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What a joy it would have been for Zeal Ginjoka if he had just not missed meeting Kaelix Debonair and Maria Marionette on his return to everyone. The world they found themselves in somehow announced the names of the fallen and the cause. Almost like it was a game, and there was an audience beyond the sky.
Such cruelty and yet that did not matter as compared to who had fallen. First, it was Ren. Now, Kaelix and Maria are gone too. Three comrades Zeal cooked and ate mushroom stew with.
No sooner, he found out that Kaelix and Maria had gone in search of him. He made haste to search for their remnants. Retracing his steps back to their mushroom base, and searching the area eventually he finds their belongings, there fallen on the forest floor. With shaky hands Zeal picked up Kaelix's broken glasses, then Maria's pink and black bunny doll, one of its ears was nearly torn off its stuffing spilling out. Along with these two objects there were flowers scattered around as well. Kaelix's voice playing in his head about the flowers he collected was for life, joy and whimsy.
Swallowing and exhaling, Zeal continued to pick up the rest of their belongings among them were the wooden bowls used for the stew he ate with them. He stared at the bowls. Zeal had asked who else wanted stew, where there would have been responses, now just a memory. A shaky laugh slipped out, and he blinked his eyes a few times. Stew. Yeah, he would make one last batch for them. One for Kaelix. One for Maria. One last time.
Sniffling, he picked those up too. He ventured collecting the ingredients for it, together with wood to create a box to hold their belongings together. Not alone. Not like how they let Ren go off alone.
The spot he found their belongings had a good view on inspection of the area. He placed the crate he made, one that might as well be their casket, underneath the shade of the nearby trees. It overlooked the area plus the sunrise, and sunset would always be visible. He placed Kaelix's and Maria's belongings inside one by one with utmost care together with some of the flowers Kaelix collected.
Closing it forever, he prepared a plaque too, and set it on the front of the box. 'RIP Maririn and Kaelix in abagaadwiab' he wrote, the lines all wobbly and crooked. The flowers Kaelix had gathered were plenty. He planted them around the box to accompany it. The flowers filled the area, but Zeal still walked a good distance to pick up a few more returning to the box. He set those flowers down, and together with another box he had left nearby, he pulled out two bowls of already cold mushroom stew.
The two bowls were carefully placed on top of the crate, the casket together with the flowers. Zeal too picked up one more bowl in the container, and sat there next to the box eating the stew while admiring the view while the sun shone brightly in the sky.
Huh, his stew wasn't up to par, and tasted a little bit saltier than it should.