Her last breath left her lungs and her eyes shut tight, to gaze on this world no more.

Tears ran down his face, as he felt the pain of her loss well up in his core – the life they’d had, the times, the tales, the joy they’d shared – now just thoughts of the past.

With a slight sigh, he picked up her corpse, stepped out the door and moved to the edge of the woods, where he had dug her grave last night, while she had but a few breaths left in her.

He wrapped her in silk cloth, dropped a soft kiss on her brow and placed her in the dark hole in the ground – not a fit place to hold what had once been a soul of warmth, love and joy, but the right place for the earth to take back what it had made for him to love all those years ago.

Sleep well my love, he thought, as the soft, warm soil took her away from him.