In the end, it was with dignity and courage that the two siblings had taken it upon themselves to honour the fallen. While this had initially proven difficult and a touch unpleasant, both Ymir and Thrymr found their stride and the fallen soon began to move from within the caverns, to the world outside once more. Though the graves were yet to be dug it was the first time in perhaps years that some of these spirits had ever seen the sun. It would come as little comfort now but it was something at the very least; they had been stolen from it's warm embrace and cast in to shadow so that they might benefit the scourge doctrine.
Innocent and without awareness of who these creatures were, they had been led to their death and had succumbed to the strength of beasts that neither sibling truly understood. Arimathras hadn't explained to them how these creatures functioned and why they acted as they did, but they were beginning to suspect that not even their mother knew the answer to that question. If they were to find that answer, then they were going to need to ask those who had faced them for generations and that meant that eventually their father would be the one they needed an audience with.
These were answers that both Ymir and Thrymr felt they deserved, but they also knew that they would come in time. As unlikely as their mother's story had been, she had been telling the truth and it seemed they were a part of something far more dangerous than they could have imagined. For now these answers could wait and as they continued to process what lay within this corrupted land, they did what they felt as right. They had brought the spirits back to the light and when they had recovered them all, they would provide them with the burial they deserved.
Arimathras had continued to watch for a considerable amount of time, for once, her expression unreadable as she regarded the actions of her own children. A small part of her acknowledged that she had raised them right, having recalled the priorities that Destati would have placed before them. While there was a great deal to take in, they had recognised that what needed them most wasn't their own personal struggles, but those who lay at their paws. However as they continued to work diligently, moving in and out of the caverns, the goddess had finally rose to her paws and strode towards the fallen.
...Where her children couldn't bury them, she could move the land by force.
As she stood in place by those to be laid to rest her influence became apparent; no longer surpressed the ground beneath her paws began to ripple with life. At first mere shoots, these vines and flowers began to grow until they snaked towards the fallen. Growing with reckless abandon, as these plants were often want to do when she didn't surpress her aura, they began to coil around the limbs of each. Though slow at first it wasn't long before they had the momentum they needed to fully embrace the bodies. Once ugly and mutilated, they were soon covered in greenery and flowers, with the vines digging deeper into the soil beneath them.
For want of a better description the deity seemed to be making coffins, her vines twisting into loving and warm embraces as they sunk beneath the ground and drew the bodies with them. That aside Arimathras also knew that she would need to move shortly in order to not cause lasting damage, and in order to stifle the growth of these plants before they became too overgrown. Fortunately she had grown well practised at this the longer she had existed on the mortal plane and she had already moved away from the fallen by the time her two children returned to wait patiently for the next set.
"What..." Ymir was the first to notice the neat lines of flowers and vines, occasional ferns and what seemed like some form of corn resting across them in a season that they really shouldn't have been present for.
"It looks good," Thrymr glanced towards his mother with a warm smile. Technicalities aside, his mother had brought beauty to a tragedy on this occasion and saved them some of the harder labour. All he could do was continue to bring them to her so that she could lay them all to rest in neat rows where the forest met the cove. Eventually, he hoped that his mother's art would blend in to the surroundings, but for the time being it seemed she was making a statement.
She and her blood had been here.
She and her blood had laid the fallen to rest.
While the harvest was not due for several months, she had been sure to provide the fallen with her version of a divine send off. They had received these gifts well in advance of any other in the world, not because they needed it, but because it was deserved. Harvest wished them well in their future endeavours and perhaps their spirits would be reborn in the future.
"We are not done yet," Arimathras spoke after a few moments and offered a small smile. "But it is a start," she murmured encouragingly.
Thrymr offered a nod of agreement, though he saw fit to pause as he saw lions coming across the horizon from the other side of the cove. His hackles weren't raised yet, but he certainly had grounds for suspicion based on the tales of his mother. Ymir soon turned her own head to peer at the approaching lions with curiosity, they didn't seem to be approaching in any particularly ominous fashion but there did seem to be a lot of them.
...But it was their mother who seemed to have a very different reaction.
She knew these lions.
"Tethys?" she sounded surprised as she raised to her paws and strode towards the group of lions, though one had already split off and was quickly closing the gap between them. "Surely not..." Arimathras remarked.
Though sure enough, no sooner had she said that than his features became clearer and he cast his gaze with curiosity towards his own mother.
"What a small world we live in." He called out as he continued to stride forward, though the group he was with had long since come to a halt. "Of all the places to find my own mother, it's here," he added and released a small, weary sigh.
"Just when she's needed most..."
Ymir and Thrymr exchanged quick glances before turning their attention back to the scarred and battered male that seemed to be their brother - it seemed that the stars were beginning to align.
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