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 Posted: Thu Aug 15, 2013 12:36 pm
The waiting was torture. Not knowing if the plan was going to work or not was the worst feeling. Kyrie wanted the plan to work. She wanted to help her siblings and therefore her parents pull their little stunt off. But now there was nothing to do but help Isi sort out the church and wait for any word from the crows, or better still, the spirits themselves.
Kyrie bent down to pick up an end of a long flower garland she and Isi had been working on for the past hour. She admired their work for a moment, then looked to her brother.
"I think we should hang this one outside. We need to signal that this really is the place for everyone to gather," she suggested.
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Posted: Thu Aug 15, 2013 12:57 pm
Isidore had been working hard to prepare the church. He wanted to be good at his job and do it as best he could. He knew it was very important. He had spent most days in the old church sitting in the pews with the crumbled stone and headless angels and planning everything. He really wanted it all to be perfect so that their plan would work. It would be the worst feeling in the world to be the reason for things not working, the last thing he ever wanted was to let his sisters down and even worse to let his father and mother down.
Now Kyrie was helping him things were going faster. Alva was busy with the Valkyries so she hadn’t been able to step in so he had been doing most of it on his own. It had been slow. Kyrie was very helpful though, she was good at finding flowers and her beak was useful for lots of things too. Together they sat on the stone floor of the church to put together the decorations for the funeral. He looked up at her suggestion and glanced to the light they could see through the ruins.
“Oh, yes, that’s a really good idea, to bring people here.” They had put the word out but anything that helped would be good.
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Posted: Thu Aug 15, 2013 1:11 pm
Kyrie fluffed her feathers happily when he agreed to her idea and she pushed herself up to her feet. Carefully she worked with him to gather up the garland and headed outside to the front of the church. Turning around, she studied the stone ruins for a moment, trying to decide where the flowers would look the best. She knew this was supposed to be a solemn occasion, but it was a celebration. Things definitely needed to look nice and inviting.
"Let's hang it along this wall here leading up to the door. Then we can make another one for the other side," she declared decisively and she glanced to her brother for confirmation.
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Posted: Thu Aug 15, 2013 1:18 pm
“Okay!” Isidore agreed, picking his end up carefully and leading her slowly to the wall so that they could attach it and make it secure. They had put some on the Altar too for a focal point. He was desperate for lots of people to come, he imagined more people would mean that they could help more spirits and the more spirits the more they could help their father and make everything better. He took a step back and admired their handy work.
“Let’s put the other one outside, i think we should mark the path to the church too, maybe we could put some candles around or some lanterns of some kind.”
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Posted: Fri Aug 16, 2013 9:24 am
Kyrie followed him almost on her tippy toes to make sure that she did not accidentally step on any of their hard work. She would honestly be a little devastated if she were the cause of any crushed flowers. Hanging her end on the wall, she stepped back to admire it and then looked to her brother at his suggestion.
"Yes! We want to make this as easy as possible for everyone," she agreed with a nod. "I like the ideas of lanterns. I wonder where we could get some..." she trailed off in deep thought. "I wonder if someone like Elora could get us some pretty lanterns? Or Auntie Echo? They like pretty things," she smiled, though it faded into a look of concentration. "Or maybe not Auntie Echo. She might ask us questions. Let's hang this garland up and then we can figure it out," she decided and went to start to pick up the other garland.
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Posted: Fri Aug 16, 2013 12:37 pm
"I bet Elora would get some." he replied, she was magic after all and that meant that she could do things like make lanterns appear, or at least light some candles. He picked up his end of the other garland and helped Kyrie to carry it to the splintered wooden doors and out to entrance. It was still overgrown, weeds coming up through the old flagstones and winding their way over the church, Isidore could imagine that one day the weeds would overtake the whole building and swallow it up like a giant plant monster.
"I think here would be good."
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Posted: Fri Aug 16, 2013 12:48 pm
Kyrie smiled and nodded in agreement as she walked outside into the fresh air with him.
"I bet she could do that then. Maybe after we're done here, I can go search her out to ask for her help." After all, the more adults they got involved, the better off they would be if their parents managed to find out what they were all up to.
