This was, quite possibly, the saddest day in Friend-Ship's life.
The morning had started like any other school day; he ate cereal in front of the television, then brushed his teeth, grabbed his bag, and was out the door. His owner's stable was a little ways away from the schoolhouse, so he had to get up a little early and do a bit of walking to get there on time. As he was walking, however, he heard a sound in the grass and underbrush down away from the road - rustling, growling, and - a cry of pain!
With a gasp, he ran down the embankment and into the field as fast as he could, the cries and snarling continuing all the while. "G-get away!" he yelled, and something small and red-orange streaked out towards the treeline. He found the animal that had been attacked - oh no.
This was a wild animal, he was fairly sure, and a wild animal should have been running away from him. But this creature was too hurt to run, its breath shallow, and - oh, there was blood everywhere. He wavered a moment, not knowing what to do - should he pick it up and carry it somewhere? Would it let him? Where would he bring it? Was there even a vet in town? No - someone would be able to help, surely. He had to try! He gently laid a hoof on the animal's side - its heart was beating so fast - but then it sighed, and its heart wasn't beating anymore.
Friend-Ship knew what death was, in theory, but this was the first time he had ever encountered it up close and personal. He felt helpless, confused, and deeply, overwhelmingly sad, and like any child would do when faced with even one of these emotions, let alone a mix of all three, he began to cry.
Posted: Mon Jan 19, 2015 11:39 pm
Penny Dreadful yawned widely as she walked the road to school. She had been up all night writing again and her head bobbed as she struggled to stay awake. The filly would have stayed home if she could, but if she missed more school it would be a issue. At least if she was sleeping in class, she would be actually in class and it would be less trouble then skipping.
In the cold, quiet morning, the sound of crying was loud and echoed in the stillness. Ears perked, she listened for the direction of the quiet sobbing and after a few moments, found the trail in the morning dew and trampled grasses down the embankment. Following the lead cautiously, she slowly came upon the crying colt in trees. She was about to inquire to if the boy was ok, when she saw the cause over his shoulder.
Oh. Poor thing, and poor foal.
Penny felt awkward and unsure what to do. She could creep away and leave the colt to his mourning, he hadn't noticed her there yet. But he seemed pretty broken up about it. After a moment more of thought, she cleared her throat and spoke up. "Poor thing, we should have a funeral for it."
"I - !" Friend-Ship jumped when he heard someone talking just behind him, startled out of his crying jag. When he turned, he saw - who was that? Someone from school... who didn't turn up very often, he remembered. What was her name? Something about money? He turned back to the animal - a possum, his memory added, belatedly supplying at least one name. He turned back to the flutter, sniffled, and said, "Y... yeah. We should. Where... ?" he trailed off, looking around a bit dazedly. Where were you supposed to bury possums?
Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2015 12:01 am
Oh, this colt was in her class. Friend-ship, yes, that was the one. Looking around the wooded area they were in, she gestured to the ground right next to the creature. "Here is fine. After all, I'm sure it lived around this area." The filly shuffled to stand next to Shipper, dropping her school bag to the side and knelt onto the cold ground. "Like this.." she dug her hooves into the damp earth and began to push away dirt and leaves, starting to make a make shift grave. She gestured for him to help.
Going back to the digging for a few moments she looked up at Shipper's large, puffy blue eyes. "First time you've seen a dead animal..?" she inquired.
It seemed sort of sad to bury it right where it died - but then, it seemed disrespectful to move its body, too. When she gestured, Friend-Ship solemnly nodded and began to dig.
To her question, he said, "Um," and thought - he didn't know what to think. He scooped some more dirt to give himself some time, then he continued, "Yeah, it is. I mean, outside of cartoons and st- and, stuff, I guess."
You know that doesn't count, he chided himself. Why bring it up?
Scoop, scoop, awkward pause. To fill the silence, he asked her, "H-have you - seen one before?"
Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2015 12:30 am
Penny nodded knowingly as she dug. Most foals probably hadn't had much of an encounter with real death. It would be a shock to almost any of them. "Yes." she said pointedly, then after a second thought, followed it up with; "a few times actually uhm...I..live near a heavily wooded part of the park and you know..sometimes you find animals who've shuffled the mortal coil." After a heavy pause she added. "It's still sad though."
