King Elk Forest you're offering more than you owe

all welcome but maybe @Gracious? :D

burke's death sits in him hollowly. it is not the first, nor even the worst loss he has endured, and it is hardly tragic. yet his heart feels fragile.

he makes his way to the shallow graveyard they constructed, the best they could do with the ground still frozen over. there is a part of him that wishes he'd sought burke out for advice one last time, on leading tindómë, on how to handle mato. in his final weeks would the grumpy old man have been able to help anyway? he'll never know. and now... he'd thought, maybe, once burke passed, mato would snap back into his old self and rise to the fore once again, but the prince seems more withdrawn than ever. (a part of him admits he suspected it would be this way, a part he hadn't wanted to listen to.)

there's decisions delight needs to make, and he thinks he's made them. but for now he wants to partake in a moment of quiet mourning. rest in peace, you old badger, may your legacy live on.