Burial

The bonding continued throughout the pack. But one thing changed my worldview.

The sussy guy was sus no more. Na, he was kinda.

I think I may have learnt a valuable lesson. Never ignore your gut instincts.

The 'I'm-gonna-rip-your-throat-out' look he kept shooting my father was definitely one of jealousy and resentment. I was completely sure of that.

Slurp.

Yep. He resented my father.

Because he didn't let him come over to play with his pups. This guy-

Slurp.

-was a big softie. He currently was affectionately licking us all the way Umma did when we became too dirty or maybe with even more ferocity as if to make up for all the times he missed spending with us since our birth. I think my fur on my head will be gone if I were to stay here any longer.

Slurp. Slurp.

So yea, my gut feeling was right but the deduction about it was wrong. I have to increase my logical analysis skills.

As I began internally monologuing about this and envisioning my escape plans from the big tongue, I heard quiet sobs coming from a distance. I turned my head with difficulty under the tongue moving at supersonic speeds and saw it.

There was a river of gold flowing slowly making its way against the blanket of the night; tearing away its fabric weave by weave with flaming lanterns.

A funeral.

Sefilina had come to us again. She came with her entourage of weeping faces. They whispered repeated prayers under their breath with reddened eyes downcast.

The procession neared and the fabric covered ones stopped a distance away while the bead decorated men kept moving towards us.

Sefilina was wrapped up in a pure shroud wound with white string and scented with musk and mist. Only her face was uncovered.

She was brought up on a palanquin to my Abbu.

Uhd lowered his self and kissed her forehead gently.

I gasped. The place he kissed turned to sprout a bud!

It softly unfurled its tendrils and bloomed into a beautiful, blue, glowing flower shedding light like a firefly.

Her male cortege lifted her again and went on their way to the end of our Rendezvous site and I saw there a grave six feet deep prepared for her.

A man, who I assumed was her father climbed into the grave and raised his hands to receive Sefilina from the palanquin. He held her close for the last time sobbing quietly for it was farewell.

The other men collected mud to throw in handful by handful by handful. They threw it in until the grave was full. Sefilina's father adjusted the earth around her until she sat straight with her face facing the sky. One of her hands were untied from the shroud and raised up.

After that, he was helped out by his brothers and they completed the grave. All that was visible was that beautiful, beautiful, blue flower marking her final resting throne.

I had missed it while they buried her.

I didn't notice till I saw Jo and Uhd talking to the Chief after the final send off prayers were done. They were glancing towards me and back to the grave repeatedly.

Uhd called me over sternly and asked me, "Nūh, did you kiss her?"

The girl?

I looked at the mound.

That blue grave flower had a smaller patch of glowing orbs beside it. As it turns out, my saliva can do the same thing as my father. It rose from her raised hand into a small, pale bunch of buds.

At that moment, all i could think of was:

''I can do abracadabra.''