Dragoncrest Cliffs On pathway to the stars

It started with a bright, flaming ball at the side of Merlin's sight, twirling and twisting and not going away, regardless of whether he kept his eyes shut or open. Whether he slept or lay awoke. Then it exploded in thousands of little, dazzling, dancing lights and were accompanied by the worst of headaches he had had yet. The pressure inside his skull was so intense, it felt as if it was about to split open. Merlin whined in pain and pressed his hurting head against all solid surfaces he could find, wishing for the pain to go away. 

It is hard to say, whether it did or maybe stayed the same, but transformed into something entirely different. A kaleidoscope of shapes and colours whirled before Merlin's eyes, as he lied nearly motionless on the cold floor of the cave he had hid himself in, eyes wide open and fear-stricken. The vivid hallucinations were not entirely harmless, they had a strangely obssessive (for the lack of a better word) quality about them. Just as he had not been able to will away the pain, they kept coming at him again and again, and he had no control over it. His damaged and long-suffering brain appeared to have finally taken life of its own, regardless of the main resident within. 

Then those chaotic and irregular images came to a halt, changed somewhat and suddenly the reality he had been in was washed away and he was left in a world, where beneath him an endless dark ocean rolled its waves soundlessly and above him bright against the midnight blue was the stary realm. Cautiously he got to his feet and began walking, looking around, listening and wondering. His heartbeat was the only other sound here and he got a notion that besides him no one else was here. Having always felt lonely in the crowd and at the same time overwhelmed by the people, it was soothing.

A tinkling, metallic noise made him look up and much to his surprise he saw the Spider God again, walking among stars, weaving its web and humming to himself. A soft singing voice made him look down and there, just beneath the surface of the water he saw the most beautiful creature, peering back at him kindly, smiling warmly and following. He looked at her, mesmerized and with longing. Her face felt familiar, known and seen an eternity ago, he thought he should have been able to put a name to it, but try as he could, he wasn't able to. And altogether this vision was missing something and he was unable to pinpoint, what it was exactly. 

Merlin turned his attention back to the spider and it seemed that this time the Celestial had taken notice of him. It turned his eight-eyed gaze looked at him for a long moment and then reached down that one spindly leg of his and, before the boy could say or do anything, he pierced his chest and reached in to the very place, where his soul resided. The same moment the water nymph broke through the surface and with a loud roar "MINE!" grabbed him and began to pull him under. 

Their fight over, who was going to claim this spirit, lasted only seconds, though to Merlin it felt like an eternity, then something within him broke and shattered. Part of him was dragged in the dark depths of the ocean, the other - shining and glowing brightly, free of the form that its shell had shaped for him, free of pain and troubles of the mortal world lied in the Spider's hand. He regarded it for a moment carefully and having finally decided, where its place would be, he reached up and put it among the rest of the stars in his kingdom. Then he moved on.

xxx

Early in the morning the ocean washed up the broken and cold body that had once been Merlin's. It seemed that in his daze he had lost his path and fell down the cliffs. Or just maybe the godess of the ocean unsatisfied by the meager offering of her servant had thrown it away.

Let me know if this isn’t okay. <3

He caught sight of it on the shore. Something the sea spat up in a crash of waves. Typically, he was thankful when the sea provided. It had provided him meals, it had provided shelter, and it had given him a brand new start.

Today it provided a taste of breaking in his heart. An ill sensation.

The fur did not belong to a sleek seal, there were no scales for it to be an unusual fish. The longer he stared the less mistaken he could be about the shape.

It was lupine.

It was Merlin.

Was.

Whatever had been of the man seemed as if it had been taken by the sea. His body broken, he vividly was not the man Eadwulf had told tales to on the cliffs. He had not been much closer to the man than that. That did not soften the blow of seeing a deceased pack mate along the shores of their home.

He thought briefly of Erzulie and the children at her side. How none in that den should be witness to what was awashed that morning. Then it dawned on him with a deep dread.

It seemed life had been exchanged.

He had not come close enough to touch the body yet. He was not even sure if he should. Perhaps somebody else knew better where he should be laid.

Regardless, he tipped his head back with a low mournful song in his throat. A discovery had been made. A grim discovery of lost life.

when eadwulf's voice rose, erzulie started from where she had been sleeping among her four. 
dread curled in her belly; the obsidian did not want to go to the sounder of the knell, but shook herself free all the same. she called for clementine and arcelia again, dazed by how much the first girl had grown, until she was child no longer.
erzulie stumbled along the coastline in the direction of the man's call, swallowing gravely. a great sense of dread gripped her, along with the instinctual knowledge that she should not be so far from her cubs right now.
but go she did, finding her step as a horrible realization washed over her.
merlin, washed against the stones after the sea had taken his breath.
tears stung her eyes, and she went to him at once, moving dreamfully beyond eadwulf to nose through the sodden scarlet fur.
"we should move him."
the words caught in her throat.
rosencrantz. kaertok. raleska. merlin.
another grave for their growing yard.

He wished to stop her, to herd her back towards the den, but it was not his place. He only grit his teeth with grim concern as she nosed through the fur of Merlin's sea washed body.

Cautiously he neared Erzulie's side, leaned into her if she would accept it. Silent support for a moment as he considered her words. Considered the weight of everything.

I will move him. Before anything happens. Before —

Rot.

Disease.

The sea reclaimed him.

The million horrible outcomes that came with someone laid passed upon the sands.

Tell me where.

