The Burial

Astra was crying in Valery’s arms when Flinch joined them in the comfortable cave. No words were spoken, he just joined them, held them as Astra sobbed and Valery stroked her hair gently. They shared a feeling of guilt. The guilt of a parent whose child died in their presence. A situation where they couldn’t have done anything more, but still feel that they should have.

After a while their children carefully approached, “We have prepared everything.”, Vix had stepped forward, her eyes were red from also crying. Flinch gave Astra a kiss on the forehead, then rose, “Follow me.”.

There were three graves dug on a beautiful clearing near the cave entrance. A small stream of water crossing it and it was covered in flowers, birds were chirping not too far away, and honeybees hummed through the air. Flinch couldn’t help but smile, “You picked a good place.”, then he turned to his clan, his family. “Today I have lost three sons.”, he sought Astra’s eyes, “So have you.”, then addressing the whole gathering, “You have lost three brave brothers who fought with you for the future of our clan. I will always love them; I could never forget them.”. Flinch left a small pause to let his words sink in before continuing, “Tonight we grieve together, but tomorrow our work begins anew. We have lost today, but we have also won. We have weapons and you will give me strong grandchildren. Your brothers would have wanted us to work even harder for our collective future.”.

A few of his children said some words after, mostly the direct brothers of the dead. After that they buried them with their weapons and lit a fire before each grave. It was tradition, if the father was still alive, he had to keep all the fires burning until the sun rose so his children could find their way into the afterlife. Flinch stayed all night and the fires all burned strong. Finally he had a moment to shed his own tears.