My cousin moved here too?
Wednesday, 12 February 2014 22:00![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
littlesilvertipMore snow fell over night. This is fantastic. I had no idea how much I missed it. I went out and found a few cool things outside the tribal territory, and then buried them in some snow. It’s going to be so cool when spring comes and they come out again! I followed some scent trails over towards the lowlands, but nothing came out of it. I want to get some fresh meat in my teeth soon, or I’m going to get annoyed. And hungry. Mostly annoyed. I was far enough in the low lands that I was near the Caern, so I decided to give it another once-over.
Upside-Down was there - the sometimes weird Child of the Grandmother - and she had a fire going. Doesn’t she know fur burns? It was really weird how close she was to it like that. I had to re-introduce myself. Again. I had to explain what happened. Again. She asked me how I was. I don’t know why I said anything at all, but… at the time, it seemed like I could confide in her that, okay, I’m not fine. I mean, I’m not bleeding through my lungs, but… you know.
Anyhow, she tried to give me a hug. Out of nowhere. What the fuck? Was it because I took homid like Fire-Dancer suggested I do? I got her to back off - I don’t know her. She’s not Peacekeeper, or my family, or a packmate. She apologized, but I need to keep an eye out for her. She might try again.
Again - I have no idea what it is about that Child of the Grandmother, but you find yourself trusting her and saying things you shouldn’t. I talked about that yes, I’d been through a lot. It was my own fault, so on, so on… It felt natural at the time, but why was I saying any of these things to her? I even asked for her advice on dealing with the questions I got. She told me to stop thinking about myself, and what’s the big picture. Set a good example. Inspire to be better. As soon as I was walking away, I was wondering why the hell I said most of the things I did. It’s like that one Fang that I should have killed. But once I was in his face, I let him live. I don’t think I told her anything secret, so that’s fine.
I decided I should go back up into the mountains and hunt around some more. Not a lot of hares around. Are they low? I don’t know. I found a few good places to set traps. Maybe I can get that otter for Yellow Horse this winter. I took the man shape to set up a snare at the bottom of a slide, but while I was doing it, I got bitter cold, so after I had a few snares set, became wolf again, and headed to the community hall to deal with my lack of good clothes.
I started trying to hem a parka we’d made for cubs for my size when a young wendigo entered. Unfinished-Business. She didn’t recognize me, and wanted to know who I was, what I was doing there. A short introduction was enough. I don’t know if she recognized my name and deeds, or just didn’t care enough to argue. She’s definitely young - she rolled her eyes at me when I corrected her by saying I am fourth rank, not the Fianna words for it. I had to remind her to be more polite with her elders. I think she forgot about that when I asked her to show me some of the clothes she made. Only what she’s wearing? That’s no good. She should have a change. She headed out to see if she could find anything to make into leather.
I got back to work, and some time later someone else came in, calling over to me Yugtun. I didn’t even recognize her, with the scars, and the fact that she was here in the south - It was Esther, my… well, I guess she’s now my Ilunguq. What was my cousin doing here? She definitely didn’t recognize me… or she did at first, because it was dark she thought I was Amousuk and called me that. That’s when I recognized her. I told her who I was, and she took a while to believe me. She did a fair amount of looking and poking… which I do not blame her. She also spent a bit staring at my chest. That was awkward. She was fairly dumbfounded, and I had to tell her, yes, I am arnaq. I noticed. I told her what happened, but in a very simple way so a kinfolk could understand. Eventually I told her about all the fights she was getting in when we visited the village last years back, and that convinced her.
She was pretty happy to see me, after that. I didn’t know her well in the village - I think I visited her parent’s house once? - but to have family so close is nice. We talked for a bit, I tried to answer her questions, before the Unfinished Business came back. I had to tell her the rules about no being covered in fur inside - neither of them heard of that. I explained that it was for when Kin visit, or live here. I guess no kin are living there. But that made me realize - Esther had her first change! I let her know how happy I was she was now fully one of us. And first ranked! Very good. She has nice scars, though one is on her face. That’s unfortunate, because she had a nice face before the scar there.
The two wendigo appear to be friends. Maybe pack mates? I don’t know. They were teasing, and I teased Esther at her expense. She can take it, she’s a warrior. Unfinished business noticed I started to take apart my old winter parka - the nice one I showed her. I was describing the materials, and mentioned killing pregnant caribou got the best meat and fur in the spring, when both of them joked about using gifts on animals to kill them. I don’t know if they really joked or not, but I told them never to do that, and how wrong that was. When I kept asking, Esther told me she didn’t even know the right way to honor the spirits of the animals we eat! No yuk here is going to not know that! As soon as possible, I’ll teach her that. I thought I heard the echo of a sheep, and I went to go try and find it before it got away - nothing. On my way back, I did go by the otter slide, and there were fresh tracks. Three of them. This looks very good. I won’t visit there for another five days, to avoid scaring them off.