His voice hushed through it all.

eadwulf pressed close. erzulie swallowed.
"he gave me daughters dis year."
staring at his red fur until it blurred and became little else than a sea of blood spreading before eyes that now closed.
she wanted him with the others.
"de vista."
she wanted to help, but she did not think that eadwulf would allow it, and this time; this time she would allow herself to be forbidden.
"he will be wid de ot'er t'ree now."
voice hoarsened, exhausted.

Njord heard Eadwulf’s alarm across Dragoncrest and made haste towards the beach. When we arrived, the young man and their goldspun captain stood over a misshapen form – sunken in and waterlogged like most things that washed ashore. As he trotted closer he could see the twist in the Erzulie’s features… the way the Beryl craned his neck in despair, pressing against the queen in comfort… and the messy red fur of the flotsam.

Immediately Njord’s stomach sunk to the floor and a nauseating punch of adrenaline made his head spin. Njord stopped dead in his tracks – not wanting to believe the scene he happened upon – until the smallest shift of Eadwulf revealed Merlin’s freckled face in the sand.

“Merlin!!” Njord rushed up besides Eadwulf and Erzulie, eyes racking to try and grasp what force had taken their zesty friend before his time. He held his breath… hoping to see some response of life… but it was very clear that any spark had left the body.

His mouth felt dry, brain flatlined as comprehension eluded the islander. Next came the crushing grief… even greater than when Rosencrantz had passed. His blue eyes flicked up to Erzulie and then to Eadwulf as if to ask how this could possibly be… but the sadness in the queen’s eyes made his lip stiffen. If Eadwulf was to move the body then he would aid as a reticent pallbearer while quietly reflecting on the many special moments he had shared with Merlin.

Erzulie's words would haunt him. That much he knew. The declaration of the fact that he had left behind children, whether he had known such or not. Some part of him had been left behind in his passing.

He wished he had buried the body before he had called.

If only to shield those near him from the haunting image of what had become of Merlin. No longer the bright man he had shared stories with.

The sea had washed him out like a smoothed stone.

Yet this was important too. For grief, for knowledge.

Even as his gut twisted with the called name. Eadwulf would not have been able to do the man justice had he handled the situation silently. He would not have known to pick the vista, or had anything deeply powerful to mumble to the deceased.

Please, He mumbled softly to Njord, a summons for help with the tasks. They could handle the moving and digging. Although he would not stop Erzulie from following along, he also knew that there were present lives that required her.

<3

erzulie supposed, belatedly, that she should not have been here.
the obsidian allowed herself to be compelled away, at last. she stepped back from the pair, grateful for their strength and presence of mind. who knew what had persuaded her away from the newborns? she would not — she hoped — be caught so horribly negligent again.
oh, merlin.
the seawife turned and returned to her densite, to her children, to rosalyn.
she would raise his daughters in the manner of sapphique, she knew, but more than that, with the knowledge even to herself that the man chosen had been a good heart.

Please, asked Eadwulf. Njord met the other man’s gaze and exchanged a troubled, sad look. “Aye…” he agreed as their queen slipped away. The Ruby gave a small nod as he held his breath and grasped the lifeless body of his friend. Merlin’s fur was damp and salt-soaked, skin cold as ocean water. His eyes focused on the path which led away from the beach, too afraid to look down and lose control of all emotion.

He would wait for the other pallbearer to fix his grip, and together they would heave him up to the vista where Rosencrantz, Kaertok, and Raleska eternally slumbered. Njord realized that Eadwulf had not been a crewmember of Sapphique when Shardik, the bear, had assaulted their pack. He wondered if the young man had ever happened upon the cliff-side gravesite.

Carefully, thoughtfully, he would help bear the weight of Merlin. Cautiously he would transport the man with Njord.

If he had ever been the graveyard before, he had not been aware that that was what it had been made.

Yet now he knew. Now he would lay someone to rest next to three others he did not know. Tragedy in the grounds of Sapphique.

They would need to dig, but before he could even think of such, words tumbled free from him.

I told him a story of one who became a bright star. He managed out in gravel tones.

I like to hope he is one now, too.

They laid him on the sandy soil of the cliffside, adjacent to the graves of their old kin. Njord’s sad eyes drifted from Merlin’s silent corpse to the mound where Rosencrantz laid… and then to Kaertok, and besides him: Raleska. They had place three small mounds of stone to mark their final resting places… but by now, with summer’s renewal, tall grass and moss obscured them.

Lost in a sea of feelings, Njord almost didn’t hear Eadwulf’s soft and somber voice. I told him a story of one who became a bright star. I like to hope he is one now, too, the larger man said (the Beryl’s skeletal markings made him look especially grim). It was a romantic and whimsical thought – one Njord couldn’t quite believe. Despite this, he would not discourage Eadwulf’s hopeful thinking.

“Aye… we can only hope we all become stars in tha end. The dark earth… that’s ‘ardly a place for a wolf to sleep forever.” A sigh hissed between the seafarer’s teeth, defeated but hoping Merlin had not suffered long before his demise. “We’ve lost others before,” Njord explained, motioning to the  headstones. “A bear.”

He began, with a great mental effort, to excavate the soil. “Merlin… ‘e was one of tha good ones. My friend. My ally. I convinced ‘im ta join Sapphique…” his mind wandered and considered that, maybe, he was the reason for the red head’s premature death.

Njord exchanged stories with Eadwulf as they dug until the sun began to set. They laid Merlin's lifeless body into the earth and buried him, piling a small cairn of stone to mark the grave. The seafarer sang a sad funeral dirge before excusing himself. He retreated to his den to grieve alone, bereft that his friend had moved on from this Earth so soon.