Firefly Glen egangak ⋼

today kukutux offered @Lótë the respite of time outside moonglow.

they would go only as far as the glen, well within earshot if they should need to be summoned to the village. kukutux threw off her wrap as soon as they had arrived, sighing with pleasure and relief. the air was more crisp. and soon snow would come.

the season had arrived and was familiar.

"i want the hunters and women of moonglow to also live here. one day."

Kigipigak was a distant figure behind the women, guarding them on this excursion from the village. He had not meant to interact with them and kept an eye out for dangers, or sightings of Sakhmet, though his heart was not in it to the same degree as before.

They moved through the glen and up ahead, when Kukutux spoke to Lote, the voice drew his attention and the turn of an ear. He was looking around at the many leaves littering the path; the glen looked much changed in this season, a far cry from the last time he had been here.

He wondered too, if the crushed body he had found remained, or had become one with the forest. Silently he roved, keeping guard, and keeping them from straying along the path too close to where he thought it might be at rest.

the cloudberry woman moved ahead.

kukutux examined several stems and fell back alongside kigipigak.

"i cannot tell if she is happy," she murmured quietly in the language of the north, scraping with her claws to dislodge the plant. it was for medicine. she would dry it in the small sunlight left to them.

Lote moved ahead, Kigipigak could hear her well enough and was unconcerned.

Then Kukutux was there, lingering, speaking in their shared tongue which Lote could not hear or understand - it felt somehow juvenile, not that Kigipigak minded. He used to gossip in such a way with his sisters before they were banished.

In time she might be. He answered. Kigipigak did not know if that was right; he could sympathise to some degree with Lote's situation as he had lost someone close to him, but it was different too, he had not known Sakhmet intimately in the way Lote had. He did not share a family the way Lote did.

He looked to where Kukutux was digging but did not bow to help, instead keeping upright, watching the shadows.

She has the village to support her.

the cloudberry woman would soon know their words.

kukutux selfishly did not think of her sister in this moment, only the gratitude she felt in the words shared with the winterhawk.

"women and men need different things."

for a moment even she thought of the woman kigipigak loved.

"we will move on," she said in common after that, grinning toward the beautiful eyes of the painter.

Kigipigak did not have words to match what was offered. He was lost for a moment in thoughts that should have been put aside ages ago; but he did not want to give up on Sakhmet entirely, not ever.

As moon-woman moved ahead, and her voice carried in common back to him, Kigipigak sighed and withdrew within himself for a single private moment. Lote hurried on, leading the other two.

There was a gap between the two mothers, with Kigipigak once again fallen to the rear. He was slow to keep pace with them now, weighted.

kigipigak followed behind.

in time her sister danced ahead and kukutux came with her. the two flew merrily along a footpath.

she glanced back to see that the winterhawk followed. when they slowed, she motioned to deer, leaping away from the trio of wolves. "let us see where they go," she exulted, turning to invite kigipigak closer.

Lote was quiet and withdrawn.

Kigipigak did not need to be among the women to see it. She was hurting. It was much the same as Kigipigak's hurt when he had come to the village—the heartache of loss.

It was fortunate that something came to distract from that pain. Kukutux called to him; he hurried along with the furs along his shoulders prickling, only to relax as Kukutux spoke her desire.

As Lote was a skilled stalker of things, Kigipigak deferred to her. She went on ahead and the two northerners moseyed after, alert and invested.

the deer-path led them into stands of juniper and the small darkened paths where ferns would nod once more when the sun returned.

"i hope that the spring blesses moonglow again."

she looked to kigipigak, wondering. would children be born to his hearth this year?

Lote did not answer. Perhaps she did not hear, or the thought made her ache in a way Kigipigak could not fathom, being a man without.

He watched her pull further away and go down one path or another, and when he turned back to Kukutux, saw her eyes upon him.

A thought came to him: a memory.

I was given such a choice, once. He thought of Rivenwood and his oath there, which lay broken, but not in any wrong way that he could see. And then he was thinking fondly of Sakhmet, and wondering to himself if they could have had that.

Not now, though. She was gone. Kigipigak had never wanted such a thing before, and found it pointless to think of what could have been. She was never coming back to him.

"it is a choice you might have again."

she hoped that he would put his eyes upon lane. she had a pretty face and was practical in the way of her kinsman.

secretly kukutux knew in her village that kigipigak would already have been married. he was a man in his prime now, with status and talent. 

moonwoman desired that he see this in himself now. his heart had not mended. but sakhmet had not come back. she did not want him to hold upon this path forever.

He was quiet. Kigipigak was not known for being contemplative but boisterous and reckless, although his injury had pulled some of that coltish chaos out of him, and hard work had made him slow down.

What Kukutux said was not a surprise. His thoughts then mirrored her own but he did not know how closely, and he said, Then I would have to leave, and his pace slowed slightly.

He lingered a step behind the moon-woman.

In my village, the issumatar makes the choice. They take their pick of the able-bodied men so that the children are born strong. The man leads beside them. Kigipigak watches her for a moment and then sighs, averts his gaze.

she turned to face him. "moonglow is not like the village of my island. nor is it like the village of the issumatar. it is a mixing of many things." she did not want him to leave. but she knew that one day he would. a hunter wished his own path.

kukutux wished there was a woman of moonglow in which kigipigak had found interest. perhaps then he would not speak so.

she veered closer to nip at his shoulder. "run with me."

They needed to catch up to Lote.

The distant sound of the woman calling for them, howling, broke Kigipigak from the conversation for a moment; but it was Kukutux speaking their shared tongue that brought him back.

Then, urging him to run. Yes, they'd have to if they meant to follow the forlorn mother.

He was silent as he picked up his pace, following behind Kukutux as she made her way; his mind buzzing with new thoughts that were for now, hidden.