Ouroboros Spine foxfire

why did she say these things? why did she allow herself to fall so crazily into the chasm that had never healed within herself.

husband. 

it cooled her heart to ice, for nuak, unknowing, pierced into the bedrock of the thing she had always kept secret between herself and the grey trader. "he was the brother of her husband," she deflected, looking down at the earth between her paws. if the young moon-hunter had lived, would she struggle so in the telling of him? 

kukutux could not shake the familiarity that clung to the line of her jaw as she glanced toward his impassive youthful face. was she certain, then, that she had not brought the boy to moonglow so that he might fill the shattered place where her son had once been held?

nuak's hard body, shifted away from her. kukutux, helpless.

"my husband's brother."

a breath.

"he had the — look of you, nuak."