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Seeing the little boat floating on the ice felt wrong. Tayui, Attila, and Aurèle should have been here with him, Ocèane, and Dawali. It should not have been there or it should have been floating gently on the water. It was so cold and frigid now and he didn’t even have any flowers to Noir. He felt horribly sad and empty to be pushing this little boat full of sadness onto the ice. He didn’t want to go and dig up the bones and put them on the frozen boat, but it felt odd to simply fill it with Noir’s things. He didn’t want to lose her – or what was left of her – but this was the tradition and how she would achieve peace. Claudius hated to think that she would not be resting properly because they hadn’t done everything right.
As Claudius stood beside the Chief and his sister, he reached out with his Optime hand to grand at their hands and hold them in his own. He just needed it to know they were still there, that he would not have to send them off on a boat in the ice too soon, either. He didn’t want to think that one day either of them would die (he was not ready for that) but he knew one day he would have to acknowledge it. Until then, he wanted to stand there and take comfort in his family’s warmth, sharing their sadness so that one day they might overcome it and be happy again.
Even though Claudius still had a miserable knot tightening in his chest, he knew this was for the best. He trusted his sister and his chief and was glad they were there with him. He felt his tears begin to freeze in the cold January wind, saturating his fur with little ice drops. A particularly large gust of wind set his fur on edge and whisked off the still-liquid tears. Claudius was glad to see them go.
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