A moment of death

[katriell]

Tears found their way down the pale surface of a familiar mask, leaving dark trails along their journey until they succumbed to the force which drags rain from the clouds to the ground, and joined the snow below. Her eyes drifted of their own accord to focus on some point above and behind the aggrieved man who knelt by her side. Icy bark cliffs rose in the distance to define the border between land and sky. The chill of winter-afflicted ground beneath her back escaped notice. Everything but sight had left her when the kincher's claw pierced her body. There was only a brief pain before she felt nothing. Death wandered toward her in these moments, seeming to hesitate just long enough for the silent observation of the chaos that erupted at the kitin scout's attack, and the descent of devastation upon her lover.

These were the last things Mei Pi-Läo saw in the span of her life.

-------------¬

"There is nothing to be done for her; we must leave this area!"

The sharply-spoken words did little, at first, to rouse Kian from his place at Mei's side. Tendrils of desperate denial of the fact of her death still coursed through his thoughts even as his reaching for her mind produced only stillness, and the more rational portions of his mind accepted what had just happened. The kincher that had attacked them also lay dead, a few meters away, its dark legs curled and its form stark against the white landscape. It had only managed to remain undetected until it was too late due to the bark outcropping that interrupted the narrow, curved valley. The one among them who was skilled in combat had apparently reacted quickly, but not quickly enough.

He felt a hand on his shoulder. Slowly tearing his gaze from Mei and looking up, he saw the distinctive yellow and red tattoo of Ci-Ki Fao, the eyes and mouth of his mask molded slightly in a rare expression of...sympathy? Yet, there was also some inflection of resentment seeping from the old sage's Seed. Kian stood, compelled to obey his former mentor although no specific instruction had been stated. He paused, noticing the glint of something in the snow next to his fallen beloved. An amber jewel that must have been knocked from her mask, pink with vast age. He knelt once more to retreive it, realizing it would be the only remaining physical evidence of Mei's existence after Atys absorbed her body. As they began walking away to rejoin the rest of their small caravan, hot and sickening grief continued to overwhelm him inside. It was for this that his body shivered, not for the distant external cold of the weather.

[shaymoon]

(*sniffles*)