[PRP] New Endings, New Beginnings (Splits x Drowned)

[Ryuukishin]

Splits the Surface stood on the lake's bank, her eyes distant and her breathing even. She seemed serene as she gazed across the flat surface, the cranes sliding past her as if she were no more than another reed. It was the water that belied her in the end: her legs barely trembled, but the ripples grew all the same.

The sun was setting by the time she found it in herself to move. She was shaking from the chill now; even so, her steps were unhurried as she left the water, faced the copse, and threaded between the trees. A few minute's journey would take her to the newborn acha she had left behind, lifeless and half-buried in the mud.  

[Celestial Requiem]

Drowned nosed the tiny body gently, just in case there was still some life left in it. But the dried mud on its coat seemed to suggest it had been lying there for some hours and the lack of response all but confirmed it. The foal -likely only days old- was gone.

He had dealt with death many times before. It was a bit of a hobby, really, making odd arrangements with the remains of creatures who had passed. It was never meant as an act of desecration but instead a testament to the life the creature had left behind. But what life had this days-old foal lived? Drowned didn't often feel genuine sorrow when coming across a corpse. Death was all a part of the balance; there was a reason for every life that was lost. But he had only ever handled a fellow kin once, and that was an elderly kimeti who had lived a full life. This foal was different. Special. It would only be proper to make the arrangement special too. This would be his best one yet.

Ryuukishin