Ouroboros Spine kanevvluk ⫔

in the soft snow, in the gentle blowing of it, kukutux sought her husband and sat down before him in the way of a woman asking to speak.

moonglow did not need these formalities and now only moonwoman used them. she raised her springjade eyes to him and for a long moment only gazed at his handsome face.

"sialuk walks in a vision. samani has gone to her own hearth as wife. callyope has the want to be spirit-talker. i have only ariadne at my ulaq to help with the work."

but her tone was not sorrowful. she thought long of lote.

"husband. i want a co-wife."

before @Aiolos could speak, the duck raised her small paw to touch his lips. there were still words to say. she spoke on. "i know that she would not share your sleeping place. she could seek another man, if she wished children. but they would be nuiruk."

aiolos had refused before. he could do so again.

but kukutux had been given a vision of her own, and it spoke of cracking ice. of a longer winter. of cubs crying for milk and her own body consumed with agony. she did not know its meaning, only that when she carried her husband's children beneath her heart once more, the lurking spirits would pursue her harder.

aiolos needed another wife. he could not see what she did. he could not see with a woman's eyes. kukutux was quiet and solemn.

Aiolos found settlement along the river, watching the waters as they flowed into the great lake of their home. His head turns at his mate's approach, a smile his creamy mug. She looks to him, with love and with want. As he lay, his tail thumps the ground near him for her to draw closer. He knows his wife's look well- she was wanting something she was uncertain Aiolos would give. 

Kukutux speaks of their daughters: of Sialuk on the Moonspear. Of Samani's engagement to their new first hunter. Kausiut was with the seal hunters. Callyope wanted to walk the spirit path. Now that Mojag had returned to them, perhaps her sorrows would ease, too. Ariadne thus far had stuck to the side of her mother, not yet having the desire to take her own path just yet. Fine by Aiolos, really. 

A co-wife. Kukutux knows her husband just as well, for as he opens his mouth to speak, a slender paws is placed onto his mug to pause him. He grunts in protest but continues to listen. When done, he looks to her and sees the deep desire for this in her eyes, as she had before. 

It sounds to me like we need to make you more daughters, I think. He says with a sheepish grin, made to lighten the air with it. He says this only for a bit, looking beyond her to the river again in thought. 

I don't think anyone could match Lótë. He murmurs and breathes out a sorrowed sigh, wondering where she and much of her children had gone to. Children which they had raised along his own. Children he called his own for everyone who might wonder. She loved you so much. Still did, he hoped, wherever she were. The little dove had been a special case. Young, with many new children and a husband who had so ever quickly discarded them. And so, he reminds Kukutux of this. Lótë and her children were abandoned but when she found another, the man's name escaped him, her new pup did not take our name. I'm not sure who might think to lie with another, but call the children as Nuiruk or if said man would relinquish his rights. Unless they didn't know and were never told. A messy bit of drama to have. 

Not only had Kukutux desired it of Aiolos, but it was a selfless act. Lote needed them in those times. She had joined their family where hers had become broken. Now, this time, Kukutux asks again, but it is not for any particular woman in need. Still, however quiet Aiolos was, he was watchful. Kukutux had been at her happiest with Lote at her side, sharing their duties together, watching the herd of children play together. A sister-wife had given her things which Aiolos could not. 

Who might you consider...? He wonders then, trying to think of who she might consider. There was none which he was particularly close to. The females he was were his own daughters, of course, along with @Shikoba, though he and she more so grunted and woofed at one another in passing more then much else. Sakhmet was wed to Kigipigak and the other two females in the ranks were the aging of Samani and Kausiut. He thought to those women who had come and gone- Qadira, Keyni, Towhee, Lunaria... Aiolos could not imagine who Kukutux might have on her mind. Perhaps none just yet, in this moment.

aiolos did not reject it this time.

kukutux let out her breath. eyes the color of deep spring grass traced his handsome scarlet features with love.

"no one can be her. i cannot replace her." and she would not, and she would welcome the woman back to their hearth as if she had never gone.

"and yes! give me more daughters also, husband!" she laughed, coming close to him, relieved and surprised that he had softened to these words. "there is no name in my mind. i have no time in my eyes. but she will come."

little fjall. not a nuiruk but her son all the same. "if lote and her child return to the village, will you —?" and yet she did not ask. she did not finish the thought. he would know.

she studied him, wondering at the thoughts behind his eyes. "sakhmet is unhappy. she is chief among my choices. but i do not think she wishes to be only part of the village. and so she would not wish to be a second wife."

perhaps she would ask all the same.

