sialuk reminded herself that it was her daughter's ancestors who rested here; it was her right to know their history. Long ago, when I was not much younger than you, a strange storm came to this place. It was not rain, but fire and stone that fell from the sky. There were bright lights, confusion. Many of the wolves who were our kin went to the land of the dancing lights. Sialuk frowned, thinking of her father, her brother, her extended kin.

Grandmother Kukutux and I fled, and I helped her to build a new village—Moonglow. We sang songs for those who did not come with us, just as I will sing songs for Panuk and Rolayne's mother when we return them home. Was her daughter too young to understand this? Did she know that the smaller, younger brothers were not born of her own mother or Elentari? Sialuk realized bringing her nephews in may complicate things.

I still hear them on the wind, sometimes. And through the bones, they speak truths in riddles. The mother wondered if either Acrux or Maggak would gain an interest in the world beyond as Seal had.

Maggak listens as if her little life depends on it, ears cupped intently forward in complete fascination. A story of those she will never meet in this life; of something that happened to this land long before she had ever set foot upon it.
The songs! She knew what that meant! Anâmsag sings songs, she crows, a curious flap to her tail that then curls upward over her haunches. I know deese! One of dem. I wanna sing songs too, anaa.
Her feeble attention span then returns to the tale that colors the landscape, and she can see clearly the small hints of what had transpired. She says those among the land of dancing lights have riddles for her, and now the starlet finds herself transfixed on the idea of solving them. How do you solve da riddol?

#1000 for my dotter!

Maggak's childish wonder was always a light in the darkness. She spoke of her grandmother, the word slightly garbled with her unpracticed voice. It was true that Kukutux had many songs. Some for those who had died, and many for those who still lived and breathed in their world. Sialuk had grown up hearing many of these, the words ingrained in her very being. Maggak asked how she could solve the riddles, which was a question even Sialuk struggled to answer. She had never known how exactly she picked up on reading the bones, only that it had come naturally to her. She could not even recall what Kukutux had said years ago when it had become an apparent innate talent of hers.

When you are ready, Sialuk said, I will teach you as I have been teaching @Seal. For now, it was better that Maggak see many paths. Only then would she know which one truly called to her. While Sialuk dearly wished for her daughter to follow in her footsteps, she knew it would be selfish to expect that she would do so. It was better for Maggak to find the way of this world on her own.

Come, there is something else I would like you to see. Sialuk began to trek toward the ulaq where she had taken her first breath. It was here that she had spent many happy days with braataa and taataa. Back when the world had been whole and nothing could stand in her way.

omg i'm so sorry i'm late

When she's ready? But she was ready now! Her lips twist into a small pout as her eyes fall to the floor. Is it 'cuz Seal is old? she was getting older, too! If you asked Maggak, she would consider herself an older child. Unlike Panuk and Rolayne. They were the babies. I can solve riddols.
She'd just have to prove it.
But then, her attention is diverted — anaa begins to walk away and the starbabe is quick to scamper after her, jumping up on her hind legs and knocking into her ribs and shoulder with her nose. They were heading someplace else! What is it? What is it? What is it? what is it what is it what is it?

Sialuk smiled at her daughter as she made her way to the ulaq where she had been born. It was a quiet, dusty place, out of the way of the hustle and bustle of the rest of the village. There were bittersweet memories here, and Sialuk hoped that Maggak would never need to know the same pains that her mother had gone through. Still, it was an important part of her heritage, and it only seemed right to show it to her.

This, she said, slowing as they approached the abandoned ulaq, is where my mother brought me into the world. I spent my first months here, just as you have spent your first months in our home. When you are older, I think it would make a good ulaq for you. Sialuk peered at her daughter, wondering if she would take this suggestion in the months to come. For now, she needn't answer, and they could spend the rest of the day exploring more of Moonspear.