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‘Oh?’ The elder looked at hihtfully for athat his huhts were private,’ Gariath snarled, glowering
‘Then you shouldn’t have thought theht here’
‘It doesn’t onman turned his stare back up to the sky ‘They’re dead’
‘Possibly’
‘Possibly?’
‘You didn’t die’
‘I a They are weak and stupid’
‘Bold words co to starve to death so a snake will eat hiiven the circumstances?’
‘I can think of a better way to live’
‘Live?’ Gariath’s snout split in an unpleasant grin ‘I’ve tried living, Grandfather I’ve tried living withoutwithout even hu was fine for a ti will be better’
‘There is nothing worth living for, Wisest?’
‘There was Now, I have nothing’
‘You haveI never seea’ He waved a clawed hand at the elder ‘I do not need you, Grandfather’
‘What do you need, then?’
‘It’s not obvious?’
‘Not to you’
‘I need to die, Grandfather,’ Gariath sighed ‘I need to rid myself of all’ – he waved a hand out to the sky and sea – ‘this I don’t need it anymore’
‘You’ve had plenty of opportunities to die’
‘I haven’t found the right one yet’
‘They all basically end the saa’
‘Ah, I see’ The elder scratched his chin thoughtfully ‘So, the right way is to lie down here and wait to die while conteods?’
‘It’s a way’
‘Not the way of the Rhega’
‘There are no rowled in response ‘I aht way to die is’
‘And what is the right way to die, Wisest?’
Gariath had an answer for that
It was an answer that he had often dreamed of, birthed at the fore of hispups that see with those pups, nurtured by their experiences When they had learned to catch jus and glide on the winds, that answer had grown to so that swelled with his own heart
He would have verywhen they held pups of their own and watched red silhouettes gliding across the sky He would have very much liked for them to have their own answers for the question
Instead, two hearts had stopped beating instead of one And with them, so did his answer die
The elder stared at hi it unfurl inside hiononised wail, offered to a weeping sky as Gariath clutched two lifeless forms in his arms The same wail offered to so many wide-eyed, terrified faces as Gariath threw hi denied a righteous death
‘That would be a good way to die,’ the elder said, nodding ‘I would have liked to have left my family in such a way’
‘How did you die, Grandfather?’
‘I didn’t,’ the elder replied with an enigmatic smile
‘You are most certainly dead, Grandfather’
‘In body, perhaps’
‘Oh, this’
‘What?’ The elder furrowed his ridges
‘I’ve heard this before Soue philosophy about the separation of body and spirit, and it always ends the same way’ Gariath made a dis the two can be resurrected alongside each other,true to oneself Then we all hug and cry and I vomit’ He snorted derisively ‘Humans do it all the time’
‘Humans have had their points, Wisest The difference between body and spirit is one they adopted, but it is not one they thought of on their own’
‘It’s all greasy, imbecilic vomit, no matter who spews it’
‘Is it? You’ve seen me You’ve seen Grahta Can you still deny the difference, knohat death a?’
‘I wonder if I do,’ Gariath muttered ‘You knohat Grahta told e and white oblivion ‘I can’t follow’
‘I know,’ the elder said, nodding solemnly
‘Do you, Grandfather?’ Gariath turned his hard stare upon the specter ‘You know death, but you know peace You will know your ancestors, eventually, as Grahta did You will know rest Me …’ He sat up suddenly, brier ‘I can’t follow you Grahta said as much I can’t see my fa cringe as they both felt his heart turn to stone inside hiround
‘I can’t see ain I can’t follow’
‘It is the way it must be, Wisest’
‘Why?’
He leapt to his feet, the sand erupting beneath him The earth trembled as he stoht that blood wept from his claws He bared his teeth, narrowed his eyes and fanned his frills out beside his head