Corunir, Lonely and Vigil requested by Taz @a-lonely-dunadan from this list, and a secret third prompt because it's insane to me that "insomnia" wasn't on the list, totaling 300 words because I can't keep to a word count to save my life.
He waited.
He held a silent vigil here every night, staring deep into the darkness with a chill in his heart, waiting. He refused to accept that they would not return. They were all he had left. Refusal gnawed away at his gut with a deep hunger, days with no food nor sleep. He had come this far, and now he did not know where to go. So he waited for them, knowing that would never come back.
He held a silent vigil here every night, more alone than he had been in his life. Each night he watched the distant line of trees, unchanged, for the returning of mangled bodies he used to recognise. He dreaded the sight of them and yet ached to see him. They never came.
He waited. There was no one to wait for, and there had not been in a long time. He watched them all laid to rest under cairns that he capped himself.
He turned back to the overgrown cairn he stood by, and he cursed himself for coming here alone, and cursed his brothers for not stopping him.
Maybe it never was the Watchers that stayed him, because he felt weak now, beneath the clear sky of the North Downs, with cool air in his lungs. He sank to the ground by the stones, exhausted. The great distance lay between them and him was insurmountable, but every frantic breath he choked down with his face to the dirt brought him closer to them. He wanted nothing more than to embrace the ashes of his father and the bones of his mother.
But they waited for him, smooth stones in the greying of an unlooked for dawn held their vigil over him until he finally slept for the first time in days.
tangentwithtanner
stormborns
