Look Up The Mountain, Then Look Down

"Detective..." Cécile hissed under her breath, her vision dark as she rode shotgun. "I do not approve of you treating me like a kidnapping victim - or like a prisoner taken to a secret hideout."

"Sorry, Inspector." Dusk chuckled. "Please trust me, okay? This is just a precaution. I'm going to show you something important. But I ask you to just bear with me, just a little bit?"

"Ordinarily I'd say no to being blindfolded in a car, but you really are full of surprises, Dusk. Fine." She said, humored. Over the week, she'd become used to his silly antics. Though this one would probably take the cake.

The car stopped. She felt the surface. Gravel, she was certain. They were not on a street. The car door opened on his side, and then on hers. With a gentle hoof, he guided her out. They would walk. She counted the steps, and felt the ground. So unkempt, so much wild grass and stones...The sound of birds...Howling wind...Nature?

Then, they stopped.

Dusk positioned himself before the blinded woman. "...Before I open your eyes, I'm going to have to ask you to do something." Dusk whispered. "...Please take a deep breath. Okay, Cécile?"

Not taking anything too seriously at that moment, the griffoness softly scoffed. "Alright alright, listen, this is cute and all but I hate having my eyes closed." She said, starting to untie the tightly-tied blindfold. "Whatcha got for me? A table with a Charcuterie board and expensive wine? A car? The sunset? You shouldn't really excite an old lady like--"

The cloth fell to the soil.

The name on the tombstone

Nadine Vieillefeu. 1022 - 1030.

"..."

It all flooded back to her.

With disbelief, she placed a talon on the tombstone. Someone had been here, perhaps yesterday, and cleaned the tombstone, for otherwise the twenty years of neglect would have coated the stone in rust and moss.

She almost believed it was a fake. Some consolation of sorts. Yet, it was undeniable. She looked at the horizon behind, and softly collapsed onto her knees, sitting upright and eye-level with the name of the tombstone.

"...Dusk, how did you...?"

"I am a cold case investigator, after all." Dusk softly spoke. "I've been looking into it in-between the breaks we had. Had to borrow some of your documents and cross-reference the facts. I understand why you couldn't find her all this time, you had absolutely nothing on paper connected to her, no death certificate or anything. Worse, I checked all archived newspapers from twenty years ago. No obituaries. Perhaps you asked them not to publish it, maybe this was too terrible to mention. Either way, this was one of the most difficult cases I've had." He said.

"...But how did you find her?"

"You won't believe me, but...I remembered your description. Setting sun, a field of flowers, two tall mountains and a distant valley. I looked for a west-facing pair of mountains, flower fields nearby, and cemeteries."

"That doesn't...sound so unbelievable." She sniffled.

"The unbelievable thing is this - I checked it on the internet." He chuckled. "Who knew there's satellites that just publish maps online?"

"...Heh...Embracing the future after all. We might just get you to stop using those silly Ponaroid cameras..." The griffoness wiped her eyes. "Dusk, you..."

"Take a moment, Inspector. I will be by the car."

With that, he went back, disappearing behind the tall and foliage.

Cécile looked at the tombstone, once at the ground, and back at the slate. She wrapped her talons around it, and whispered.

"Mama's so sorry for not visiting you for so long...You...You would have grown into such a fine, young lady...I'm here now. I've never forgotten about you, my life's spark, even when I tried to convince myself I did...I'll always be here for you. Mama's here now, Nadine..."

A dozen meters away, Dusk wished his ears weren't so good. He only sighed, looking at the setting sun, and the rising moon looming above.

He imagined what it would have been like now, if things were different. He focused on the past so much. Certainly, it may have been sweeter. Yet, he always looked at the past as if it was a sweet cup of wine.

Except, every cup runs dry. What would fill the cup next? A sweeter wine? Semi-dry? Bitter coffee? Or arsenic?

He could keep the cup dry forever, trying to savor what little his taste-buds could remember. But to live the rest of your life with that dryness and emptiness - holding and longing onto nostalgia...

Now, he helped a mother reunite with what she lost. He discovered the fate of a brave mare that sacrificed her life to protect her idol. He even got the chance to help a veteran feel a spark of fulfillment, one last time.

What happens next? It could be ugly. It could be outright tragic. But if he never passed the threshold, if he never ventured into that unknown...Then he'd be there, decomposing, rotting away and turning into a skeleton, right at the door way.

He hadn't realized - an hour passed.

That was when Cécile approached him, eyes and sleeves wet...Yet, there she was. For the first time during their partnership, and for the first time in years...A genuine, warm smile on her beak.

"...Det--...Dusk Wish...I will never be able to say this enough, no matter how much I mutter it at night, but..."

Dusk smiled at her, and she at him. It may not have been a smile of triumph or joy or humor, but it was a strong feeling. A strong feeling of clarity, relief, and resolution.

"...Thank you." She whispered.

In the field, they shook their limbs. The young stallion, who learned how to look up the mountain, and the old griffon, who learned how to look down from it.