Ouroboros Spine nivaktaktuk

Can be set during Ariadne's spirit journey OR while Kukutux, Tau and Natayukruk are at MSP.

Carrying a bundle with him, Kigipigak made his way to the outskirts of village Moonglow with the intent to see his children. He knew he would likely be watched during his stay; he knew also it would not be a forever thing, which might pain the three of them.

But, he was their father. Donning the mark of Brecheliant (and greatly thankful towards his elder son Kivaluk for that), he hoped to share news of his new home, and maybe some stories common among his people. It was hard to think of the children growing up without any Tartok influence at all, which for a long time had been Kigipigak's greatest fear.

>>'

She had been asked to stay near Moonglow and so she did, despite the once or twice wandering, she was mostly here. It would be better that way for the time being. Near to her sister and mother, near to the bustling ongoing of everything.

She found she yearned for a longer stretch again. There was the want to hunt lands harsher than her home and usual haunts.

In silence she brewed upon this.

Until she saw him. She looked differently upon him now — but not in the way one might of expected. There was no upset, disdain or disappointment. Nothing that said she might have been soured from him. She looked upon him and only saw what was.

Tartok man, Her voice was made to welcome and she aimed to approach him.

When a figure came in to view, Kigipigak wondered if it was Asivaq—then, Kukutux—and saw it was neither. He recognized Callyope just as she began to speak, and was focused as he heard the way she greeted him. Although she called him Tartok man it was not with the derision he would have otherwise anticipated; then she began to approach, and he settled to watching her, and placed his bundle carefully down between his paws. It was nothing too grand: some feathers from the ground birds living around the caldera, a sizable femur (which could've been from a fawn), and a strip of fur the size and length of a small weasel wrapping around it all.

Sunshine woman, he answered her. I am here to visit my children. He phrased it as a statement but there was an obvious question there, in his expression. May I?

He addressed her as a sunshine woman and she only smiled thinly. Somehow she hardly felt like one in this moment.

Eyes fixed onto the bundle he had placed down. How the collection seemed thoughtful and well put together. She found it hard to imagine him as anything other than cordial, but she knew that people always had many faces. Tartok was different than Sunshine — but she did not fault him for it.

Should she have?

They are out with my anaa seeing things, She thought they might have even been off on an adventure, uncertain if they had left yet. Well, visiting another moon village. Still! It was likely an adventure for them.

But you have brought these for them?

When she spoke he expected to be turned away, or maybe scorned outright. Very few women of this village had been welcoming to him; not even his wife, when she had been his wife, had put forth any effort. Her time had been spent away from the living children in favor of the idea of a dead one.

Rather than tell him off or cut him down with anything scathing, Callyope shared some information which held a similar effect, although it had not been presented in a harmful manner. The thought that his children were not even here, somehow, was wounding. It felt like a punch to the gut.

His ex-wife had promised him access; but even so, he was removed from their lives, and Kigipigak could not know their daily adventures.

I—yes. It took a moment to recover himself. And to tell Asiv— Ariadne, that I have found a place in another village. If she cared at all about his whereabouts, that is.

Asiv—

There, a glimpse of a life before separation. A shining of Tartok like the peeking top of a glacier in ice water. She knew that these glaciers were always deeper than one could see. However she so badly wished to plunge in those frigid depths and see.

Is it a village of Tartok?

She was curious and it danced across her features openly.

She did not speak her sister's name and she felt the sun burn her back for it.

The question earned a small, tense smile that came and went, flickering. No, but it is known to this village. I asked Kivaluk if it would be acceptable that I stay in Brecheliant.

He had been betrayed and tossed aside by one person he loved, and had been desperate enough to ask for help from someone who knew the feeling; and thankfully, he had been welcomed. Perhaps not with as much warmth as he'd ever wish for, but welcomed.

A thought—Tartok do not have villages. They have warbands, always moving.

Brecheliant.

This was also a thing she might pass along to the ears of her mother and sister, so that they might do with it what they wished. Suddenly Callyope felt as if the circle of women had a circle of mothers — a thing she could not possibly understand yet.

It was not war that appealed to her in his words, but always moving.

Are these bands always warring too, then? Or do they move as traders and hunters too?

It depends on the issumatar. He answered.

Those that follow the standard set by Siku the First, would be prone to war. Why share this? Why speak of any piece of history where it was not welcome?

Often they will settle in a region and expect payment by any families not of the creed. A tax, I suppose it could be called. The families are protected after and left alone. But this was not actually common.

My mother did this. When she became issumatar, she took pledges in the form of warriors bending the knee, or gave the protection of her band to those around the village.

She listened, hung to each word spoken and soaked in the names and titles shared. When he spoke of his mother, she held this thing close to her heart. Grateful! Thankful! Twice now she had brushed up against this other world, this other culture and had little to come away with it.

She wanted more.

Callyope did not think it might be easy to come and tell her of Tartok things with how everything was.

I would like more Tartok lessons — It was out before she could think! If you feel like giving them. I understand if not. Face burning bright but she did not move her gaze away from his scarred features.

Oh?

Kigipigak regarded her with a cautious optimism as she spoke, and he saw a glimmer of the girl that Ariadne had been before their marriage; he saw interest where it suited him, and would have obliged Callyope with more tales of only -

Perhaps you should ask your mother first, as if Callyope was a girl who could not think for herself; he did not mean to be defensive but it came anyway. The women of the Moon villages had proven to be easily swayed by their upbringing.

But as a concession, he adds: I plan on telling the children many of these things. If you would like to listen, you are welcome to.

Perhaps it was a wise thing to tell her to do, but suddenly she was sly and perhaps unbecoming.

If I ask and she says no, it would break a heart to know I sneak away to hear lessons. There was humor in her words. As if she was still a girl who might sneak away to see the world all over again. She had already done so!

But she had not seen Tartok and its ways, not as her sister had.

I will sit with them and learn. No asking, it has been decided for myself. Her tone implied that if she had a hand, it might have waved to ward off any argument. Yet the smile on her face now showed her gratefulness for his willingness to let her intrude.

She insisted. The show of willpower also surprised Kigipigak, and he wasn't about to counter her argument. Lying to Kukutux would be wrong, but asking and being denied was worth avoiding.

He nods to her. I will return in a week, perhaps by the next full moon. I hoped to share stories with them. It would depend on how willing Ariadne was to allow it, but Kigipigak thought she could be further swayed now by her sister.

Was it wrong to use this potential connection so readily, and for his own gain? When it came to his children Kigipigak knew he would do anything.

Then it will be so!

She decided this. Finally and swiftly.

Will you let me take these things to where they will find them?

Perhaps he meant to walk the gifts in himself, but she wondered if he might be willing to...settle. If only to save both of them from possible eyes!

He wanted to be the one to bestow his gifts to his children, but the chances of being allowed to do so were slim. Better to garner a little good will with this sister, he thought. Yes, and thank you.

Kigipigak would keep in mind the kindness of Callyope, and the interest she had shown of Tartok; but also, his mind was full of thoughts of his children and what he might say to them during this time of stories. He gave the woman a deep nod, close to a bow as he turned to depart.