Moonspear you could turn my sorrow into song

The memory of Erzulie’s primordial cry made Njord’s eyes glassy. Sobo’s body, what was left of it, waited on the cliffs for a burial that might never come. Abandoned by his father for the final time.

An overwhelming feeling of failure joined its neighbors, sadness and shame, in Njord’s heart. The grotesque picture of Sobo’s disfigured skull was a stain he would never get out. Instead, he tried to remember Sobo as a child or the strong-looking man he had become…

The seafarer’s eyes pressed shut, willing the good images to stay.

Cold air nipped at his skin when Meerkat suddenly pulled away in surprise. Her words – their apology – overcame him. Njord reached out his paws, like an insect looking for its leaf. He needed her close or the man was certain he would crumple to the ground.

But there she was in the next moment, holding him in an embrace. Njord squeezed his precious partner close, just as tight as he had held Stingray. Meerkat understood.

Suddenly, he sucked in a breath of air, unaware he had been holding it. The frigid temperature shocked his body and he wondered if this is what babies felt when thy took their first breath of life. He felt the wetness from Meerkat’s tears in his fur. She cried for him. Njord felt hollowed out and somewhat confused. Lost.

“I would like tae make a cairn for ‘im,” the inflection of Njord’s words poised the sentence as a question, unsure if he should shackle these ghosts to Moonspear. But how else could he move ahead?