i'm sorry i found you

[ not necessarily cannon because the dead can't post officially rn but had this in my head and had to get it out RIP]

It was a sound—a quiet, pained one—that drew her paws. Step by step, she drifted through the trees, each one a shade of gray with a hazy outline of prismatic color. All at once, all things were both resplendant and dull, wavering in between the beauties of life and the solace of death. It was a world she had grown accustomed to, even if it was one she barely noticed. Her days—were they days—had been marked by moments of nothingness and dreamlike revelations of her life and her family, of those that still lived.

Yet something was calling out to her here of all places. Even as she walked, drawn to it as certainly as a moth to a flame, she felt a heaviness in her heart that made her want to stop. Her mouth felt dry, her throat tight. Her eyes, even, strained as if resisting tears. Inside she felt the waves of sorrow crash and break against her heart... and yet, consciously, she could not say why.

A silvery ear flicked as the whimpering sounded again, closer now. Her steps felt more leaden. With the heart wrenching sorrow, so too did she feel something akin to love. A bittersweet, overpowering love—a feeling of being reunited, even if she knew it never should have been. Too soon.

When she saw him, she realized why.

Nestled in a bed of moss was her son, bathed in cream and copper colors, flecked with white and black. His eyes were closed yet she knew them to pink. He need not open them for her to know him for, in death and in life, she could never forget. "Ahkoris," she breathed softly, voice cracking at the end as she lowered herself onto her belly, legs suddenly weak.

Little by little, she crawled to him.

The dead could not cry and yet she felt tears wet upon her cheeks. This was no haunting, not as when she had found Sheik or Sethos. No... Ahkoris was here with her. Ahkoris was dead. Like her.

She might have imagined feeling glad to have him with her, to no longer be alone here... yet there was only sorrow and regret. There had been so much life left for him to live—so many joys to experience, those with Sybil and children of his own. But he was here. There would be none of that, no hopes or dreams to have. Simply moments of color, fragments of memories as he watched Sybil move on. As he witnessed his family try to heal from losing him a second time.

When she was close enough to touch him, she hesitated as if doing so might make his death more real... but that moment's foolishness faded quickly. He was here, and she would guide him through what she knew. She would take care of him, hold him, care for him... in death as in life, just as she had promised when he'd been born.

Gently touching her nose to his cheek, Nassar forced a thin smile. I'm so sorry I found you so soon, was the thought in her mind, yet what she said was "welcome home, little one."

fin