Neverwinter Forest qitiġusianikpata

It took a surprising amount of time for the pathmaker to finally reach the drowned girl. By the time his teeth found the scruff of her neck, he had exhausted every ounce of strength in his body. Her figure was weightless, gilded with sunlight cast through the dark water even to the very base of the lake. She looked as though the gods had wrapped her in their gentle hands and carried her away - somewhere peaceful, somewhere that she would not worry.

And Kannoyak did not know it in the same way that Ariadne had. When the water filled his lungs, replacing the last breath of air he had sucked in desperately on the surface, it was not with the realization that he might never see the sun or earth or clouded sky.

When Kannoyak faded from life, he thought only of the path that Ariadne had carved - a confident trail through the folds of his heart. Perhaps it was a blessing, to die so close to one he cared about. A shame, that he had never told her with the full force of his beating heart.

The cotton grass man pressed his lips to hers. A final parting. The rich plum of his eyes remained open and fixed on his moongirl’s beautiful face.

Death felt curiously close to peace. And so he embraced it.