I'm Searching For Fragile Bones
He jumped as the girl leapt out to startle him, but refused to show that he was startled more than that. “What are you doing? Who are you?” He all but scolded. The girl wasn’t much younger than him, and may have in fact been older but her immature actions told him all he needed to know about her. “Jumping around scaring people like that…” He shook his head. “What if I had been a predator, or an enemy of the empire?” He could at least tell that she had come from the empire from her scent but he felt that he had seen her before as well. Possibly at a meeting.
He opened his mouth for another rebuttal but was cut off as the deep moaning cycled through the air again. He stiffened then walked slowly to the rocky shore, glancing backwards to see if the girl followed him or not. Another moan and he crept closer, his head lowered as he approached the foreboding din that seemed to be echoing off the rocks.
“Hello?” He called cautiously, his fur raised on end as he stepped closer to the source of the noise. He could smell blood amid the salt and tide and he felt oddly hollow as he stepped closer to a cove.
“Hello?” He called again and this time received an even louder, raspier moan in response. He peered into one of the stony caves littering the shore and was met with a ghastly sight; a wolf, battered and bleeding laid on his side, his body being swarmed by crabs. Rain froze, mouth agape as from the pulsing horde of crustaceans a single blue eye rolled to meet his gaze. The man rose slowly, crabs falling off his body like grains of sand, some still clinging to his fur desperately trying to keep their holding on him. The creature huffed and wheezed then turned his head to regard something beyond the slate male. Rain could only gape in horror as the tattered creature dripped blood onto the sand from a horrendous series of scars on his face. The creature’s mouth worked but no sound escaped him save for faints puff of air. Then finally with a sound like metal scraping against metal he managed a single utterance, one word that may have saved his wretched life or whatever was left of it. From the depths of the broken man’s soul came a single word
A name Word count: 410
speaking Thinking you |