Aiolos laughs as she does and as she comes closer to him. I will definitely do my best. He so promises, even as their youngest litter still had yet even to fully known their first winter. 

She did not know yet of a woman who would take this role. Though Aiolos knew, as determined as Kukutux was and how easily and quickly it took another to warm up to her, she would not have to wait long for the right match to come her way. Kukutux was not the type to wait around and think about the things she wanted in life. She was a woman of action and took it. He loved her dearly and Aiolos knew, though he stood equal at her side, Moonglow would not be what it was now without her. 

Now, they both thought of Lote, of what they once had and wished they still did. He answers what he thinks is her unspoken question. Fjall would be made Nuiruk in a heartbeat and Lote would be at your side as sister-wife once more... Even if it meant having three wives. He chuckled and shook his head at the thought. 

They had both grown to know their boundaries and limitations with one another. Kukutux loved to have a woman at her side, as co-wife, to share their nursing and their responsilities. She also knew that even if the world saw Lote, or any other, as his wives and held their status and name, it was Kukutux alone which he loved and held close at nights. 

What of Kigi? Aiolos then questioned, when his Snow mentioned the name of the redheaded woman. The stocky tundra wolf had come and gone from their mountain borders, but it was a manner which Aiolos had kept his nose out of.

kukutux' eyes danced. her laughter was like wind in sweetgrass. "three wives! what other man can boast so much?" but he would provide for all of them, all the children born to his hearth.

secretly moonwoman hoped that one year her sun man would relent and lay with another of these future wives. she would like blood-kin for her sons and daughters, cousins who might go with them to create new villages. but she knew to speak such was an insult to aiolos, who loved only her in that way.

"i hope she does come again, and that she does bring fjall. it will be good to see her face again." her heart thrummed and then she thought of the winterhawk.

"i have not seen a wife's happiness in sakhmet since they came here again, husband." she did not know kigipigak's heart. she did not wish hurt for him. but he kept to himself. sakhmet burned with guilt. why had he not comforted her?

she could not know.

her eyes grew thoughtful. "do you know her, sun man?"

I've come along way, havent I? You spoil me, my snow! He laughs with her, tongue licking at his chin as it began to grey and stretched his legs out far in front of himself as he lay. 

A man had gone from slavery of woman, a lesser, to one which had multiple wives he cared for endlessly and who were happy to call themselves his wife. He knew that bedding multiple wives would strength the name of Nuiruk and strengthen their pack. He did not think however he could lay with someone he knew he only did for the sake of filling the ranks. Someone he knew, despite their time together, would still always be lesser then the woman standing before him now. 

The snowy woman spoke more of Lote then and then of Sakhmet. She was unhappy. Unhappy in ways Shikoba had been when Inutsuk left. Like Lote had been when her mate turned on her. How Keyni was when torn between a home here and her short-tempered choice of man. Aiolos was happy he had never hurt Kukutux in such ways and hoped his sons grew up with this same mindset. 

I really don't know anything about her... He murmured with an honestly. Other then she was Kigipigak's mate, of their pack and the children they shared. This was all.

kukutux loved the silver upon aiolos. it turned him into a great strong birch tree. she fell beside him, kissing his forehead as he spoke. "i enjoy spoiling you," she said with a nip to his red ear.

sakhmet.

kukutux did not let her great pleasure show, sensing, assuming that aiolos left it to her to answer such things. "she is fierce. she is not a flower in the snow. she is ice and lightning mother. but she is kind. and she is a loving anaa to her sons."

She came then to rest along his side, falling and pressing into him and nipping his gingered ear playfully. He arches his head to the side and turns it, mouthing at her in protest playfully. 

Sounds like you. He admits with a fondness to his wife. And a type of woman surely Kigipigak would like to keep. He warns then, to her, as she dabbles with this idea. Though, as she had said, it was unlikely Sakhmet, who enjoyed her place as lead, would feel well settling to a role as 'second wife'. It would not be wise to cause such strife... He worries further. If Sakhmet took this role and called herself Nuiruk, she would no longer ne Kigipigak's own... or would she dismiss Kukutux and Aiolos, upon his return? 

Aiolos huffs to himself in thought.

kukutux kissed her sun man. "my kinsman has gone away. but perhaps he will come back in the spring to claim his wife."

the question remained if sakhmet would wait so long.

moonwoman did not think she deserved to wait.

aiolos was filled with thoughts. slyly she licked beneath his chin, hoping to warm him to other things.

the decision was not theirs to make.

mother sedna would decide for all of them.