Ouroboros Spine saahmlagil:⨮

pack meeting! can keep rounds to one week! no posting order! @Aiolos @Shikoba @Samani @Callyope @Stratos (@Mojag for visibility) (other pack leaders: consider this a BTS invite!)

"natigvik asks us to move to autumn hunting, before winter has come. we must help them. i have asked the hunter with the name of sandulf to go first. his brother, who is rodyn, will meet our village when the snows come."

perhaps it was better this way.

"we will hunt for a moon. we will invite sacrarium (@Vagabond) and oi kryfoi (@Themis)."

"moonglow will bring back much meat and many pelts to our village. we will leave at first snow. and our village will be here for the long snow."

her breath was wistful in the cool air. ariadne tucked against her siblings. "we must look for mojag. we must look for those of winterglade. we will keep our eyes open for them as we walk. and i say that we meet the issumatar in the mountains which are a sharp line between our village and their own."

moonwoman looked at all of them. "if you have words to say, then say them."

She listened.

She stewed.

She could not fathom all of it. What if they returned here and found the village gone? They would not know where Moonglow had wandered to. Callyope's heart hurt, not a new sensation in the slightest.

She had buried her pain with the ivory but this felt new.

It was not uncommon that she spoke in thoughts against those now. Growing in a way that cut through the grain of Moonglow, but did not disregard it fully.

Who will watch over the village while we are away? Will others not move in our absence as well?

Moonglow had always been here. An eternal figure among the lands, a place she always returned to.

Now they wished to spend a season elsewhere.

the meeting is called, and shikoba painfully must sit through and listen carefully. mojag has been gone for a time now, and the woman yearns for the presence of her son. she hoped that whatever her boy was doing out there, he was okay, breathing, and alive. hopefully happy too.

it was unlike him to disappear, but for now, she must not linger. her position cannot allow grief to cloud her judgment. as far as she was concerned, everything in the plan sounded well. however, shikoba fears that if mojag returns while they are absent, he will never truly regain his place with the group and he will become lost.

callyope voices concern, and while shikoba knows she is not mother, she is first hunter. her voice is soft when speaking, unlike her brazen tone that often flairs during times of serious talk. "the spine will always stay, moonglow will always be ours. the trip last winter, moonglow survived. nothing will change."

she is unsure if her answer is enough. of course, there was a problem with cache diggers which caused much anger to sivullik. though, the trio of trouble had not yet returned to these lands. and hopefully, they never would. shikoba would be sure to mark more and perhaps leave bones out on the border with a clear message.

tresspassing would mean death.

Soon they would depart to meet with Navigvik for an autumn hunting among one another. But it would not just be these two, for allies in Sacrarium and Oi Kryfoi would join as well, wolves which Aiolos had yet to meet personally. Aiolos had stayed with the village and their youngest litter during the last meeting in the Glen.

Their daughter, Callyope, spoke with concern, as she had not done this travel before. If anyone sought to take Moonglow from them in their absence, those who called Moonglow home would take it back. A simple enough action, though Aiolos allows Shikoba to say these words to Callyope. As first hunter and warrior, it was her right to speak it. Aiolos instead turned the conversation...

We will walk the path between the two forests that is the northern Glen and into the plains. We will meet in the foothills of the Apikuni mountain.

Last year, they had felled a great many deer, through they had done so to try and purge the sickness out from them. It had not worked and because of it they had needed to store much within ice of the glacier to make sure their allies had enough food through the cold months. Hopefully, no such disease would rise again.

wow so sorry smfh, can reply again or i can fade!

shikoba spoke true. kukutux nodded. "you have not yet gone on a long journey from your home. each year we leave this place and join our companions. we bring food from the places where it is buried, and place it in front of the ulax. we say, if you are traveler, then come to moonglow. eat. rest. continue your walking."

and save for one spate of girls, it had done well for them.

the specter of the ostrega boy loomed.

"we give back to those who travel, and the village is protected."

mount apikuni. it would be a longer path than her younger children had walked.

she was quiet now, waiting for more words to come.