smile ʚ✩ɞ beastars

𝟐𝟑

smile

" two birds on a wire. one says c'mon! and the other says i'm tired. "

   It's cold.

   It's dark.

   It's wet... with water... and red.

   In front of your 12-year-old self sits your oldest brother on his knees, looming over the body of another hare.

   The dead body.

   You were balancing yourself on your elbows to try not to fall back to the grass beneath you. You were in shock of the past events. Trembling from it, if not from that then the cold needles of water hitting your unprotected body.

   "Dor... Dorin?" You finally moved your jaws after keeping them shut for what felt like hours. It almost felt like something was keeping them from opening.

   Your brother was unfazed. He, too, was going through shock. Not because he killed someone, no. It was because he had just devoured someone. That someone happened to be the same species.

   But of course, it was far too early for even you to process that. The only thing that mattered to you was that your big brother was okay.

   Was he okay? What does it even mean anymore— is it something you ask when you're not sure if something or someone is doing well? Or, is there less of a meaning to it. Okay sounds rather careless. It's such a short and blunt response that the speaker doesn't need to hold emotion for. It's just a simple response.

   "Dorin... it's cold—"

   "Be quiet."

   He turned his head to the side, enough for you to see a little less than half his face. There was blood stained all over the fur around his mouth and it seems like some of it splattered onto the rest of his face. It reached all the way down to his chest where his saliva had dripped.