Ouroboros Spine touch

tags for ref! <3

maggak wasn't quite sure what she was doing here, or what she was looking for.
the evergreens stood proud and resilient, and she felt small between them. it was strange, to walk all the way here alone, to have found her way by scent. anaa would be so cross with her! but within the babe grew a fluttering spirit; a desire to see, to do, to feel. and so she had told @Acrux where to find her, just in case the whole of village moonspear came crumbling without her presence, and off she went.
she had never been here before. the spine felt ginormous, and somehow looked louder than quiet moonspear. and she had to hop in order to make it through the tall mounds of snow!
she let herself in, grinning to herself mischievously, and let her feet carry her wherever they wished. she wondered, perhaps, if she would be able to find @Kukutux.

low chants for guidance.

for recognition.

for regret.

moonmother spent many days among the three oaks, and on the fifth morning, a granddaughter from moonspear came to find the grim and ageing duck, covered in the rainment of her travels.

"pukak!" laughed kukutux when she saw maggak, opening her arms for the girl. "you have come so far alone, eh? a hunting-woman already?"

her eyes were delighted, shining into those which so mirrored her own.

gasps softly

anânsiak!
caught red-handed, maggak guiltily crouches to her knees and elbows and slides toward the billowing form of moonwoman. yeah! came the chirp. all by myself! i was bored.
anger did not greet her, but instead glee; which surely would not last if the starlet let it slip that her mother did not know her whereabouts. she sweeps the underside of the silvered chin with a kiss of greeting.
did mom ever tell you about the time i chased away a bad guy? which was also totally, one-hundred percent on her own.

<3

all by herself and bored, hm.

knowing grandmother suspected little maggak had crept away. it was good then, that the packs of her kin were gathered all through the wilderness as protection.

"tell me this story," kukutux invited, for such tales were well received by her.

and quietly, silently, she considered how strengthening her own traditions among grandchildren might end this curse of division she now felt from ariadne.

a weird man came to moonspear, one day, while acrux and i were guarding, maggak began, delight sparking behind the emerald gaze. he asked where mom was, and i told him i didn't need my mom! and i chased him away all on my own! and acrux watched! he could tell you all about it too.
it brought her great pride to be so defensive of her home, to be able to stand up for herself. and now, she was bigger and taller — she could chase off a whole pack of weird looking men, surely! he was really funny looking. i couldn't tell if he was a wolf or not. can wolves have big ears and pointy faces?
she paces ahead a few steps, briskly hopping over a particularly tall mound of snow in order to better see the space around her. so this is where you always go when you leave moonspear?

a man with a strange face.

this story chilled kukutux. "many wolves look many ways. and sometimes a wolf takes a face that is not his. this is to say, it is not a wolf at all, but a bad spirit, a tupilak, who wears the skin of what is familiar."

her mouth broadened with a grin all the same. "you are very brave, maggak. a hunting-woman already, aya!" kukutux exclaimed in repetition.

her granddaughter asked after these places in the spine, and the duck nodded. "i come home first. then i may go to another village, or i may rest here for a time. moonglow holds peace for my spirit."

unbeknownst to either of them, what maggak described was merely a coyote, not a spirit whose name must never leave lips — but maggak was now enthralled by the idea.
whoa! her lips shape into a soft 'o', tail beating excitedly. i fight tupilait all the time. i'm the village guardian! even though anaa doesn't like it, sometimes. i think she thinks i should be more careful.
does moonglow protect you from the tupilait? she asks with a curious tilt to her brow. have you ever seen one?

this sent a shudder through grandmother moon! to hear such an evil name dropped glibly from the mouth of the young child! she would place more gifts of protection upon her altar, a second for each grandchild yet born to her daughters.

