The Arctic discussion

((A large communal network of tunnels dug by lemmings))

Ava sat above her den and happily munched on a prize she had found, a ripe arctic raspberry.

Burt was outside in the freezing cold at the place where he set a memorial for his parents. He looked down at their "graves" and let out a soft sigh.

Ava looked over her shoulder and saw Burt's hunched figure, portraying a sadness she knew all too well. Awkwardly ambling as one would while carrying a raspberry, she approached him and offered her prize to him.

He looked over at the berry, then up at Ava. He smiled, but shook his head 'no.' "Thanks." He said, looking back at his parent's graves

Ava dropped the berry beside him and ambled back into her den. After a few minutes she poked her nose out to see if he was still there, and if the berry had been eaten.

He didn't eat the berry, he just stared at it, and picked it up out of the dirt to clean it off from the dirt and awaited her return so he could give it back

Ava frowned, and after a few seconds returned to him. She sat beside him and tried to catch his gaze. "It is hard to lose those you care about," she said, her expression meaningful and her words sincere. "I know the pain all too well." She looked toward the direction of the sea for a brief moment. Though she could not see the great mass of water from her viewpoint, to look in the way her devastation had began brought her a new charge of pain. "But I know that they care about you too, and though their spirits have now merged with the earth around us, and their memories only remain in your heart, you still must be happy. Because you do have those memories. You always will."

"Wow... I.." He said, thinking of words to say as he thought about her soft, but true words. "So true.. I feel them, and I feel them watching me and taking care of me." He said, looking down at their graves before looking over at her and smiling for once in a few years

She smiled. "I can feel my family too." Though she could not hardly remember them, she knew they were there.

He smiled, and handed her her berry. "Here you are, your berry."

With her small hands, she ripped it apart, handing him one half. She winked and ran into her den with half of her berry.

He went to stop her, but once again was stuck with her prize, and frowned. It looked so tasty, but it was hers. He felt bad but ate it because she seemed to want him to.

Ava laid in her den, smiling because she knew that she got through to him. It was true, Burt's family was definitely still there for him, as they had been so close in life. Where was her family? She didn't remember them, couldn't feel them, as if they were just lost spirits in the great sea where they had drowned. Why did they leave her?

Burt crawled over to his hole, in which he dug out, and moved inside to go to bed. He was tired, and full on that berry.

Ava laid in her bed and slowly let her thoughts carry her into sleep.