Ouroboros Spine am I settling up or settling down

it was not a good thing to hear. kukutux moved closer, pressing her shoulder to that of the other woman if allowed, to cluck her tongue and to listen. 

she knew the circle-secrets taught by the old ones who attended each birth. but lane had too many weeks. the pups were strong and would be born. 

not to be chosen as wife but for a man's lust only was a place of thorns for a woman. she would be alone and reliant only upon those around her. brow furrowed, and the jade eyes cooled. 

"he has already made that choice. he must accept it now. if you bear children of his spirit, he will give you meat until they can eat it. and he gives them his name. and he honors you with his. that is the way it always must be."

a pause. "it is not — it is not the path of things in this land. but he must make you each wife. he does not now have the choosing of walking away from this true word."

this would be a hurting thing to hear, for the duck understood greatly the want of women and men here to be chosen by one another, for only one another. yet in her mind wintersbane could not have several women bear his children and refuse them his name. he must make the ground straight for each of them now. this was the way of atsak also. and wintersbane had hurt the herb-knower.

her gaze fell to lane, worried, filled with an affectionate sadness that children had not been part of a mutual choice inside a bond. wintersbane had taken his advantage then.

kukutux lifted her chin, sat back upon her haunches in the way of a woman smoothing her skirt. "if he does not make a marriage for you to him, he gives an insult to all of moonglow. i will go to him and say this, lane."