Hoshor Plains laid to rest [tw: death]

This was it. A part of Stephanie had known that this time was coming, but she'd taken up the art of denial and become quite skilled. The growths on her right side had become so heavy that she'd found it hard to walk; she'd spent two or three days lying in the same spot, hidden between a set of bushes and a towering oak. Initially, she'd thought about finding the sanctuary that Delight had mentioned, because if someone was willing to take care of her, she knew that she might have found more time. These hopeful thoughts only lasted for half a day, possibly less, as Stephanie realized that she had no idea where to begin looking and no energy to try.

It took a while for the hunger pains to go away. Her throat was still dry and sore, but it didn't hurt as much as the cramping. The feeling in her hind leg was gone, so that was another agony lifted from her shoulders. She'd lost the motivation to snap at the overly excited scavengers; there were some parts of her flesh that had sat open and sore from the attacks. In her last hour, Stephanie's thoughts bounced between the children she was leaving behind (though they hardly knew the difference) and their father, Delight, who had been the only and the best friend she'd had. It was hard imagining what it might be like to exist without him at least being alive, but she found peace in knowing that she'd likely never know.

Stephanie slipped into unconciousness a short while before death finally came over her. Her body lay warm and still beneath the rising sun.