Ouroboros Spine suagutsik ⏧

the hot palm of summer had lifted. with the cooling air came strength to kukutux.

in the evening, she gently moved her daughters one by one to a wide strip of doeskin laid upon the ground outside. keeping an eye trained upon @Samani and @Kausiut, she began to clear the spring's debris from the ulaq.

it was hard and dusty work, but moonwoman was happy to be rid of the offal. time now to hunt for pine-boughs and cedarwood, to lie beneath the pelts through the winter.

@Kigipigak! she knew he was inside the village but had not yet seen him, and she paused now in her task to call for the winterhawk.

Few knew the man as well as Kukutux; it was unlikely any would call for him, and yet her voice carried across the village proper and reached for him.

The man had been preparing a gift gathered with Shikoba; it was not so well-made as anything the woman could accomplish but Kigipigak had done his best. The fox had been young and brightly colored. Kigipigak had done the work of pulling free the skin and cleaning the flesh from it, so that only the pelt remained.

It wasn't finished, nor anywhere near perfect, but when he heard his kin calling for him Kigipigak gathered it up and went on his way. He approached quickly, exuberantly, and looked upon Kukutux with her new daughters.

kigipigak was quick to arrive. kukutux had just settled to groom kausiut when her kinsman arrived. the foxpelt was a blaze of red against his coat, and reminded her at once of raimo.

so strange, to think of him twice in a short time.

moonwoman would think on this later. for now, she gestured for him to come closer. "samani. sea girl. kausiut. day planet." 

a trembling intake of breath, a quick and unconvincing smile. "they are twin."

and he was angak now.

kukutux waited for his judgement.

He placed the bolt of red carefully upon the earth and took care to arrange it, not looking to the children until he was pleased with how it lay, and took perhaps too much time to make it right, to honor them.

They were so small that Kigipigak was startled when he saw them. Tucked against their mother, who seemed tired but in a good way, and proud not just of them but of her kinsman, towards whom she tried to hide her own misgivings.

Atausiq, Malguk, he said.

First and second; as my people would have called them. Curious, that you name them differently. They will grow in to their names rather than earn them. He considered. What if the mother's intuition was wrong? Kigipigak smiled anyway, and drew closer.

They look like you. As daughters so often resembled their mothers.

first a warning, and then a compliment. kigipigak numbered them, and kukutux saw the wisdom in the way of his own tribe. "we give them names so they will know their paths. but they also have a spirit name, known only to them."

her features brightened, pale plume whisking against the ground. "i had thought aiolos would have disappointment not to have sons. but he has not said this. perhaps one day they will have his face."

She had her ways, which themselves were not wrong, only different from what he had been taught. Much about the village was different; he liked to think they were the same in the end, two sides to the same coin - or the light and dark face of the moon, if he were to become hyperbolic. Kigipigak wondered what his own children might look like one day; they might take after their mother or perhaps his own, somehow, or maybe himself, and he did not know which he would prefer.

All the same, these girls were small and uncoordinated. Kigipigak did not lose interest exactly but his attention homed in on Kukutux, as she was more capable of conversation, and he enjoyed her company immensely. Not knowing what to do with children was perhaps a fault, but he was a man. It was not his duty to do much for them.

I have met him, Aiolos. He is much different from any wolf I have ever seen. Kigipigak said. His tone was appraising. He looks like a warrior but also quick-bodied, as if he has not grown in to himself. He welcomed me when I returned and for that I am thankful.

The wolves of Tartok were often beastly things, likened to bears and wolverines, but if Kigipigak could think of an animal which Aiolos matched he had a hard time; of all things, he thought of the red snapper. It didn't fit, comparing a person with a piece of prey, and so Kigipigak did not explain this part of his thinking. He was trying not to offend his kin with the wrong impression.

kukutux was pleased to hear him speak of the sun man. "aiolos lived in a village that is not like any other place. it has made him different. he sees the world in another way." it was all she could say without speaking the things she did not understand. "speak to him. you are kin now. he will share himself with you, i think."

she lowered her muzzle to kiss samani and kausiut, one by one. "tinnivik has come. the caribou-men will be fighting for their woman in another moon."

adrastus had been silent.

kukutux wondered if kigipigak would seek to remain secondhunter, or seek sivullik.

Perhaps it was good for Aiolos to be among them, with his different views and his different ways, but it would take time for Kigipigak to understand him. He liked what he saw after their initial meeting and that alone was a good thing. It was not often that Kigipigak disliked other men, certainly, but he did not see Aiolos as someone he could spar with, or act in the boyish, rough way he was used to. It would take some time to figure out.

Kigipigak watched as the woman doted upon her children. Talk of the upcoming moon and the aggression of the caribou, which was of course a time of great adventure for any man, especially so for an enclave of hunters. It had been some time since Kigipigak had hunted alongside brothers — the chance would come for him, should he remain here with his kinfolk.

In my village we held festivals for the men at this time. Kigipigak did not know what else to call them; they were brawls more than celebrations, a time when men could find comfort in physicality, even to make the aokatti bonds with their blood-brother of choice.

