K U K K A
Gravedigger/Mortician

PLAYLIST

It is raining.
A lone Bogsneak, scrabbling at the earth with long, razor-sharp claws, shakes grime from her wings as she works.
She works. And digs. And works.
Dig. Dig. Dig.
She digs for what seems like ages. It is long and drawn out in an eerie silence broken only by the rain and the sound of the dragon's claws scraping the dirt. Occasionally clumps of earth will shake from her wings or shoulders as she works, but mostly whatever she is digging only serves to entrench her more in the filth.
It becomes apparent what she is digging when she moves into the brush and reemerges, dragging a wooden box by a rope lashed to it. The box has nails rather sloppily driven into it, sealing it shut. They are somehow already rusting.
Not a box. This is a coffin.
She moves with a shambling, eerie movement, all too unfit for anything that could be considered living. Like something in a body it is unfamiliar with. A parasite.
She drags the box into the hole. It falls into place with a dull thud.
She begins to sweep the dirt back into the grave. It is sloppy and graceless.
By the time the storm ceases, the grave is filled and the earth is packed into place, leaving whatever— whoever is sealed away in that coffin to rot and be forgotten.





Kukka is a gravedigger of neutral rank in the Chainvine Enclave. She specializes in the dead and dying, and is not known for her mercy. Graves she digs often go unmarked unless requested otherwise by her clan's leader, Tuhkat. Many have been forgotten purely because so many dead go unremembered at her talons. Even she sometimes forgets who she has buried and where, occasionally leading to the morbid discovery of a rotting and moldering grave where she had intended to dig another.
Rumors have swirled around her for as long as many in the Enclave can remember; that Kukka is nothing more than a parasite inhabiting the slowly failing body of an unfortunate Bogsneak. At the very least, she has a strange and unnerving taste in food, of all things, preferring to feast on decaying waste. This has lent the most credence to the parasite theory, alongside many other rumors and anecdotes surrounding her.
At the end of it all, Kukka remains silent about the entire affair, and will often be found on the outer reaches of the Enclave doing what she does best: digging. As for what might be her own body, or perhaps the stolen host of a mysterious parasite, it seems to refuse to fail her. For now. Perhaps there will come a day when the questions around her will unravel like a tapestry: when just the right strings are pulled.
For now, all anyone can do is wait and see.

Lore by @Smudgen73, commission prox






Formerly