Neverwinter Forest kiiksiugun ⊎

Beneath the surface Kigipigak stared at his dead wife and the man, presumably her new lover; he hurt in ways he could not identify, and felt himself begin to choke. He knew he needed to surface - and he knew he could not go away empty. So in this frozen, mechanical, dissociative way, he grabbed for the nearest body and dragged. Kicked. Fought the water and made himself go towards the light above.

Kigipigak pulled the body of the man to the shore and that was where he collapsed, heaving breaths. His legs no longer kept him upright. The earth collided with him and he gasped, and he coughed, and maybe he cried, but the lake had saturated him enough to hide it.

There in the lake sat Ariadne. The red glow grew, if only because Aiolos was doing what needed to be done. Kigipigak could not help the hope that sprouted as he stared blankly across the lake - that she might take a breath and live, that this was not happening. Whatever solidity he had found in his beliefs of self-power were utterly shaken; and so too were his doubts about those spirits of the Moon tribes.

He watched the water for father and daughter, and prayed, and wished someone could fix this, because he was powerless to do it himself. The man's body stagnated beside him; warmed by the sun now, but solid, and cold, and empty in a way that Kigipigak somehow could identify with.