SorayaCorcoran

It rained on the day Mother would join the gods. Raian stood with his arms coiled around himself, a boy shivering in the cold, when he only felt like burning. His older brother shuffled alongside, rubbing his nose. Raian couldn’t tell if he was crying. Holding it in, maybe, like their father standing between them. Raian sniffled, bit his lip, and tried to stand straighter, too. A sharp wind came down from the mountains, a wind that buffeted the pines and the fires and the corners of the stark white linen wrapped around Mother’s form. It stole the funeral rites from the mouth of the elder, as if to carry the words back for the go