Broken Antler Fen Breaking the fourth wall

thank you wraen, for challenging arthur and being such a wonderful thread partner these years. <3

the day wraen died, a little of arcturus went too.

he had seen with his own eyes wraen's gradual decline. when they had first embarked from the copse all these months ago, wraen had seemed slower. they rested more often. he remembered looking at her carefully under the eaves of a greyed tree at the sentinels, thinking when had she gotten so old?

and he had chased that ugly thought away with snarls and teeth -- no, he mustn't think it.

wraen had told him many times she was aging, slowing down -- but arcturus dismissed it. he couldn't let it be true; he couldn't lose the best thing he'd ever found.

but in the end, he lost wraen anyway. not to some other guy, not to some great catastrophe -- but to slow and gradual rot.

it felt unfair.

futile as his attempts had been to reconcile the ugly truth with his dwindling happiness, arcturus knew one day that day would come. death opened a door wraen stepped through lightly, while life and the living tied arcturus heavily to the other side.

he'd known in that intuitive way she was gone when he saw her by the hillock. her greying fur dappled by little motes of sunlight through tall trees which blissfully swayed in the breeze. his steps were slow and leaden as he came to her. she was resting her head on her paws. peaceful -- she was gone, and he was still here -- and the world was slipping further and further away...

it wasn't fair. how could his friend be stolen by the cruelest injustice of all -- the failure of her body while her mind was still sharp as ever? it wasn't right.

he made no effort to stop the tears which wet his muzzle and stung his eyes. "oh, wraen..." the lost boy scarcely whispered, looking down at the body that had once hosted a soul so special it had changed the trajectory of his life forever.

no happy ending here for arcturus; no new adventure to choose from with friends.

just him, alive, and wraen, dead -- while the world buzzed on as if she'd never been here at all.