It was well into night when Embaela felt the first edges of cold that dared to creep into their cave home by the sea. Not even once since she and Zchi spent each night curled together did the bitter cold of winter nor the searing heat of summer reach them. This night, however, was different. It was much TOO cold. Embaela reached an arm around Zchi, thinking to herself that the living deity spent much more time sleeping than he had winters ago. There was no warmth beneath her touch. She knew at that moment the time had finally come. Zchi was gone. She clutched the still form tighter to her, as if her own warmth would raise the dead. She didn’t want to cry, especially since she knew deep down that his death was also his liberation from a world of loneliness, but the tears came anyway.
The tears made way to sobs, the sobs then to wailing. The night passed as she mourned herself into a deep sleep riddled with dreams of the many lessons she learned from her time with Zchi. She truly believed that there was no love stronger than the love she had for him. It wasn’t the feeling of a lover, or of a child to a parent, but something greater still.
She woke nearing the end of the daylight considering the most appropriate way to bless his body. Rolling him into the sea seemed heartless, but attempting to move him to the grasslands to bury him with little more than a pointed rock seemed well beyond her abilities. She couldn’t leave him here, she was brought here for a reason, and she was to stay here and wait as per Zchi’s instruction. Embaela knew that at any time she could have left back for Pell and rejoin her family, but it had been a long time since Embaela had ever even considered leaving for a few days, much less forever. Griefstricken as she was, she could barely come up with an appropriate course of action. A familiar cry came from the frigid winds outside, but what were the Ptari doing here at this season?
Three featherless heads poked into the mouth of the cave, dark eyes glittering with tears as they made their way to Zchi. Embaela had never seen them come so far into the cave before. At first she thought they’d come to pay respects but it soon became clear what they intended to do when one of the huge birds began pecking at Zchi’s darkening fingers. In a fury, Embaela rushed at them, shouting. The three birds did not back off, but they did not appear aggressive either. In fact, those eerie dark stares they gave insinuated a greater knowing that she would have originally thought a bird could possess. The Ptari closest to her scratched a foot impatiently on the stone and cocked it’s massive head sideways.
The greatest honor of our kind is distributing the last of ourselves to the living. It is THEN that we truly become one with the world we live to love.
She was not fully convinced that the message wasn’t something her sorrowfilled mind created on it’s own but she still took deep consideration of this.
I will not partake of his flesh, but I will instead keep a lock of his hair with me always. I accept your generosity and I only ask that we take him above first.
The Ptari nodded simultaneously, waiting for Embaela to clip the lock of hair and say her last goodbyes before hoisting the lifeless form out of the cave. As she wove the platinum strands into a cord, she listened to the cacophony of Ptari as they feasted above, glad she was not in plain view of the scene. She wound her newly woven cord around her wrist and lay down on the palette, listening to the bird sounds fading in the distance. Soon the deed would be done.
A single activated hillsindry stone pulsed soft light at her feet as she sang herself to sleep with the soft lullaby Zchi sang to her that fateful day she’d gotten so sick.
Si ere e ya toli
Massa ni e ya toli
Cari Duharett ni soh
Manda toli na
Hillsindry e ya
Mori cari da
Manda toli na
Mori cari da, Manda toli na We’ll be family forever, in our home beside the sea
The tears made way to sobs, the sobs then to wailing. The night passed as she mourned herself into a deep sleep riddled with dreams of the many lessons she learned from her time with Zchi. She truly believed that there was no love stronger than the love she had for him. It wasn’t the feeling of a lover, or of a child to a parent, but something greater still.
She woke nearing the end of the daylight considering the most appropriate way to bless his body. Rolling him into the sea seemed heartless, but attempting to move him to the grasslands to bury him with little more than a pointed rock seemed well beyond her abilities. She couldn’t leave him here, she was brought here for a reason, and she was to stay here and wait as per Zchi’s instruction. Embaela knew that at any time she could have left back for Pell and rejoin her family, but it had been a long time since Embaela had ever even considered leaving for a few days, much less forever. Griefstricken as she was, she could barely come up with an appropriate course of action. A familiar cry came from the frigid winds outside, but what were the Ptari doing here at this season?
Three featherless heads poked into the mouth of the cave, dark eyes glittering with tears as they made their way to Zchi. Embaela had never seen them come so far into the cave before. At first she thought they’d come to pay respects but it soon became clear what they intended to do when one of the huge birds began pecking at Zchi’s darkening fingers. In a fury, Embaela rushed at them, shouting. The three birds did not back off, but they did not appear aggressive either. In fact, those eerie dark stares they gave insinuated a greater knowing that she would have originally thought a bird could possess. The Ptari closest to her scratched a foot impatiently on the stone and cocked it’s massive head sideways.
The greatest honor of our kind is distributing the last of ourselves to the living. It is THEN that we truly become one with the world we live to love.
She was not fully convinced that the message wasn’t something her sorrowfilled mind created on it’s own but she still took deep consideration of this.
I will not partake of his flesh, but I will instead keep a lock of his hair with me always. I accept your generosity and I only ask that we take him above first.
The Ptari nodded simultaneously, waiting for Embaela to clip the lock of hair and say her last goodbyes before hoisting the lifeless form out of the cave. As she wove the platinum strands into a cord, she listened to the cacophony of Ptari as they feasted above, glad she was not in plain view of the scene. She wound her newly woven cord around her wrist and lay down on the palette, listening to the bird sounds fading in the distance. Soon the deed would be done.
A single activated hillsindry stone pulsed soft light at her feet as she sang herself to sleep with the soft lullaby Zchi sang to her that fateful day she’d gotten so sick.
Si ere e ya toli
Massa ni e ya toli
Cari Duharett ni soh
Manda toli na
Hillsindry e ya
Mori cari da
Manda toli na
Mori cari da, Manda toli na We’ll be family forever, in our home beside the sea
