For the first time in his life Yunan understood the appeal of strong alcoholic beverages, he could not get drunk at first because the wine was not stronger than his toxic body, it was not until Balin brought out the really hard liquor that could nock an elephant off its feet by merely opening the bottle, not until then did Yunan feel solace and some degree of acceptance about his mother"s Death. Yunan ended up punching Death on the face a few times in his drunken stupor.Death arrived with Hephaestus to see what kind of party could grab a person like him from his work, he was not too happy about being punched but the rest of the party was fun, after all neither the sober nor the drunk tried to drive him away. Drunken Yunan was loud and even more upfront and honest than Usual. "Here we are, a bunch of living celebrating death, i welcome the shameless a.s.shole stealing away my mom while sharing my food and drink, listen carefully, if it wasn"t that she wanted this, those punches would not be enough to express how cross i am with you, cheers! may her soul enter heaven as loud as possible, let the lord of light see that she has some back up, are you listening up there, mistreat mommy and i will break into your realm and beat you to death with your own divinity, cheers!".
Dustan stood up next " i am an ugly orc even by orc standards, everyone who sees me for the first time always shows either disgust, fear or looks away, mother was smiling at me like she did not care about this ugly mug of mine, she was there for me and acted as my mother each and every time i met her, she was the best woman i knew, and she deserves the biggest send off, after all, i wavered when i saw Death, while the weak her asked "when?" a woman braver than me deserves my cheers" Dustan drowned his cup before sitting down solemnly.
Balin stood up "cheers to the woman who laughed at my antiques, tried to straighten my manners each time i was naughty, but never tried to tell me not to be myself, she took us as family the day we took in her son, as a mother, she was perfect, as a woman, she deserved respect, a woman who earned my respect has the right to my cheers, cheers!" He too drowned his cup holding back his tears.
Lucian, Bai and Fae all sang her praise and drank in her name, Anne however, did not know what to say, she was not the type to cheer people up so she pa.s.sed her turn with "cheers to a great woman".
Mary stood up last "if she did not will us not to cry, i would be crying tonight, alas i must wait till dawn, that woman was nothing but ordinary, thus she was the most extraordinary one in this place, she had nothing but love and warmth inside her, and let me tell you something, it was b.l.o.o.d.y annoying how cool she looked when she was dishing out her love to any who cared to receive, i envied her for every thing she was, her courage, her open and simple heart, how easy it was for her to laugh and be satisfied, how she would command the love of any place she arrived at, she was light, and to people like us, that light was enough to brighten the darkness we walked in for so long, i love that woman, she smiled her way to being a mother to all of us, and for mother the last i can say is: cheers!"
After the cheers came the laughter, for a woman who brought joy, only joy would be a good send off, and the party lasted until dawn, by then, Yunan stood up suddenly and said, party is over, excuse me, i need to go weep" followed by his wives, Yunan returned to his room, it took only a few minutes for him to sober up after he stopped drinking, he hugged his wives and together shed tears of loss and grief, mother was smiling in her sleep as Death came to claim her.
The noise from the party gave her the sweetest dreams, and the cheers made her blush like a young maiden, in her dreams she saw death walking closer, she opened her arms and embraced him "nothing to be sad about, i am just another old woman who left behind some good kids" she told Death as she wrapped her arms around him, Death had a melancholic look on his face, today was one of the days he despised his own existence, still, he wouldn"t let those under him take her soul away, if they botched it, he might need to kill them, seeing that she was ready, he placed his hand on her forehead and pulled a small grain of pure white light, he always struggled when these pure beings left the world of the living.
With a gentle wave, the grain of light floated upwards and then disappeared from sight, he sent a message behind it, "you better take a good care of her, she has some serious back up". When a soul died it went to reside in the realm of the G.o.d they worshipped most, there they wait for reincarnation, the realm of light was called heaven, the realm of evil was called h.e.l.l, the realm of the hunt was called the grand prairie, so on and so forth, and this soul was heading for heaven, a good place mostly, it was rare for a message to be attached with a soul arriving at the realm of the afterlife, but it was not impossible, Death himself has sent all of them before, and all those souls were the purest in their worlds.
When morning came, the family had truly cried their fill, no more tears were dropped when everyone a.s.sembled, together they waited as Mary and Yunan went inside mother"s room, cleansed her body using the best items and the fragrant smells in the portable dimension, clad her in the fanciest silks and most treasured jewellery, they then placed her in a most exquisite coffin, the two of them then brought out the coffin for the funeral to start.