As they worked to hang the fresh garland a little sound caught her attention. Pausing, she turned her head and tilted it a little to see if she could hear the sound better. It was a little caw, though different from her own. Intrigued, her current task fell to the wayside and she did not quite secure her end of the garland before stepping into the thick weeds near the wall of the church. In her mind, the little caw sounded like someone calling for their mother.
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Posted: Fri Aug 16, 2013 1:25 pm
Isidore was busy sorting out his end of the garland, attatching it to some of the ivy that grew up the old building. He didn't notice at first that Kyrie had become distracted, not until her end of the garland fell down off the wall and tugged at his own. The young god frowned and turned to see that his sister had gone.
"Kyrie?" he called, spotting her dark, feathered head in the grass. "Where are you going?" He let go of his end of the garland and hurried after her.
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Posted: Fri Aug 16, 2013 8:09 pm
Kyrie heard her brother's call, but was thoroughly distracted by her new mission. Narrowing her eyes, she concentrated on finding the source of the sound she was hearing. What she found caused her to stop short. Lying amongst the weeds and grass was a wild mess of black and white feathers with a mangled and bloody body in the center of them. Gasping, she put her hands to either side of her beak and she felt her small child's heart break into a million pieces. She was surrounded by death constantly, but she had never witnessed the mortal side of it. Sinking to her knees in the grass, she reached out to gingerly touch the wing of the still magpie, the cries that had drawn her to it and her brother's question going unnoticed as she tried to come to terms with what she was seeing.
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Posted: Sat Aug 17, 2013 7:59 am
Isidore hurried after his sister through the long grass and stopped himself just before he ran into the back of her. He looked at the mess of feathers all over floor and then to the bird that he could tell was very dead.
"It's okay Kyrie." he said softly, reaching out to place his hand on her shoulder, "don't be sad." He didn't like seeing death any more than she did but for him it had less emotion attached to it. He couldn't explain why ... he knew it was sad but it was also a fact of life, it happened.
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Posted: Sat Aug 17, 2013 8:22 am
Kyrie felt her brother's hand on her shoulder and took comfort from it. She had not realized that he had approached her, but she was suddenly very glad that he had.
"But... she's dead," she said softly. "Look what happened to her Isi. It's so awful." She sniffed softly and a couple of tears rolled out of the corners of her eyes and into her feathers. "Something killed her." Sniffing softly, she turned her head to look up at her brother. "Why did she have to die like that?"
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Posted: Sat Aug 17, 2013 8:48 am
Isidore moved closer to the poor bird and crouched down.
"I don't know Kyrie, probably some bigger bird or something like that. It's what happens. Death isn't pretty." Though wasn't it his job to make it so. That's what funerals were weren't they? Making death acceptable and paletable.
He touched the bird, there was no soul there, no spirit. The young god glanced around to see if he could see the spirit, but it had gone.
"We should bury her." Maybe that would make his sister less sad?
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Posted: Sat Aug 17, 2013 9:02 am
Kyrie sniffed again and nodded in agreement. It certainly was not pretty when it was like this, she thought. Hearing the little caw again, she looked up to the branches above them, but then her attention was drawn back to her brother.
"Bury her? Like... You mean like that king we found when we went with Momma to find the archive. We should bury her like that?" she asked, though of course she did not mean in all of that grandeur. For one, that would take entirely too long and they had very pressing matters to attend to. For another, they certainly did not have the supplies for something so grand. Besides, the whole idea of mummification seemed utterly strange to her.
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Posted: Sat Aug 17, 2013 9:13 am
Isidore looked up at his sister and shook his head.
"Well, not quite like that." That tomb would have taken a lifetime to build and well, the bird would not have any furniture or things to bury with it. "In the cemetary over there, we can dig a hole and bury her in the hole and give her soome flowers and maybe a stone so we know where the headstone is. We should say something too, some kind of prayer to help her soul rest."
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Posted: Sat Aug 17, 2013 9:39 am
Kyrie looked back down at the poor magpie on the ground.
"Yes. I would really like that Isi. Then I could come and visit her. Do you think she would like that? To know that she has not been forgotten?" she asked softly as she reached out to gingerly scoop her up into her hands. It was then, at her own words, that she finally began to understand part of her brother's domain. Even though the spirit moved on, nobody wanted to be forgotten and funerals were a way to help remember.
As she rose to her feet, she heard the cry again and she looked up to the trees.
"Do you hear that Is?" she asked him.
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