Wheeling Gull Isle another roadblock in our way

This is forward-dated a few days.

The following is more of a mild trigger warning than a mature one but I wanted to be sure to include it...

Mature Content Warning

This thread has been marked as mature. By reading and/or participating in this thread, you acknowledge that you are of age or have permission from your parents to do so.

The participants have indicated the following reason(s) for this warning: suicidal ideation.

She should've turned back days ago, though how could she give up on the man she loved? And there was some part of her that believed she deserved this abject misery. She'd pushed Atlas, hadn't she? The memories of that night had begun to warp in her mind, until Meerkat remembered trying to insist he go visit the graves, despite his clear discomfiture. He'd cracked under the pressure she'd placed. She hadn't known about Osiris and Leta then, though Meerkat still couldn't stop blaming herself for triggering the breakdown which had led to Atlas's disappearance.

When she reached the bleak, frosted coastline, she eyed the waters warily and steeled herself. Forgetting there was a land bridge she could seek to make dryer passage, she waded into the frigid sea, her muzzle pointed at the island where she hoped to find Nǚwū. Maybe she'd even find Atlas or some sort of lead, though by now Meerkat had seriously begun to doubt she'd ever find him. She might never see him again.

That thought hit her like lead, weighing on her heavily. Her limbs felt sluggish as she continued pedaling them. Actually, she really couldn't feel anything at all. A sense of panic jolted through her as her survival instincts urged her to kick faster, harder, to finish her bid for Wheeling Gull's shore. But she was so tired. And so despondent. And Atlas was gone, just gone.

She stopped kicking.