"listen to your anaa," kukutux warned softly. "she is a wise woman who has seen many things and made her path to many places. much wisdom she will give to you, maggak. be careful."

she must ask of these monsters!

her mouth was silent, and then only: "once. and once i saw how a tupilak entered a man i had once trusted."

oblivious maggak only pried more with an encroaching desire for knowledge. has anaa ever seen the monsters? if there was anyone who would know, it would be anânsiak. her gaze shimmers. maybe that is why she is a doctor. to heal those hurt by them.
she paws eagerly at the grizzled pale shoulder. what happened to him?

"i do not know all of what your mother has seen, but it is more than you realize. speak with her. ask these things."

maggak was eager for the story of adrastus.

"he was once a kind man. he hunted a lynx. he paid a bride-price to marry the woman who became second wife to aiolos, your aataq. in all ways i thought much of him."

"one day he went out and he did not come back for a long time. she grew with his children by the turning of each moon. he was not here when they were born."

"the man returned. i stopped him. i called him spirit. we had not sung his death songs, but i knew he was not — right. yet she cried out for him, asked him to come to their ulaq."

a hard light gleamed for a moment along her jawline; "in one moment he was pleased to be a father. in the next moment he had grown harsh and wicked. he said horrible things about the ways in which they had been born, their differences. she called to me and to aiolos, and we brought her to our ulaq, where she stayed. the man destroyed their home and the things he had gathered for her. he abandoned moonglow and the four children, and the wife who wept for him. he was not himself. he had been changed. beneath his wolfskin was no longer a wolf, but a monster."

the story chills maggak. the girl watches with a wide crystalline gaze, every minute change in the expression of grandmother moon. her own chubby-cheeked face hardens suddenly.
he is evil, she chuffs. i will protect our villages from ever seeing another like him.
maggak could not imagine any other reason why a parent would abandon their young in such a way. she thought briefly of what would happen if the soul of her mother was ever to be seized by such a foul cretin; of her brother, her little cousins. it made her jaw clench, muscles tugged tightly while the teeth inside her mouth ache.
she had also never before thought of where her own father had gone.
do you think that's what happened to my father? the question was innocent, but somewhere inside maggak was a pang of recognition; an empty silhouette of a figure she had never known, and never will.

maggak was fierce! kukutux was reminded of the ferocious ostrega sisters which had once ruled the mountain. their faces, their teeth; these too were part of the girl's birthright, and she was glad to see the blackbear and the blackfox now in the zealous tone of her granddaughter.

]the girl asked of her father; the duck shook her head. "no. he is not evil." but his name was not hers to know; this story was not her own to tell.

"if you wish to know of this man, bring your voice to the ears of your anaa. but no evil is in you, maggak. your heart is first-snow."

her heart is first-snow. a small smile touches maggak's muzzle. i get it from you, she presses, face now gently buried in the ruff of porcelain shoulder. or maybe i get it from him. maybe if i meet him, i will find out.
she was not sure if she wanted to know. did she need to? around her were the powerful faces of the villages, the tongue passed down from mother to daughter; songs sung by many voices long before she had been born. they were what mattered. her father could be hiding among them, or he could exist in a world far beyond her reach.
when i grow up, do you think i will be a good protector?

"you are like your anaa," kukutux decided. "and also like me," she assured with a kiss between the soft ears. "we are agliuk. two parts of a jawbone. you listen. we have much to teach. and you are learning to be your own spirit, maggak."

a nod from the grandmother. "this is why i say you are like your anaa. she has no fear. she came down from the mountain after i thought she had gone to the dancing lights. she hunted alone for me while the bone of my leg mended. she made the words, the first meetings. she brought the first hunters back to us. your anaa is rain and she is snow, and together she is a star of ice. you will also be this, ukpik."

the round eyes twinkle; maggak, a book of a million questions, ponders yet again the mysterious words of her grandmother. the strange marks on the mountain, the day moonspear fell. is that what broke your leg? why did bad things happen to good people? maybe i was put here to protect moonspear, because others have hurt it in the past, her lips scrunch curiously. all of our villages.
but that was not for a long time, so everyone could hope. maggak slouches, and her jaws part in a wide yawn. she had one last question. can i stay with you tonight?