It was a long walk to his home. To travel all the way from Connloath into the capital city of Serendipity took weeks. Through rain and strong winds, and now, the chilling cold of the on coming winter, Jinai was now haggard and solemn as she entered the city of Arca in the quiet stillness of the morning. So as she walked along the cold, muddy road, her legs ached, her breath came out in gentle puffs beneath her hood. She had been well layered for this journey, and well armed. And also sick as a dog.
Jinai always had many flaws about her, and her dabble in drugs was a hard addiction for her to kick, and after her brother's death, the war became a more clearer reality, despite how fully integrated she had been from the start. It had sobered her up completely after she had found out about her brother's death, had all but gone crazy to search through the pile of bodies and pieces there of to find his. And for the longest time she had sat in that moment, staring down at his face which had become blue with death.
She had vowed many things in that moment, and when she had initially received word her brother had been coming back to help support the Free Folk, and the cause, another letter soon followed from his wife, begging Jinai to watch over him. She had failed. He had barely been in Connlaoth a month- she hadn't even seen him- and he was gone, just like that.
To lose such a friend, even though they had been parted for nearly a decade by now, still stung at her heart. She knew her brother loved her, perhaps more than he should, but she had loved him back. He was her best friend, and the only one she had ever confided in. Since he had departed for Serendipity those many years ago, she found herself on a wayward path, and took to the drugs to cope with him having left her life. She still carried these drugs on her now, but felt too hollow and sick to even want to use them.
She also wasn't about to get rid fo them. It was part of her style to use them as self defense, even if not using them on herself to get a high. No, now she was sick over many things; her failure to protect her brother, and so she took it upon herself to personally see to it that his body was brought back to his wife to be buried in their land.
He had a small farm in the outskirts of Arca, so Jinai had to travel through this city in order to get there. While on her way, she had sent a letter on ahead to alert his wife she was on her way. She'd have to pen up another letter to let her know she was in the city, but fatigue and now fever were ever present, and she was thankful for the sudden drop in temperature this week to cool her off.
She paused against a building, 'The Lonely Shoe'; a shoe makers shop, which wasn't open. It was still too early in the morning for that. Removing her hood, she leaned against hte building, closing her eyes and enjoyed the cold winter winds blowing against her face. She felt dizzy, and the sweat on her was heavy. She needed a bath, something to eat before this illness would take it's full toll on her. Or perhaps it already had.
She found her green eyes glancing back towards the pull cart she had hauled all this while without help of an animal; for the mule she had was lost coming out of the mountains. A damn mountain cat had gotten to it. but better the animal than her or the corpse of her brother.
So through all of Serendipity she had to trek carrying the thing on her own, and it seemed only in this moment the weight of this burden was catching up to her, and she felt old beyond her years, and never more tired and sad in all of her life. She never cried over her brother's death, and it was too cold to start that now, as her green eyes stared down at the heavy blanket that laid across the dead body's form.
Retkin... her brother....
he never deserved to die.
And now he was gone.
He was gone forever.