Hope(less)

**Set During Event Phase 4**

Ricin’s eyes look out over the landscape, watching as prey and predator animals alike stumble around crazily. The lighter pup recoils, in all his traveling, he has not seen the strange illness that sickens these animals, be so bad. He wonders if this is permanent. The brothers have trekked a long way, coming from up from southern Boreas to stop here and every place the pups have stopped, they found much of the same. Glowing crystals and mushrooms, sick and dying creatures vomiting ooze and looking scared. Ricin and Chade have been lucky, the illness had passed over them, leaving the brothers untouched. It is small blessing in the brothers turbulent lives but Ricin feels far from lucky.

No matter where he turns, the light blue pup sees only the sick and dying which dig up half-buried memories. Ricin remembers his oldest sibling, a strong brother who had eaten something bad. He can hear his brother crying and retching as the poisonous food ate him from the inside out. Light blue head dips under the weight of those memories. The pups have seen so much death in their short lives and now… this. Head lifts to look up at the sky, the dark heavens are lightened by the bright moon and stars. Ribbons of green and blue paint the sky, offering light in this eternal night. But the beautiful sky contrasts the ground where a fog has settled over the land, obscuring sights and sounds, making the pup doubt everything.

The only constant in this world is Chade. Ricin’s older sibling has taken on the reasonability of making sure both of them survive and the light pup is grateful for him. Since their mother had abandoned them and their siblings, the light pup has struggled to find his purpose in the world. By all rights, Ricin should be dead, a pile of sun-bleached bones forgotten to time. But Chade had stepped in, altering Ricin’s fate and the fate of their sister. Her scared teal eyes still hunt him, follow him into his nightmares as she silently accusing him of being worthless. The light-hued pup shakes his head, banishing the thoughts as he moves off through the fog to explore this cursed and dying land.

Memories walk him as Ricin’s dead siblings appear in the fog around him. However, they always disappear when he turns his head to get a look at them, making the pup wonder if they are just figments of his overactive imagination. The fog masks the forms of the animals within, seeming to contort and elongate them into twisted, writhing forms of agony. Ricin weaves his way around rocks, dead animal carcasses that have sprouted crystals and fauna, and the ever-present fireflies. The mist shimmers and shifts, seeming to glow and pulse as if a giant monster is breathing out the vapor in great heaving gasps.

Everywhere Ricin looks, he sees darkness and death and he wonders if this endless night is all the work of the grim reaper. There is a great harvest for the creature of death, plenty of souls for his collection. Dark, morbid thoughts clutter the light pup’s mind as he makes he way slowly onward. Ricin knows he cannot die, that Chade has given so much that he might live and yet… the lighter pup doesn’t think he deserves to be here. Crystals glow and pulse along with the mushrooms, seeming to wink up at the sad, confused pup as he passes. A creature screams, a grating, raw cry that shakes Ricin to his core. Yet, he doesn’t stop moving. He cannot stop moving. If he stops, the reaper will come for him. Ricin cannot die.

A rabbit hops in front of the pup, ooze filled eyes turning to look at the wolf, begging the pup to end its suffering. Ricin’s stomach flip-flops as he steps around the creature, leaving it to die a slow and agonizing death, dooming it the swing of the grim reaper’s scythe. He has traveled so far, survived so much, and here finds himself back in the land of the dying. Everywhere the brothers go they find death and misery. This land is flat and the rocks that jut up from the ground are like the bones of dead animals. Ricin sees everything is covered with those same damn crystals and mushrooms. He hates them, hates the illness that plagues this land, hates the fact that he isn’t strong enough to end the suffering of that rabbit.

Huffing a sigh, Ricin realizes the glowing mist is thinning, allowing more light to peak through and the sky overhead to become more visible. The cries that haven pounded into his ears and weighed on his soul also lessen, lifting like the fog around him. Finally, the mist disappears and Ricin comes to a stop at the edge of the ocean, looking out over the rolling waves. The pup plops his butt down, resting a moment while looking out over the vast, endless stretch of water. A calmness settles over him, a sense that, as long as Chade is alive everything will be fine. Looking up at the aurora smeared sky, Ricin makes a vow to the moon, “Mother Moon, if you see fit to return the sun and rid this land of the illness, I promise to enjoy my life more. I will find happiness in ever moment. Please. Hear me.”

His gaze falls back to the water, seeing the telltale hints of glowing crystals and mushrooms under the surface. All at once, Ricin realizes there is no hope, that this endless night will stretch on forever and there is nothing that will stop it. Tears fall down light blue cheeks, spattering soundlessly in the sand to be carried away by the ocean. Waves lap at his paws, spilling cool water across them, slowly burying them under the sand. Looking down, Ricin realizes that is exactly how he feels, slowly being buried under a mountain of crushing hopelessness. Pulling his paws out the soft sand, Ricin stands and turns to walk back into the fog and screams of the dying. Pausing one last time, he turns crimson eyes to the moon and says, “Please. Hear me.” With that his light blue form is once more swallowed by the glowing vapor as he goes to find his brother.



Final Word Count: 1055

"Speech"