Graveside

Pip and Urukha invited me to attend an intimate ceremony to recognize the birth and death of Pip’s “tusker.” I understand this to be a derogatory term for an adult troll but an endearing one for a child.

This specific child was the product of Pip’s previous union with Chopsie. He was stillborn, never seeing his first day. Understandably this causes anxiety for them, and Urukha has adopted the unborn child as hers despite any lingering resentment toward Pip’s prior lifemate. They gave him the name Bro’din, after Pip’s brother.

The gathering was presided over by the Shadow Weaver of the Tribe, Kazak’guul. He uttered various chants and allowed Pip to speak to her child with all the words she could fit into one breath. The grave itself was well maintained and had many toys and other offerings around it. I had wanted to bring a gift as well, but was told by both Urukha and Kazak’guul not to. Yet the ceremony seemed to fulfill its intent. To preserve a sense of the relationship with the tusker.

It is certainly helpful to have a space set aside for this, for any departed loved one. But in my case the space is for a departed enemy  anathema. The purpose of my traveling to the windmills months ago was to change or even sever the relationship long after Viere’s death. And I appreciated not being there alone.

It also causes me to wonder if I was ever given a space like this after death. And whether it is still tended in some fashion by someone who did not know what happened after.

 I do not think it is so.