Last Rites of a Lost Traveler

[Kalrenath]

Silverwood Forest Outpost, nightfall, third-day, second tenday of Marpenoth:

The Knights-in-arms in Silver watch as the latest addition to the patrol route staggers up, head bowed as the body of a fallen elf weighs down on his shoulders. The young man looks up with a grim set to the drawn lines of his face, greeting the men with a weary gaze and a swift fist-to-heart gesture. His features, notably the dark circles under his eyes and the pale cast of his skin in the moonlight, portray the convalescence of a man only recently returning from a brush with death. He sets the body down at the foot of a tree, enters the tower, and returns with a shovel.

A few hours later, around 11 bells.

The figure of the young man finishes packing the dirt over the the nameless elf's body in the ground, with some effort. After taking a long moment to regain his breath and his composure, he stands silhouetted against the moonlight, eyes closed and head bowed slightly in meditation, over the freshly dug gravesite. another period of slience passes before soft-spoken words carry on the wind to the silent watchers of the bridge.

"O traveler, set upon while wandering the Silverwood's ill-traveled road alone, may you be at peace now with the First of the Seldarine, and may you know no more hardship, struggle and pain.

Death is not an ending, but another beginning; not a punishment, but a necessity; one door closes and another opens.

May you bring honor to your people, in the afterlife, as your deeds and strivings have helped bring Faerun to what it is now.

May your loved ones take comfort in the knowledge that you have moved on to the endless boughs and laughing streams of Arvandor, and have faith that you will meet again once more, along the endless echoes of eternity's road.

Rest well knowing that I will strive to keep your resting place free from the depredations of any undead scourge, as I have the will to breathe still left in me.

To forget the dead is to forget where we are now, and why. With this act i help shepherd your body back to the natural world all around us, where the order of all things will lead it into the cycle of renewal. Rest easy, ye of good heart."

Plants his longsword at the head of the grave, and leans his shield and spear against it as he prepares to stand watch over the unmarked grave for the rest of the night.





Silverwood Forest Outpost, daybreak, fourth-day, second tenday of Marpenoth:

Watches the dawn break over the desolate outpost with grim pride as he rejoins the ranks of the watchers vigilant.



((OOC: This was for whoever played Elithrandur Mel'feyn, whose body i found sprawled across the Silverwood Forest trail last night. Sorry mate. ))

[Brother Humphrey]

((OOC: Well written. Worth a bonk, imho. As for Elithrandur, I grieve with you, man. Better luck with your next alter-ego))