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"Something like that, yes," he admitted, the statement tinged with some surprise and urgency. "Fell - how do you - ? I don't think I've told you about her before - "

So this was it. In the end it came down to this. One word, and his life would change forever - but, oh, one way or another it already had. Today, just now, it already had, and there was no point dragging out the inevitable. If only he hadn't led the girls back to their den those many months back, if only he hadn't...hadn't... It was so much better when it was just the two of them, long ago...that was so long ago...so much better... But what was the use?

"She's not fake, you ninny," he said, weary, defeated, each syllable weighing down on his broken heart, "she's real, and if you'd only told me about her a year ago, you could have saved m- yourself all this trouble."

"She only comes out late at night," quietly at first, then the bitter edge crept into his voice, "which you might have figured out if you'd only stopped to think about it. She usually goes to the same place, that big mangrove. She watches the sky, I don't know what for. I'm not sure about her name. Moon-something."

Even in the depths of his misery, Fell had to take a moment to appreciate how disquieting Weep could be - but the spite soon took hold once more.

"There," he spat, wheeling back from Rise's searching gaze, "Moonfrost-like-Ashes. Your mystery doe. Every night for the past year I've seen her here. I suppose you can go see her yourself tonight. Enjoy."

Rise awoke when the sun set, and said his good-nights to the company, trotting out with the most infernal cheeriness to the place, the pool, where he first met her.

Moonfrost-like-Ashes.

No rain tonight. The sky was clear, silvery beams falling through the gaps in foliage, bathing the lakes. He had the intimation that this was the night, this was destiny. There was no doubt - she would be there. He would see her. It was too perfect a night for any other occurrence. He paused briefly, to close his eyes and recall her loveliness, even as a filly - her light hooves, balanced perfectly on mangrove roots, her piercingly dark eyes, seeing him for what he really was. Such maturity in her youth, that made him the buck he was now.

And she was real. Moonfrost-like-Ashes.

He was very close to the place he knew was home in his childhood now, merely incidental rather than chosen, but 'home' nevertheless. Turn past this mangrove, step into the water...

...see her all grown up, delicately balanced on a mangrove root. A fine doe, her hair lusciously long now, tossed to the back to keep out of her way, trailing liquid down her back, mercury-blue on frost. The darkness of night did not encroach, as if she was the moon - she was the moon, to Rise, it seemed only right that the moonlight was not shining upon her, but radiating from her, such was her beauty. The same as he'd always imagined, but yet so, so much more beautiful than he'd thought.

"Moonfrost-like-Ashes," he said, well-rehearsed, it fell out of his mouth.
"it's me, The Sun Also Rises. Rise."

He paused when he met her disdainful gaze, overwhelmed.
"We met when we were children. Here. I didn't know what to do with myself. You told me to die. But I've made something of myself now, because of what you said.

Preserved foods." He elaborated breathily, in rapture of her visage. "I've made something of myself and I've found others who do the same. Won't you come with me, Moonfrost-like-Ashes? Please come with me, so I can show you how much -"

- you -
"- life means, to me."

"Salt," he said, eagerly, "and water. Salt water."

"A few days to a week," Rise appended helpfully. "That's the best we've been able to manage so far, I'm afraid, but we're working on it."