Panteran Burial

"D–do you feel fine?" 

Aeneas tried to speak with the girl who just woke up. But, after blinking several times, the girl became frantic as she tried to look for her dagger strapped around her waist. Waking up in an unknown place made her succumb to panic. Yelling out for her mother with unstable breathing. The clothes she's wearing appear big even though it was in smaller sizes when it comes to clothing for teens.

"Hey, it's me. Remember?" Aeneas said as he slowly approached the girl curled up at the edge of the bed, the side that was touching the wall. She was growling like a wild animal.

"Don't you remember me? You don't need to be afraid, you're safe."

Tiriara tried to come closer as well, but when the girl saw her she growled louder, so Aeneas requested for Tiriara to back off a bit.

After a while, the girl gradually became calm. She remembered Aeneas and approached him slowly. Then, her eyes widened, "Mother? Where mother?" she blurted.

Aeneas opened his mouth but couldn't utter another word. The girl went closer to him, grabbed the boy in the arms and shook him, "Where mother? Where?" she kept saying aloud.

The boy felt his heart broke, "She… she's gone," he muttered.

"Gone? Gone where?" The girl asked, her eyes were longing as she pictured the image of her mother.

It was difficult for Aeneas to bring the news to her, his face kept twitching as he tried his best to be calm.

"She died."

Death isn't a foreign concept for the girl, she's seen too much of it back in the facility where she was kept prisoner. She knows it means that she wouldn't be able to see her mother's smile again, nor hear her soothing voice.

What came next was the wailing of the silver-haired girl. Her cries were akin to that of a dying animal. It was weird and sounded almost not human to both Aeneas and Tiriara. Uncanny, yet, it was the most heartbreaking cry the two had ever heard in their life. 

The girl leaned her weakened head to Aeneas's chest while she cried. Aeneas let her pour her heart out, meanwhile, Tiriara was also bawling behind them. The food at the short table has gone cold, yet, the girl's cries don't seem to be ending any time soon.

Lyra appeared in the opened door. She had a smile on her way to the room but became teary-eyed when she marveled at the heartbreaking scene.

Almost twenty minutes after the girl started bawling, she had lost the energy she'd regained after resting and couldn't make any sound, rather, she was sniffing while tears still fell from her eyes. However, her stomach didn't care for her despair as it released a loud rumbling sound.

Aeneas wiped the tears that formed in his eyes, "You should eat," he said.

"Not hungry," the girl replied. Her voice was weak. And her stomach contradicted her words with another growl.

The boy grabbed her in the arms, and pushed her to make eye contact, "Your mother's death would be in vain if you die because you don't want to eat," he said. His stern voice and expression pushed some sense into her stubbornness.

Still sniffing her tears away, "Mother… where body?" the girl asked Aeneas.

Lyra entered the room. The three kids were quite startled, they didn't notice her standing in front of the room for a couple of minutes.

"Your mother is in a vacant room in the house next to ours," Lyra said. The house she was pointing at was the barracks where most of the knight's slept. It has many vacant rooms.

The girl kept repeating that she wanted to see her mother. It was a request that no one could reject. Lyra was about to guide her to her deceased mother when Aeneas told the girl that she must eat first before he allowed her to see her mother.

"No!" the girl shouted. No one knew where the girl pulled the energy to shout when her voice couldn't even manifest just seconds ago.

Still with a stern expression and voice, "Do you think she'll be happy to hear your stomach grumble? She asked me to look after you, I won't allow you to see her if you don't eat." Aeneas said.

The girl bit her lower lip, her eyes took a glimpse of the food already set on the short wooden table. It made her gulp, and her stomach grumbled once again.

"Okay," the girl muttered. She removed Aeneas's grasp and went to the food at the table with haste. Lyra stopped her and told her to come to the dining area so she could eat a warm serving. The girl looked at Aeneas, who nodded at her. Then, she pulled Aeneas's shirt signaling him to come with her.

At the dining table, everyone watched the girl eat with much gusto. The faces of the onlookers were smothered with a wistful smile. They were still interested in the unique coloration of the girl's hair, but they let her be and sympathized more with her situation. Beside the girl was Aeneas and Tiriara who continued eating their reheated meal.