After a few more minuets of digging, the filly deemed that the hole was deep enough for their purposes. She stood, dusting off her hooves and debated on how best to move the body. A wild animal like this might have have diseases or nasty things living in it's fur, touching it directly was ill advised. Penny spied a large stick that would do the job to nudge the corpse in the hole but it would be an indelicate procedure and she worried Shipper might be greatly upset by it.
"Hey..go over there.." she pointed at a large bit of brush nearby. "Try and find some flowers or some pretty weeds for the funeral. Get a good hoof full of them."
Once the colt was distracted, she would do the deed.
Friend-Ship glanced at the flutter - what she'd said about her occasional finds in the forest was... a little weird, but it made sense when she continued. He nodded - it was sad. He couldn't imagine it ever being otherwise. He wondered how often she'd seen things like this, that it didn't make her cry anymore. That was a little sad, too.
When the hole was dug, he followed her lead and brushed off his hooves. He nodded along and agreed with her next suggestion - a funeral definitely needed flowers. He ranged out a little ways and plucked up whatever he could find. It took him a bit - long enough for any sort of indelicate corpse-prodding to take place unobserved. He returned with a small bundle of roadside weeds and wildflowers - maybe not much, but the effort had been made, and he felt that counted for quite a bit.
"Um, somebody says something next, right? Something... nice, about the uh." He floundered, looking for the right word. "Dead... person. Animal."
Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2015 9:20 pm
Penny grabbed the stick as soon as Shipper had turned and waded a little bit away. It was a bit of a effort, as she was a bit smaller than most baby phony and it took a bit of work to poke/roll/crowbar the corpse into the hole. It landed with a bit of a loud THUMP. The flutter looked up to make sure that the colt wasn't watching and used the stick to sort of push the opossum to it's side so it looked a little more natural and a lot less...splat.
She whipped the stick away about the time Shipper came back with his bundle of weeks and wildflowers. "Oh those are lovely." she said, nodding to what he'd found.
"Hmm..a eulogy..uhmm..." she looked down at the body a little helplessly. "We could take turns saying nice things..?"
"Yeah," he mumbled, and stared mournfully at the crumpled body in the shallow grave. He felt the weight of the situation settle on him, knew he had to speak - but what nice things could you say about an animal you'd never met?
He decided to start with the only thing he could really think to say;
"I'm sorry... that it had to be like this. I hope you'll be remembered well."
Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2015 10:06 pm
Penny reached out and patted Shipper's shoulder a little awkwardly. "I'm sure it will be."
Feeling it was her turn Penny said the only things she could say, which were biological facts about opossums.
"Oh Opossum, you had many teeth which you used to eat many things like berries, insects, and whatever you could get into your paws. You could eat anything because your immune system is very robust and you could even stand the poison of some deadly snakes and not die. I'm sure that your progeny will carry on any special traits that you might have had to better the species as a whole."
Penny kicked a little dirt on top of the body. She'd seen it done in some movies.
"W-well said," Friend-Ship mumbled uncertainly, and kicked a little more dirt in. "Ashes to ashes and dust to dust. Rest in peace."
He paused awkwardly, still sniffling a little, then started kicking the rest of the dirt in, slowly, then faster and faster, chest heaving. In short order, he had pushed all the loosened earth back into place. He stared at it for a moment, then tentatively patted it to press it back into place a little.
Posted: Mon May 25, 2015 7:04 am
Penny blinked in surprise but didn't interfere. When the tiny colt was done, she put a hoof on his shoulder again and patted it, this time more warmly.
"I think you buried him pretty well." she also patted the dirt. "Do you feel better?"
"... A little," Friend-Ship allowed with a sniff. "I don't know when I'll feel all the way better, though...
"Um. Thanks for... helping me out with this, Penny." Penny Dreadful, that was her name. It had sounded so strange to him the first time, and she had seemed so strange... But like her woodland finds, all she needed was a little extra explanation - she was perfectly normal once you gave her the chance.
And very kind.
"We should... probably get walking," he said after another awkward pause. "We're gonna be late for school..."
Posted: Mon May 25, 2015 7:25 am
"Oh.." she'd completely forgotten she'd was on her way to school. "Yes, yes we should. Miss Glory will be very worried."
Penny walked back to where she'd dropped her saddle bags and wriggled back into them, dusting some of the dirt off her. "You really did the kindest thing you could for it you know." she tilted her head towards the area they'd come from. "And you're gonna be sad awhile, and that's ok too." The filly was quiet for a moment. "If you..want to talk, you can talk to me..if you want."
This was, quite possibly, the saddest day in Friend-Ship's life.
