thread covers the death of veris and her funeral, mentions of death //

the whisper of night was a solemn touch to the forlorn hearts of those in observance of the funeral. lights lit up a path through the abandoned coastal village, some spirits having emerged to watch the dark and painful procession, watching a parent bury their children. the kingpin had come to the painful truth - many of their children had died, taken by bandits or some other misfortune, taken from them by the same curse that had taken everyone else. erian, evarhi, kekahi, flos, arvin, and veris. those left alive were laeglin and leoku, their two sons. they could only thank the gods that those two had survived, and were continuing to live. they hadn't a clue about what happened to the rest, but the dragon could only assume the worst. young veris had her life taken away by bandits, her body discovered at the tunnels, abandoned for the birds until one of the territory's spirits had found her body and alerted the group to the discovery.

leading the procession, the dragon was silent as they headed for the coastal forest, pawsteps heavy and slow, grief weighing down their mind and heart. how would they survive losing anyone else? taking a breath, they held onto the burning anger and resentment growing in their chest, bitter fury tarnishing their tongue. how lonely they felt, leading the funeral party to lay their daughter to rest in a tree burial. her body would be bundled up into the trees to protect her from scavengers and the fiery demons waiting to drag her away. exhaling, the dragon entered the trees with a heavy heart, seeking out a clearing in which her body would be put up. she looked so tiny, her body groomed and bundled up with herbs and some of their scales. resting around the bundle of furs in which she laid, was a jade necklace and a token made from a broken tine of one of their antlers, the safest that they could keep her in her journey to join the spirits.

waiting for the rest of the procession to catch up, they settled in the forest, biting their lip to keep the tears from falling, their throat raw with emotion and loss. what a fool were they, to have brought such an innocent soul to life, only for her to fall at the paws of the enemy. there were cracks in their scales, silver ichor just under the surface, their eyes tired and dull, void of light that they normally carried. after this, the dragon would depart to their own private family burial grounds, and lay some remnant of their children to rest, with what they had of everyone they had lost. they prayed, that there would be another star in the sky that night, that their daughter would not be captured in this territory as a ghost. eyes closed, the dragon waited in subdued silence for the rest to join them, silently worrying over the condition of one of their sons, laeglin, who had been caught in a cave in after veris' death. they feared that they soon would be holding such a similar procession for him.

cold was the embrace of the night, bitter the kiss of wind against skin and fur. their eyes half closed, they looked up to sam and asteri, their eyes tired and empty, void and dark with grief. "thank you ...", they murmured quietly, biting their lip as they continued to wait, too scared to carry this out, too scared to make this reality. they didn't want to accept that she was gone, though they knew that there was no way around it. reaching into their pouch, the kingpin shuddered, holding in the sob that rang through their body, heart cramping in their chest. they were so lonely ... lonely without her there, their daughter. shaking their head, they took a wobbly breath, stepping to her body, so frail and silent. laying down these new items, they gently laid about her a wooden bead made of a fallen branch from the sakura tree that stood guard over the group. exhaling, they looked down at their child's body, inhaling and exhaling before they reached their head around to their shoulder. taking hold of one of their scales, the dragon pulled the single scale away from their shoulder, rumbling softly, "thank you, both of you. i just hope that her afterlife is peaceful.", they murmured, laying the scale just under her head, relishing in the pain.