Last year after LongNight he had planted a memorial garden for Isla in the fields. Caiside had led him to the place where she had fallen and had helped him to prepare the earth with soil from the Oasis. Side by side they had planted medicinal herbs and flowers and set the memorial plaque into the earth to honor her name. She had been his friend and guildmate, his mentor in the healing arts and a rock of stability in turbulent times.
Until, in the middle of LongNight... she wasn't anymore.
Now it was Caiside who needed a memorial, another friend and guildmate lost to the dark. The bard knew exactly where his friend had fallen, but the Guild had burned to the ground, and Caiside's body with it. There was no point in planting a memorial outside the ruined and gutted structure, but he hoped that Isla wouldn't mind sharing her space with the fiery smith, however different they had been as people.
This year Jigano had come alone, though he had left a note in the Guildhall letting the others know where he was in case they would want to join him in paying respects to their dead. He had used his horse form to draw a small cart filled with black dirt from the Greatwood, and a small jar of ashes gathered from the fallen guild served as the memory for Caiside. It was a small and lonely ceremony, simple and singular. He wished he could have planted volcanettes to honor both of them, but lacking those he had brought bulbs and seeds of orange and yellow tulips, red dahlias, striped marigolds, and fiery-petaled alstroemerias to plant among the herbs to honor another fallen friend.
Shaking free of the harness as he shifted back to his human form he reached up to stroke Isuma's soft head as she landed on his shoulder, then reached for the shovel in the wagon to begin turning the softening earth and preparing it for the planting to come.
Until, in the middle of LongNight... she wasn't anymore.
Now it was Caiside who needed a memorial, another friend and guildmate lost to the dark. The bard knew exactly where his friend had fallen, but the Guild had burned to the ground, and Caiside's body with it. There was no point in planting a memorial outside the ruined and gutted structure, but he hoped that Isla wouldn't mind sharing her space with the fiery smith, however different they had been as people.
This year Jigano had come alone, though he had left a note in the Guildhall letting the others know where he was in case they would want to join him in paying respects to their dead. He had used his horse form to draw a small cart filled with black dirt from the Greatwood, and a small jar of ashes gathered from the fallen guild served as the memory for Caiside. It was a small and lonely ceremony, simple and singular. He wished he could have planted volcanettes to honor both of them, but lacking those he had brought bulbs and seeds of orange and yellow tulips, red dahlias, striped marigolds, and fiery-petaled alstroemerias to plant among the herbs to honor another fallen friend.
Shaking free of the harness as he shifted back to his human form he reached up to stroke Isuma's soft head as she landed on his shoulder, then reached for the shovel in the wagon to begin turning the softening earth and preparing it for the planting to come.