We would fight one another in mock battle. One against one, or in pairs, if the man had an aokatti to call upon. The winner would eat freely from a feast, while the other men would band together and hunt the strongest beast they could find!

He became carried away in the telling of this, remembering what it had been like as a boy before his naming, imagining what it would be like to be a true warrior of Tartok and being praised in such a way; but his energy waned, remembering that he had never been given the chance to truly experience this.

After his naming, he had been sent away.

kukutux listened but for a moment she thought of her sister. 

kigipigak might have been her choice for the cloudberry woman at one time, but now that he was her kin, she was a sister to him, as moonwoman thought of him as brother. add to that the knowledge that the young hawk-in-snow had not yet become interested in marriage. lótë was woman and mother. she would not want to teach a young man how to be angutik.

her kinsman would grow more easily in a first marriage. she thought then of meerkat, and considered.

kigipigak was flushed and warm with his storytelling. she grinned. "maybe we will have such festivals for men here. they bring you happiness in the telling of them."

"here there are caribou, kiggavik. they make their winter eating place over the mountains," far east of them. "five days' travel to duskfire and the chieftain wintersbane."

"in the heavy snow, the caribou will wait. moonglow is strong enough now to send a hunting party to them when those days come to us."

the hinting hung in the air. aokatti she did not understand, and moonglow did not yet have young hunters to stamp and bellow. but there were other ways to be proven, even to oneself.

Kukutux sounded approving of his tale. All that Kigipigak could do now was stand and bask in the memory of his home village - the frozen expanse of the north, with its black forests capped in white like teeth rising from a gumline; the high cliffs overlooking the sea where the boys would race, fight, and show off to one another; remembering immediately the texture of caribou hide against his own teeth while his sisters split the herd.

What happiness was spared for the tale began to diminish after that. Kukutux spoke of a place where the caribou roamed and as soon as she touched upon a name, Kigipigak's interest flared back to life, putting aside all other thought.

I know this place, he mentions, or, of it. From a woman I met named Lane. She came to hunt with me once before and I thought she would join us on the plateau — again, that souring expression. Kigipigak did not know how to hide his emotions very well and it was clear enough by his gutted expression that he was thinking of Sakhmet.

Quietly now, as if to massage a wound lest it be re-opened, he pushed on:
I would like to travel there. Perhaps they would be in favor of a competition, or... A celebration. Something to bring us closer. Alas, he sounded distracted. Less enthused despite his earlier motivation.

kukutux did not hide the unfurling of delight over her features as the woman was mentioned.

but she quieted it as she stepped forward to touch his shoulder. "lane is known to our village. she had a hearth in village firefly, near to moonspear. her leader was the son of my chieftain."

it was her turn to fall silent. she had seen the turn of emotion upon her kinsman's face. 

"lane knows many medicines. she knows the voice of the earth, and follows it. she gathers the good herbs when they are ready." perhaps he already knew this of the woman.

she was careful to say no more. but lane had carried children for a man she did not love. kigipigak's wandering would match the restlessness of lane's spirit.

of course you plot, daughter.

tooteega's voice was amused.

i am atsak. i do not plot. i only guide.

inwardly, kukutux smiled at the old god.

"will you go as one who carries the word of our village, kiggavik?" she asked him softly, seeking his eyes. she spoke in their words again. "i also have the want that duskfire and moonglow hunt the caribou together, as you have said. take our words to the ear of wintersbane. say that the village will follow when the snows come."

kuktutux meant for him to remain there as their standard. he wished to leave. and he spoke of lane, though his heart was still touched in pain.

go and heal, winterhawk.

I will carry it fondly. I could take another with me, if anyone among the village is interested in seeing the sights between here and the ice village, but I would be quicker on my own. I do not want to leave if there is more I can do within the village, though. Do you have need of me here, or should I take a day, and depart?

In truth Kigipigak did not want to go anywhere permanently. He had tried multiple times to make a home for himself in these wilds, whether it be with fellow Tartok or with strangers, and each time he had failed. With his spirit wounded with the absence of Sakhmet, he did not want to risk losing yet another home - or to return to Moonglow at another date, having been forgotten, or somehow unwelcome.

Still, there was a lingering hope within Kigipigak. This new path could prove to be something beneficial for him, and it would be a boon to Moonglow as well, having a deeper connection with the northmen of the glacier.

oof my b assume that kuku meant for him to go anytime in october to keep timelines current! <3

she shook her head. "hunt with us in this moon. we will fill the caches with dried meat. go to duskfire in the moon of caribou calves."

it would do well for him.

inside, a smile to think of lane. samani began to stir. kausiut wailed. kukutux clucked her tongue and turned her face ruefully toward kigipigak. she did not think he wished to see her giving milk to them.

Its ok! :P

Kigipigak understood. He would remain with the village for a while, then make his journey. Perhaps he could bring someone else along with him - although he could not think of anyone, and thought of how little he knew of the people in Kukutux' own village. He must do better, he thought of himself.

Inside the ulaq one of the children began to cry out, which was a strong enough cue to the man to leave the woman be. He said nothing; by the time Kukutux turned to look for his face again, he was already turned around, and in the next few moments, departing.