Picture challenge #26: Loss

[redblood]

INFO: They say that a picture can tell a thousand words. How many can you find?

Each week a new image will be posted, and your challenge will be to write whatever the image inspires you to write. It can be anything as long as it relates to the picture. A plot, a scene, a short story, a poem, a character, etc. You can write as much or as little as you wish. It's not the length that matters, it's what you put into it. There is no time limit to these challenges, so feel free to jump in at any time.

(Source)​

 

[SugarlizedWonderland]

Broken Muzzle, Sprained paw
Bloody Lip, and Broken Jaw
High pitched whine to match high patch cry
Words as painful as a lullaby

Goodnight little pup
the ravens are here
Goodnight little pup
you have nothing to fear
the time has come
it is time for you to go
Goodnight Little Pup
No More Sorrow

 

[Izurich]

"Pssst... do you think it's working?"

"Yeah, I think it is. These birdbrains fell for some liquid ketchup and a heart-wrenching pose. Wait wait wait, let me look up at the sky with a dying face. Aaah, that's it."

"Nice one, pup, we're gonna have some crow meat tonight. Been starving for days, bud."

 

[Rubix]

He had grown numb.

He was surrounded by death. He always had been so this was no different to him. Whether it was his abusive father murdering his mother before drinking himself to death or another homeless boy he had grown acquainted with passing from a cold, he knew it would always come. He was surrounded by death, but he was never alone. He had a friend who been subject to everything he had ever since they were both young. His friend had been subject to the same abuse by their father, the same starvation of being homeless, the same cold nights. They had always been together, but not for much longer.

He couldn't look at his friend as he held him, feeling death coming ever closer. He could see them all. Everyone he had witnessed dying was now flying around him. Their wings flapping with tar feathers that would soon consume his friend. They called out to his friend, telling him to join them. He could feel his friend slowly growing colder. His friend that had always been the provider of warmth during the chilling hours of darkness they had spent together. He couldn't think. He couldn't process what was happening. He never had been able to grasp the concept of death. Then again, he never truly knew what it felt like to be alive.

Why did this have to happen though? He had done nothing wrong, but someone had thought that his friend speaking made him vicious, made him dangerous. His friend was only trying to defend himself, but instead had been punctured by the threatened man much bigger than either of them.

He could feel his friend drifting away. The life seeping from the light they were bathed in and into the shadows surrounding them. He thought he had to be there for his friend, but it was really his friend that was there for him. His friend kept his head held as high as he could. His friend did not fear death, only what would happen to him after his friend was gone. He could not even recognize his friend by touch anymore. The strength and warmth was now completely gone and instead all he felt was the same coldness of the cold, wet ground beneath him.

And like that, his friend was gone. He could no longer feel him in his arms, but instead could see him fly away with all the other losses in his life. His friend's beautiful gray body was now black and downy. He watched as his friend flew further and further away. He did not miss him, for he knew he would see him again when he was faced with yet another death. It had only become natural to him. He could not bring himself to move yet. His body still paralyzed by what had happened. He was scared. He did not know what to do without his friend. He had accepted death as part of his life, but he had hoped this would never happen. This was his one true fear.

He was alone.

 

[Greenie]

Niko was dead and there was nothing I nor Ren could do about it. He had been the leader of our small pack, the alpha. Now there was just the two of us, one stuck as a wolf, one stuck as... well... me.

He should have been the one to live, the strongest wolf shifter we had ever known. Yet for all his strength even he couldn't dodge the bullets that took his life. Ren and I barely managed to grab his body before running for our lives.

Here we are now, Niko buried and finally resting in peace. Ren and I however are only beginning to realize how hard life will be. Stained with our friend's blood we sit and wait for the night in a cobblestone alley, ignoring the wretched crows who are probably hoping we'll die soon to feed them.

We'll survive though. One way or the other. We owe that much to Niko.

 

[PoetLore]

He felt the ravens pecking at them both, but his mind was so numb with grief it barely registered to him. His only friend, lie dying in his arms fighting for breath as his life's blood oozed out in a constant warm flow. His senses were aware of the truth but he still clung to the hope that some miracle would save them both. One raven swooped close and nearly pecked out his eye but he never moved. what did it matter now? He had nothing left...maybe it was best to just leave this place together with his only friend.

 

[Doctor Jax]

The dream came as it always did to young Oiko. As ever, he was sitting in a foreign city, the cobbles about him filled with his blood as it leaked upon the ground. The ravens were already hovering around him, daring to come forward a bit at a time to take a drink, though never close enough to get within Oiko's grasp. He stared at the strange city that rose around him in Gothic spires, as if someone had whittled a city down to just the barest of arched, whispy sticks, a city woven together of stone. He swallowed as he sat there, wondering what he was doing in this place.

A wolf approached him, frightening the ravens, and he sat in the boy's lap. Oiko hugged the wolf close for comfort, confused but heartened by his entrance.

"This isn't always how it ends," the wolf told him. "You don't have to die every single time."

"I don't understand what you mean," the boy said.

"Of course. You don't remember the other dreams while you're in here, do you? Only when you're awake. It will make sense. You're part of something bigger, Oiko. And one day, when you're ready, I'll explain it. But for now, I just need you to get used to being here - and knowing that this is not how it ends," the wolf stressed. "Do you hear me? It doesn't end this way every time."

"The dream?"

"No. The-"

The bell rang somewhere in the city, and Oiko woke blearily, his eyes snapping open to his bed full of brothers and sisters. He sat up and rubbed his head. Yes - he remembered the bits and pieces, the other dreams. The wolf, meant to protect him. The city, meant to be where he would die. And that this, for some reason, was part of a bigger plan, and that it did not have to end this way again.

If only the wolf could be a little more straightforward.