Blacktail Deer Plateau coming for to carry you home

I'm going to fade to black...

Peregrine was peripherally aware of those that came and went during the long funeral march. Yet he paid no attention to anybody else now. He considered only the bundle in his jaws. For a long time, he focused on the fantasy wherein he carried a younger and decidedly more alive puppy. The effort gave him a headache before drifting away shortly before they arrived at Pied's burial site. As reality came washing in like a dirty tide, he felt as if the grief would crush him.

He barely looked around to see who was in attendance. He gently set his precious cargo on the ground and began to dig a tragically small grave for his daughter's earthly remains. He did not toil alone, he knew, but Peregrine couldn't even manage to figure out who assisted him. The task did not take very long and when it was finished, the father finally stepped back, bowed his head and stood there for what could have been minutes, hours, days, years... a timelessly eternal span of sorrow.