Winter Moon

“You d-d-d-didn’t” He said softly, his eyes sliding closed once again as his head began to throb painfully. He gave a final ‘wuff’ before standing, his head kept low and his ears pinned back. “T-t-thank y-y-y-y-y-y-y-“ He squeezed his aching eyes closed as he tried to sputter out the final syllable, but inevitably stopped speaking all together, his expression one of fixed focus. “You.” He said softly, looking away, completely ashamed that he couldn’t even perform the simple task of speaking properly. “M-m-my n-n-name’s S-S-Spider.” He said, his line of sight still fixed on the ground. He sat carefully and instantly began to berate himself for even standing in the first place “He must think I’m crazy.” He thought, for once in his own voice.

Spider’s thoughts had always been in the voices of others, mostly his brother’s although at one point more reassuring thoughts came in his sister’s voice, although those had all but vanished after her death. Instead the voices he heard was usually his dear friend Echo’s. Although they had only known each other for the Fall season the Kookaburra had made great strides to bring him out of his shell before ultimately migrating for the winter.

He cautioned a glance at the male and then quickly looked away, he was of course handsome although he may have only thought that because he had tried so hard to comfort him. He scratched his ear with his back leg in an attempt to clear the unrequited thoughts from his head. He knew his fur was mundane and patchy in the places where it wasn’t frazzled or matted, at least with the dim light of the moon the totality of his overall haggard appearance wasn’t completely visible.

Spider speaking