King Elk Forest good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter

me: this is so touching and heart breaking
delight:

what the fuck. 

anatha's arrival and subsequent statement confirm what delight already knows. it's an out of body experience, watching himself watch cicero and his children, their touching exchanges rendered unreal. he doesn't know them, he shouldn't be a witness to this, it's a contextless death, how does he file it? how does he weave it into the story? every moment is part of tindómë's history and yet set apart from it, interlopers turned significant.

even if cicero had acquiesced to his question the androgyne would not have been able to call for malice, frozen where he's standing, paws like ice. numbly he realises this is, despite everything, the first time he has witnessed death happen before his eyes. the words the father and sons exchange are not his to remember to keep to know, the details slipping, and disassociation is good for granting privacy if nothing else.

the final spasm of cicero's body unsticks him from his frozen state, coming back into himself a little. his eyes are wet inexplicably. he takes a deep shuddering breath, looking first at anatha and then at the children. the children who are tindómë's now, delight supposes: he is not going to let these sad orphans off into the wilds to starve. they need to bury the body but he hesitates, not wanting to step on their mourning, and desperately casts a glance to anatha (what do i do?)