Lead by Curiosity

"Speech"

The larger brown male hadn't realized how engrossed in her task she was and hoped he hadn't overstepped his bounds when he startled her. Eltrys dipped his ears and bowed his head in deference to Haydee while he stepped back to give her a touch more space. His own heart thrummed in his chest for a moment from startling her. The great elder trees around them must have shaded him during his approach.

She responded by requesting he say her nickname. He mirrored her motions and sat on the floral grass,
"Thank you, Hay." He nodded, testing her name out loud slowly, blinking cordially. he noted to himself the quick hint of her sorrowful smile, and what she said next helped him understand.

She goes on to introduce him to Ethne's beautiful graveyard and the place where her own father rests. He let out a sounding hmm heavy with sympathy. She too had lost a beloved parent. He could feel her halting words and blinked to keep himself from choking on his own delayed grief intermingled with hers.

A gentle breeze picked up and played through the tips of the grasses and flowers as she mentioned the reason she was digging a new grave, her nephew.

Eltrys slowly took a breath in and let it out, he gave the playful wind some of the overcoming feelings that were both his and what he was feeling from Haydee.
So they bury their dead, they too prefer to keep the scavengers from feasting upon their beloveds.

"It is noble. I am familiar with a different ritual, where we carry our beloved departed deeper into our temple crypts." He wondered, briefly, if his mother was laid next to his sister and father, or would her betrayal cause her to be left for the sharks... Could he place a memorial here for her or is this place only for Haydee's family?

"May I assist your endeavor?" He asked simply, after swallowing back a comment about his mother. He would be eager to lighten the burden of such a heavy task. He wouldn't be surprised if she denied him.