I’m back inside and working on the parka again. The foolmoon may be an eye-rolling teen without something to change into if she falls into a river, but she’s right about whether I should start over instead of trying to force an old parka into the right shape by hemming it. I’ll do work on it until later tonight, when I go play with Neryarta. If he’s not still in a mood over last night.
Upside-Down was there - the sometimes weird Child of the Grandmother - and she had a fire going. Doesn’t she know fur burns? It was really weird how close she was to it like that. I had to re-introduce myself. Again. I had to explain what happened. Again. She asked me how I was. I don’t know why I said anything at all, but… at the time, it seemed like I could confide in her that, okay, I’m not fine. I mean, I’m not bleeding through my lungs, but… you know.
Anyhow, she tried to give me a hug. Out of nowhere. What the fuck? Was it because I took homid like Fire-Dancer suggested I do? I got her to back off - I don’t know her. She’s not Peacekeeper, or my family, or a packmate. She apologized, but I need to keep an eye out for her. She might try again.
Again - I have no idea what it is about that Child of the Grandmother, but you find yourself trusting her and saying things you shouldn’t. I talked about that yes, I’d been through a lot. It was my own fault, so on, so on… It felt natural at the time, but why was I saying any of these things to her? I even asked for her advice on dealing with the questions I got. She told me to stop thinking about myself, and what’s the big picture. Set a good example. Inspire to be better. As soon as I was walking away, I was wondering why the hell I said most of the things I did. It’s like that one Fang that I should have killed. But once I was in his face, I let him live. I don’t think I told her anything secret, so that’s fine.
I decided I should go back up into the mountains and hunt around some more. Not a lot of hares around. Are they low? I don’t know. I found a few good places to set traps. Maybe I can get that otter for Yellow Horse this winter. I took the man shape to set up a snare at the bottom of a slide, but while I was doing it, I got bitter cold, so after I had a few snares set, became wolf again, and headed to the community hall to deal with my lack of good clothes.
I started trying to hem a parka we’d made for cubs for my size when a young wendigo entered. Unfinished-Business. She didn’t recognize me, and wanted to know who I was, what I was doing there. A short introduction was enough. I don’t know if she recognized my name and deeds, or just didn’t care enough to argue. She’s definitely young - she rolled her eyes at me when I corrected her by saying I am fourth rank, not the Fianna words for it. I had to remind her to be more polite with her elders. I think she forgot about that when I asked her to show me some of the clothes she made. Only what she’s wearing? That’s no good. She should have a change. She headed out to see if she could find anything to make into leather.
I got back to work, and some time later someone else came in, calling over to me Yugtun. I didn’t even recognize her, with the scars, and the fact that she was here in the south - It was Esther, my… well, I guess she’s now my Ilunguq. What was my cousin doing here? She definitely didn’t recognize me… or she did at first, because it was dark she thought I was Amousuk and called me that. That’s when I recognized her. I told her who I was, and she took a while to believe me. She did a fair amount of looking and poking… which I do not blame her. She also spent a bit staring at my chest. That was awkward. She was fairly dumbfounded, and I had to tell her, yes, I am arnaq. I noticed. I told her what happened, but in a very simple way so a kinfolk could understand. Eventually I told her about all the fights she was getting in when we visited the village last years back, and that convinced her.
She was pretty happy to see me, after that. I didn’t know her well in the village - I think I visited her parent’s house once? - but to have family so close is nice. We talked for a bit, I tried to answer her questions, before the Unfinished Business came back. I had to tell her the rules about no being covered in fur inside - neither of them heard of that. I explained that it was for when Kin visit, or live here. I guess no kin are living there. But that made me realize - Esther had her first change! I let her know how happy I was she was now fully one of us. And first ranked! Very good. She has nice scars, though one is on her face. That’s unfortunate, because she had a nice face before the scar there.
The two wendigo appear to be friends. Maybe pack mates? I don’t know. They were teasing, and I teased Esther at her expense. She can take it, she’s a warrior. Unfinished business noticed I started to take apart my old winter parka - the nice one I showed her. I was describing the materials, and mentioned killing pregnant caribou got the best meat and fur in the spring, when both of them joked about using gifts on animals to kill them. I don’t know if they really joked or not, but I told them never to do that, and how wrong that was. When I kept asking, Esther told me she didn’t even know the right way to honor the spirits of the animals we eat! No yuk here is going to not know that! As soon as possible, I’ll teach her that. I thought I heard the echo of a sheep, and I went to go try and find it before it got away - nothing. On my way back, I did go by the otter slide, and there were fresh tracks. Three of them. This looks very good. I won’t visit there for another five days, to avoid scaring them off.
I’m back inside and working on the parka again. The foolmoon may be an eye-rolling teen without something to change into if she falls into a river, but she’s right about whether I should start over instead of trying to force an old parka into the right shape by hemming it. I’ll do work on it until later tonight, when I go play with Neryarta. If he’s not still in a mood over last night.
