Silvertip Mountain yeah, my brother went first

Technically all welcome. This is a pack activity, set for right before the yet-to-be-posted Move. Not mandatory, but Grayday hopes you will make an appearance. We will probably just do one round and then close up if no one else has anything to say. @Spiritwalker @Pema @Dauntless @Lavender @Aliac @Sylvas Streiter @Kieran Adrien @Sunny @Sorrel Marie @Shale @Aviana @Raid @Forrest

It was tradition, in Grayday's family, to wait a full moon's cycle before consigning the bones of the dead to the earth. He wished he could do that for Chaska, but there were living wolves to think about. Besides, his bones had been picked clean of all the tendons and gristle. Enough time had passed for his spirit to depart, and now it was time for the Morningsiders to depart. Before they could do that, Chaska's bones needed to be carried to their final resting place.

Grayday laid the last bone down at the base of Silvertip Mountain, wishing he could see it one last time before he left. It didn't smell the same without the pack there. Felt malicious and alien without Adeline standing beside him. He wondered if she was still with the valley pack - if she was happy now or if his memory haunted her still. She haunted him - Grayday kept her like a talisman worn close to the heart, only remembered when he shed all his armor and stood bare and vulnerable. And he was vulnerable then, laying his dear friend to rest.

"He was a good wolf," said Grayday, his voice heavy with sorrow. "I wish I'd done more for him while he was alive. But we've done this for him, and now he can rest."

 

The journey had been somber - even Catori's overwhelming joy dampened by the touch of death. When they had arrived at the mountains base she watched Grayday and when he had spoken she reached up to gently touch his cheek. She didn't know Chaska at all and the stories she had heard were mixed. The good and the bad all came together in life, it was a part of the natural order of things. 

Once they had taken the time to pay their respects Catori took her time to paint the image for him. She described everything - how the colors of the day looked on the mountain, the birds that flew overhead. Even how the wind swept up the faint dust of snow too. Eventually she was quiet and just watched and waited. When he was ready they would go. For now, they would pay their dues. 

He'd been quiet for most of the journey, musing over the body they carried with them. He hadn't known Chaska nor heard stories of him that he could recall but he felt his father's pain. He could tell his dad had been close to the wolf and that this was causing him pain. 


Sunny remembered what he had been told when he was seriously ill and everyone believed he was dying, so he stepped forward and gently touched his nose to Chaska's bone with respect before lifting his head and giving his dad a soft nudge to the shoulder. "Perhaps...in the next life, you'll see him again somehow. Maybe not like Adi said...but I do think there's something after death waiting. Maybe...he's waiting for you." he tried to be comforting and nuzzled his father before falling silent and still.

The procession was a somber one, and Shale, weighed down further by the recent loss of Burr, trudged nobly along, keeping close to Pema as they traveled. The wolves made it to the base of the mountain, where his brother placed the bones of Chaska--a wolf Shale didn't know but knew. The way Grayday spoke of him, treated his remains, Shale knew he was a man of honor, and that was all that needed to be known.

His brother looked at the mountain like Shale probably looked at Sameth: fondly, but with a touch of longing. This had once been Day's home. The events that had transpired here had marked his heart for life, and Shale would never know of all the scars endured. The man standing before him was different from the boy who'd left Sameth.

Shale dipped his muzzle, murmured a generic statement of mourning to the bones, and lifted his eyes once more, gaze first landing on Grayday, then Catori. His eyes lingered on her a bit longer. There was something infinitesimally different about her; if Shale had to venture a guess, he'd say she was pregnant. His mouth curving in the ghost of a smile, he looked over at Pema, and touched his tail-tip to her shoulder in a small, comforting gesture.

dauntless had never met chaska but he understood that the bones his father buried belonged to a friend of his father's. dauntless himself didn't have many friends, per say. his sisters counted in that group and he loops burr into the group with a heavy heart. though it feels a bit rude to him while his father mourns a lost friend, dauntless privately mourns burr, remembering what pema and him had found there — what he'd avoided seeing at first as if it might not reverse what he instinctively knew as truth. the pool of blood, the litter of intestines. it haunts him to the point that dauntless wonders if the guilt ( despite that he's aware he did nothing ) will ever fade. his private mourning session does not last long, lest it accidentally intrude upon who this ritual is really for. he lowers his eyes, more brown today than green and cups his ears forth as his father speaks. sunny's words follow shortly after and dauntless remains silent. it doesn't seem right to speak about a wolf he didn't know and so he chooses not to.

She traveled with the group to the mountain. Feeling the weight of everones emotions. Those who knew Chaska, those who felt bad for those who did, those mourning over Burr, and others. She was one of those, and even though she didn't know much of Chaska, Day's efforts and respect for his remains spoke highly of how found of him he was when he was alive. She would be interested to know how Day knew him and what influence he had over him, but that would be for another time. A time far in the future. 

She walked along side Shale, keeping his company as a comfort during this time. She wasn't sure if he knew Chaska or not, but she went up with him when he went to say his words. She bowed her head to the bones, paying respect for someone who had mean something to the ones she loved. She gave a look to Day reflecting those feelings before gently nudging him on the shoulder as she walked by. She kept her head down during this time of mourning.

No, he had not known Chaska like many others present, but a death was a tough loss that had clearly struck the heart of Grayday. Kieran had seen death, he recalled it clearly - his mother's limp body, coated in bitter snow like a frozen grave to mark her absence from that life. She had left him when he was very young, and perhaps the worst part of it all was none of the Streiter's knew what had happened to her. She was just... dead when they found her. A deep frown had curled the youth's lips downward, feeling the heavy air upon his shoulders like a weight. Death was something none could escape from, but that knowledge did very little to ease the sorrow.

Kieran remained silent, respect for the lost man glowing in his foresty eyes - he may not have known Chaska, but if Grayday had cared for him so, then he was someone the young hunter would also respect.

Grayday said a quiet prayer, thanking the Authors for throwing he and Chaska together when they did. He'd been a dear friend, and although Grayday could not claim that he would miss him - he had spent far too much time out of Chaska's company for that - he had been impacted by having had Chaska in his life, and he was sorry that the male would not be there for others down the road. The world had lost much with Chaska's death.

Then he straightened and nuzzled his wife, thankful for her steady support.

"Let's go home and hunt," he suggested, a sad smile crossing his face. Life, after all, did not stop to pay respect to the dead. The best the could do was celebrate that their stories had not yet ended.