Munching, the girl kept glancing at everyone that was looking at her. Her trust was only towards the boy her mother told her to rely on. She also kept peeking at Aeneas.

"So, what's your name?" Tiriara asked with a grin.

The girl stared at her, while still gulping everything she could put her hands on the dinner table.

"Neoma," the girl answered.

Tiriara repeated her name like a parrot. Then, she asked another question about the girl's origin and why they were being chased by the two Aakdani soldiers.

"Prison," Neoma answered.

Her answer made most of the people at the table gulp. They thought of reasons why the girl would be in such a place. On the other hand, Tiriara was saddened and asked another. 

"How old are you?"

Neoma looked up, and she started counting with her fingers, "Mother say eleven," she said.

Tiriara's questions didn't stop there. She then asked Neoma why he speaks the way she does even though she's already eleven. Neoma was confused and replied with a blank stare.

Lyra was sitting on the side of the table opposite them. She was the one serving Neoma with drinks and other foods she couldn't reach herself.

After eating, Lyra, Aeneas, and Tiriara came with Neoma to the barracks. Her mother was in the room close to the entrance where some of Arsen's knights remained awake and stood guard. Tereus manned the gate at the back of the manor, leading to the lake. He was insistent on doing it even though Arsen told him to rest, and that Aakdani soldiers wouldn't be stupid enough to trespass again. Doing so would lead to an unavoidable war.

Inside the room, Neoma cried her eyes out once again the moment she laid them towards her mother's lifeless body surrounded by beautiful flowers that helped shun away any kinds of insects. She kneeled beside the bed, holding her mother's hand.

The three who accompanied her watched for a bit before Lyra told both Aeneas and Tiriara to leave Neoma alone for a few minutes. Though they only stepped a bit further from the opened door of the room.

After a while, Neoma went out. She was sniffing while wiping her tears. Swelling around her eyes from too much crying was visible even from a good distance.

"Do you want to bury her around our house?" Lyra asked.

Neoma nodded in response. She pulled Aeneas by the shirt and went towards her deceased mother. Then, her eyes glimmer with a bluish light as she tries to lift her mother's upper body.

"Wait!" Aeneas exclaimed, "You want to do it now?" he asked.

"Yes. Mother rest." 

Aeneas turned to Lyra who was also befuddled with Neoma's sudden action. She said to wait for her, she would ask some of Arsen's knights to help.

It was ten in the evening. The moon was full, shining its light onto Nusterra's lands. A moonlit scenery was everywhere, yet, it was more felt at the backyard of the Caspius manor where a funeral was being held. Arsen's knights laid the body of Neoma's mother inside the hole they dug up. The people of Pantera believe that the deceased should be buried in the ground where their body is covered with the soil, and be a part of the circle of life.

She was a stranger whose name was unknown to them. But, everyone in the Caspius manor was present. Grieving with the pitiful child she's left behind. After one last look at her mother, Neoma nodded to Aeneas, who then looked at his brother to tell the knights to begin covering her up with the soil. While they were doing so, the others paid their respects, showing the Panteran bow the entire time. Neoma saw Aeneas do it and copied him.

After Neoma's mother was completely buried, Tiriara asked what flower they should put atop her grave. Placing a plant on top of the soil where the deceased loved one is buried is one of Pantera's traditions. The kind of plant could be anything that symbolizes what they felt for the deceased or what they think she signified when she was still alive.

Since it was a sudden funeral, no one thought about it. Neoma was also foreign to the concept. Then, Aeneas remembered about the moonflower he saw. He pleaded with Arsen to allow him to take it. Arsen agreed but he was to go with three of the knights. Tereus, Donos, and Rhene accompanied him. Tiriara also wanted to come, and Neoma didn't want to be anywhere without Aeneas.

Almost half an hour later, Aeneas and the others returned with the flower in his hand. It hid itself in an oblong and seed-like shell made of hardened thick vines and was the size of a baby's head. 

Aeneas told Neoma to plant it. Then, after a while, the moonflower emerged. It opened its silver petals and glimmered under the moonlight.