Role

Chapter 17

The apparition's movement north barely registered amidst Aurew's renewed
sorrow, but once it did, she knew. Her own canine form bolted upright and
followed the ghostly dog into the Cathedral of Loss, joy propelling her
own tail and body into a wiggly, bouncy spring.

Aurew and Audune frolicked and played as only two cooshees can. She spoke
with him as she never could before, in the language of his people.

"My dear old friend, how do you fare in the afterworld?"

Audune was confused by this question.

"Afterworld? I watch you! I always watch you!"

Aurew nearly burst as reassurance and comfort washed over her; the notion
that Audune's spirit watched over her was something she had secretly hoped
but not expected. It also made her realize how lonely her existence had
become.

"I miss you so much, Audune. Nobody understands me like you do."

Cooshees being cooshees of course, Audune did not want to sit down and have
a heart to heart conversation about Aurew's struggles. He wanted to play! And
so she obliged him. They chased each other around the Cathedral for hours,
until he proposed they go back to the Vale to continue their adventures.

That first step into the foggy shallows, nothing seemed amiss. Then Audune
stopped abruptly.

"You cannot go, can you," Aurew barked to him.

He began to sink down into the water, paddling wildly in a struggle to stay
above the surface. But he couldn't stay. She knew he couldn't. And he sank,
disappearing like the setting sun for which he was named.

Aurew shoved her own muzzle into the water, rooting around in the cold, black
waters but knew she would find nothing. Alone again, she returned to her two-
legged shape and stood in the fog, taking in the bittersweetness of the event.

"It was good to see you old friend. However briefly."

Aurew stayed until the sun dipped below the horizon and trudged away.