[center][h3][colour=gainsboro]Ea Nebel[/colour][/h3][/center]

"...Run us through that one more time."

The grey goddess took a deep breath, pressed her flat hands tightly together, fingers over her mouth, inclined her eyes towards Heaven, and exhaled. [colour=gainsboro]"You need,"[/colour] she said, very slowly, [colour=gainsboro]"to take a long stick, with a wide tip, dig a hole with that stick, put her [i]inside[/i] the hole, and then- listen very closely- you need to [i]cover her up again with the dirt that was in the hole.[/i]"[/colour] She stared intently into the eyes of the two elves standing in front of her, her own elf-ears stiff with trepidation.

The two elves looked at one another. The male one, Phathed, briefly looked down at the ground and scratched the back of his neck. "Does... the tip of the stick [i]have[/i] to be wide?"

[colour=gainsboro]"No,"[/colour] said Ea Nebel, her hands still pressed together, punctuating her words with a downwards movement, a nod, and, still unaccustomed to this body's remarkable sensory apparatus and its delicate musculature, a little ear-wiggle. [colour=gainsboro]"The stick doesn't have to be wide. It can be a pointy stick or a really blunt stick. It doesn't matter. You just need to dig the hole."[/colour] Preferably a few feet deep, but over the last minute and a half Ea Nebel had lowered her standards... appreciably. Another pause transpired. 

"I prefer digging with my hands," said the female. 

Ea Nebel clenched her teeth behind her lips and made no further movement.

"If the stick doesn't even matter," said Phathed, frowning a bit, "why did you tell us about it? Is there anything else about this whole thing that doesn't matter? Does... does [i]any[/i] of it?"

"We can find you a stick if you really want," the woman said hurriedly. Her name was Tohnayl. Previously it had been Clover, but she had swapped it with another elf, who hadn't been too happy with his for some reason. She raised her hands reassuringly. "Really, we can get you all kinds of sticks. There are lots of them about. This is a forest," she said, gesturing helpfully to the canopy around her. Phathed nodded. It was clear that they would have to take things slowly with the stranger.

[colour=gainsboro]"I told you about the sticks because I thought you might have some tools,"[/colour] said Ea Nebel, rubbing her forehead, her free hand clenched tightly around the hem of this [i]impossibly[/i] short dress. On top of covering barely her shoulders, it was just... hideously white, glittering so bright she felt she could outshine the Moon. [colour=gainsboro]"Tools would help you dig faster, and some sticks might help you dig without getting your hands and clothes filthy. If that doesn't matter, you can use your hands."[/colour]

"We can wash in the lake," said Phathed. "It doesn't matter if we're filthy. We can rub it off, see? Our clothes all clean up nice and easy, too- hold on, wait." He tapped his lips with a finger, then raised it. "Hold on a minute. Didn't you say, right at the start, that we had to bury the body because it was 'unclean'?"

"We don't mind if it's not clean," added Tohnayl. "We weren't going to touch it anyway. And Ternyp doesn't mind either. Because she's dead. Dead people don't care about that kind of thing very much. I think."

Ea Nebel laced her fingers tightly, turning around to the Iron Boar for help. The giant hog, for its part, had selected a warm patch of sunlight, laid on its side and made itself very comfortable. It met her eyes (still four) for a moment and then closed them again, untroubled. She turned back.

[colour=gainsboro]"Ternyp,"[/colour] she began, [colour=gainsboro]"is very dead, and that means she's going to stink. She'll stink to high Heaven and attract all kinds of wolves and raptors that you don't want anywhere near your obelisk. She'll also bloat, and rot, and fill up with maggots, and that's going to be a horrible thing to look at for anyone who walks past her, especially any of her friends. And if you don't put her in the ground now, while she's fresh, it's going to be much harder to put her in the ground later. [i]Because she'll stink.[/i] And- let me be very clear on this- [i]if you handle her with your bare hands once she is rotting, you will get her juice all over you and you will start a plague.[/i] Did you get [i]any[/i] of that? Please, please, Heaven help me please, tell me you understand."[/colour]

The two elves pondered, then slowly, solemnly, began to nod. An exhausted, broken smile began to leak from Nebel's lips. Then they opened their mouths.

"Once she stinks, we won't go anywhere near her. Promise."

"No one else will go there either. She'll be too stinky."

"The raptors can have her. They'll be too busy to bother with us. Everyone needs to eat, right?"

"Ternyp didn't have any friends anyway. She was too busy climbing trees all the time."

"That's how she died, you see."

"[i]You[/i] can bury her, if you really want."

"We won't stop you at all. Really, be our guest."

"Would you like a nice stick?"

Ea Nebel chewed on her knuckles, hot tears welling in her eyes. She turned around to lean her head against the nearest tree and let out a defeated sob. When she realised what that was probably doing to her clothes, she quickly grabbed the back hem of the dress with a fist and held it down. A second later she dispelled the elven form and garb altogether, grabbing the sides of her broad hat and pulling it down around her face.

[colour=gainsboro]"Just leave her for the vultures,"[/colour] she mumbled, walking quickly away into the woods where the Iron Boar stood waiting.

Tohnayl waved. "Bye-bye!" When Phathed, feeling rather bad for the bizarre yet clearly well-meaning apparition, moved to follow her into the woods, he saw that both she and her animal had somehow disappeared. With a sigh and a shrug, he turned to Tohnayl, who was smiling happily.

"What's a plague, anyway?"

[hider=uwu]
Ea Nebel meets some elves and quickly discovers that her job is going to be a lot harder than she thought it would be.
[/hider]