Good boy | A flash fiction story
19 of 💯
"You're a good boy, Craggy," Perky petted the rhinowolf. The animal sat at his side, barely moving, enjoying the old man's company. Perky rocked the chair back and forth on the porch of the shack he had built himself, back when he was strong and his eyes worked.
"I need to ask you something, boy. Being blind out here is hard, you know," Perky said, "After Linda died, I thought I was gonna be alone forever, shooting randomly every time a bandit came to steal anything. There ain't anything to steal, you know. So they go and I stay. Alone. But you? You're just the company I needed."
The man stared at the horizon, his eyes milky, but warm.
"I mean, I try to think of my plants as friends, but let's be honest, plants are stupid. I don't know how long you're planning to stay for, but you can be my pet if you like. I'd like that." The man struck the animal's rough skin. "I really would."
The rhinowolf licked his hand, the horn on its face almost scrapping its new friend.
"I guess that's a yes," Perky smiled, a small tear finding its way to the corner of his eye. "Alright! Why don't we celebrate a little? Wanna play?" The rhinowolf stood up, eyes on Perky. "Go get that weird toy of yours."
The animal darted to the other side of the shack and came back with a severed foot in its mouth. Craggy dropped the dry thing in front of Perky, a deformed appendage, toes where there shouldn't be, ripped skin in the place where a leg should be, a bone poking out.
The man grabbed the thing and threw it as far as he could, the rhinowolf dashed to fetch it.
"A pet," Perky laughed to himself. "Perky has a pet."
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