In Memoriam

this is an extension/extended epilogue/addendum of "stolid", featuring multiple of its characters as well as spoilers from during and after the story so go read that first if you want

I
Despite the constant advancements in everyday technology, Papermoon is almost certain that society is going backwards.

His first and only point of evidence is the fact that, despite being assigned a mission "of utmost importance," it had taken the government about a week to provide transportation. The trip would have taken no time at all after that, for his driver and companion Ghost has a gift for breakneck speeds somewhat endangering to a fennec fox's wellbeing, but much of the main road was inaccessible due to unattended debris from landslides, so the pair were frequently forced to take unpleasant detours through uncleared land.

It was the government's fault again. They had promised to clear away everything the phantoms had spilled in the chain of final battles in the aftermath of the Phantom Fortress and its destruction, but little to no effort had been made on the path towards Grand Ravine. Papermoon often complains about how the government is doing nothing, and how they are trying to take life easy. Papermoon does not think the government can afford to take life easy.

Papermoon lifts the reins with the paw clutching them to scratch at his neck. His eyes narrow. A year after the destruction of the Phantom Fortress and the beginning and end of the oddest mission he had ever been on, and six months after the official end of the war, and the phantoms' presence was still being felt. The government's fault, mostly.

Now, as the first streak of dawn light peers over the lowest mountaintop, Ghost halts upon a slope overlooking the Ravine and its communities. Papermoon's eyes lift towards the sight, and a not-so-unfamiliar feeling trickles into the cracks of his mind. He assumed he had patched them up significantly, and yet he meanders towards that memory, the one where a clydesdale horse clomps slowly down the winding path of the smooth cliffside as the sun rises slowly over that old, reddened land, a most peculiar cougar sitting beside him, a chill ruffling his fur in their descent. Outside of that memory but in that same time frame there was a child, a coyote, setting up shop in the marketplace of his hometown. Pin.

Papermoon blinks the memory away. He is grateful that they are not going directly to Pin on this trip. Valerian Sleepwalker, who sent them on the mission, has taken great care to steer their official route away from that village. Sleepwalker is not the one who most understands Papermoon's pain--that person would also be the one whose pain is greater than his-- but they are the only one reachable who does to some extent.

In this cold hour of morning, Ghost is all the more grateful for Papermoon's silence, after several hours of government-themed, one-sided debate. Despite being in a draft-and-worker partnership with Papermoon for a year now, Ghost is still uncertain about his opinions and often wonders why Papermoon is still choosing to work for what he apparently despises more than anything else.

The wagon's wheels creak as Ghost resumes his pace.

Papermoon thinks to the Siege of the Ravine and then to the funeral that he couldn't attend. He knows where it was, and his words lodge in his throat for a moment. His voice presses on, finally breaking through, crackling and wobbling:

"Ghost, do we have time for a quick stop--" he points towards a place in the eastern part of the Ravine, towards where the mountains break into eastern coast, and where the sun rises slowly into the sky. "--over there?"

Ghost doesn't say anything. He knows that Sleepwalker's route purposefully veers away from that spot, but it would be far quicker in the long run towards their destination to stop there than to avoid it.

"Hey!" Papermoon shakes the reins, his usual irritable impatience having returned. "Do we?"

"Yeah." Ghost squints in the growing sunlight. He could use a nap. "We don't have any flowers, though."

Papermoon falls into a brooding silence. He scowls down at the side of the road. "Stop the wagon for a second. I see some."

By the time he finds his accumulation sufficient and the wagon, now off the cliff and on flat land, continues its now-modified route, the sun is rising.

The land is perfectly suited for the sabertooth's power. Papermoon grips the side of the seat and Ghost begins to run.

Later, when they cross the bridge over the Ravine and Papermoon leaves the cliffside flowers on Marigold's grave, he studies the cottonwood sapling, the only marking of the grave's existence. The only headstone he can see is a thick slab of carved bark leaned against the tree. It has no words and no markings save for a drawing, claw-on-wood, of a coyote looking towards the sunrise.

II
wip haha not for long i finish by monday hopefully