Stone Circle Love from the other side of the apocalypse

so sorry for the wait
want.

leave.

bjarna felt the familiar plucking of her heartstrings like a saddened harp, but had everybody ever told her this? their wants before? even if it was to leave? mother bear had simply vanished. dagur too. taktuq. how many other drifting faces in her short life? sometimes they came back. other times they stayed gone.

someone had abandoned her once without a word. when she was nothing more than a bloated babe in a dark, damp den.

perhaps it was life, in a way.

she wondered if this was a kindness she was even owed. for her systir to come to her, to say these things and speak or ask. none had done so before. she sucked in a sharp breathy through a dripping nose. eyes stung with salt and ice.

systir...wahnt go?

bjarna loved her too much to keep her here if she wished for the world beyond — and could she blame her? they both seemed too young to be here forever.

but, ah—

---

i held an atlas in my lap
ran my fingers across the whole world
and whispered
where does it hurt?

note: bjarna speaks broken english at best.
icelandic will be italicized with translations on hover/click.