Fate Bound

Chapter 2 Devine Calling

Chapter 2

Volondove was overwhelmed by grief at the loss of his beloved wife. All through the day he mourned for her at the bed side until he collapsed a second time.

When he finally woke up it was the middle of the day. His extreme levels of exhaustion and lack of sleep had knocked him out completely, plunging him into what could very well be the deepest sleep in his life.

When he woke up he was so grieved at her sudden death that he could barely even think about his work. He barely had the spirit to get himself going for the day. All his focus was now on giving her the best burial and funeral he could do.

This was rather easy to plan and execute. Volondove was the last living member of his family tree, as was Natilda of her family tree. So everything was up to him to do. He had to do all the planning, all the digging, and the rest of the burial process was all on him.

This would be a great challenge for his emotions though. Being the only one around to perform a funeral for his own wife would without a doubt pull on his emotional strings quite a bit, possibly to a point of no return.

But he knew it had to be done. It was what she would have wanted. And as much as he wanted to, lying in his bed feeling sorry about it wasn't gonna get this tragedy over with. He figured the sooner he got her into the ground the less stress he would have to endure. So he reluctantly got up out of his bed and immediately got to work.

He started building the coffin first, as he had already cut some lumber a few days ago into long boards. They were originally going to be used for a bench. But this was more important to him.

The assembly process went rather smoothly, despite the constant reminder that this was for his dead wife. But he did his best to block the horrific thought from his mind and stay on task.

In just a few hours the wooden coffin was complete. Next he got to work on her tomb stone. Unfortunately for him he didn't have a stone good enough for the job. Nor did he have the money to afford a good one. So as a compromise he crafted a wooden one for her.

It was about as tall as a large chopping block, and about as thick as a two by four. He made it in the shape of the Rubelix, the religious symbol of the ancient Tistive.

It was a rod with five heads branching out in four directions. At the top of each branch end was another symbol representing the gods. A sword for Zomar the god of war and peace. A skull for Neth the god of the after life. A sickle for Arnigier the god of the earth and the sea. An hour glass for Lindel the god of time and prosperity. And on the center road was the silhouette of the upper half of a large man to represent Galian the chief of the gods.

In just four hours he made the wooden Rubelix and mounted it onto a plank no higher than his waist.

It wasn't the best piece of work he had done nor was it what he originally wanted for her. The lumber he used was cheep and not very good. But it was what he had available. He then took the plank carved the words; here lies Natilda Caladian. Born 982 E3 left us 1011 E3 rest in peace. this was carved in the tongue of the Tistive.

He had never really learned that much about the tistive cuniform symbols or their language all that much. But from what he had learned from their spell books he had back in the work shop it just kinda clicked with him. And was able to pick it up surprisingly quick.

After the tomb stone was completed, he went outside to dig her grave. He took his slightly rusted shovel out from the back shed. It was a small room built in the back of the house just big enough to hold several lawn maintenance tools.

He creaked the door open, took out the shovel that was hanging up by a long nail and went to the back of the property. He looked around for a good place to bury her. Then he found it. At the corner of the property where he barely went as it was overgrown with weeds and not good for much else. He trudged over there dragging the shovel as he went and began to dig.