sdamned fanfic - epilogue

(written on 9 July, 2019)

Kieri's old and wrinkly.

Buwaro's skin, under all the shedding and greying fur, sags.

In the future, Kieri has taken up knitting. She's sitting at her table when Buwaro walks in, back from his trip to Rhea's resting place, looking kind of somber. But he was happy about all the time they had spent together, being friends, hanging out in their teenager years, still hanging around them even when Buwaro and Kieri had gotten together, being a kind of third wheel, up until Jake had joined them, and they'd kind of parted ways after that. However, Rhea was insistent on always visiting and sending letters, as the years and decades went by.

Buwaro speaks in a quiet, pleasant voice: "Snowy. I've dropped off the flowers at Ms. Snaketail's. They were beautiful... I talked to her about our new garden, the one of the very nice-smelling flowers and vines."

Kieri smiles, lifting up her creation - a striped red scarf, for her husband. "For you," she says. Noting the fact that she already has a blue scarf of her own, Buwaro then hears her say, "I'll do a yellow one for Rhea next. It all began with her, after all... she's the only reason why we're here and together. And I love her, and you too."

"Aww, I love you more, Snowy." Then the conversation turns into "no, you more's" and they chat along happily inside their humble logcabin dwelling, just outside of the very same village that Rhea had left at the beginning of her journey.