The End of the World

Unfortunately the more philosophical thoughts and questioning were brushed aside in favor of hard training... at least after her family pack had been absorbed. Now it was survival that consumed her time and thoughts. She was exhausted, dead spiritually and emotionally. She was something dead trying to pretend to be alive. Did she succeed?

As Áki spoke, Kuwindwa's gaze did not waver from him. She drank in his words, considered them. To say she was eager was perhaps too strong a word, but she was interested, and that much showed in the way she watched, ears perked. Also, his accent was quite thick and while she could understand him, there were times she had to make sure she'd heard him correctly. What he described at first sounded simple, but then he mentioned how they survived for so long in a harsh winter. Something in the back of her mind sparked, and for a moment the woman's brows furrowed, a question forming in her mind, nearly reaching her tongue, but never quite leaving: How?

It was a simple question, one that made her feel like a child... At first she felt a blow to her pride, then realized something: she still didn't know everything. And that wasn't bad. The spark in her mind became the light of curiosity in her eyes as she listened.

Were it that she could be that way - "deeply spiritual" - Kuwindwa felt a small connection to something, somewhere, but that something had no name or place. Maybe it was only her wishful thinking. Even her family had no spiritual practices, only their warrior's code. It shamed Kuwindwa to think she could scarcely follow it anymore. She did try though. Aside from the constant moving, it was the only other constant in her life beyond the loneliness.

"How?" The woman voiced at last. She clarified briefly: "How does something like that help you?" She didn't sound condescending - she was genuinely curious. If she was rude, she didn't realize... But she scrutinized him as closely as ever, trying to understand how something spiritual (and therefore to her as far from physical as it could be) could help survive a hard winter. "I imagine the winters are far harsher than they are here... the prey scarcer. Was there a... a code?" Was there some trick or quirk to hunting his people had learned to survive? Or were they all like Áki, with tusks? And enormous?