Greeting Farewell

The cup dropped to the ground lifting the smallest of clouds of ash that drifted and separated. Her pale ashen hands were shaking. Tears of thick black ash slipped from her eyes. She leaned forward further and further toward the river. Her knees dropped and her body teetered forward as she collapsed into the river. The she within the river drifted quickly forward, pushing the living she, lifting the living she, shoving the living she. She within the river was screaming water into water in the terror of her reckoning. The living she was too heavy. She could not lift her.  She kicked with her legs desperately trying to find the leverage, the strength, the hope of getting the living she out of the water. She within the river was crying water into water in frustration and terror. The living she fell forward into the she within and they embraced, wrapping her arms and legs around the she within and hugging her tight as they both drifted downward. The light was growing dimmer as they sank further and further, deep into the river. The failing light was no more as they sank into complete darkness, and the cries of the she within had faltered and faded away as she embraced the living she back as they became a single she. She was lost, a drowned one, drowned in the river. She slipped and drifted along the bottom until the water became ash, and when she reached the ashfall, she fell through the ashfall, spinning and tumbling with the other lost souls. So she greeted farewell...