The Ruins of a Coward

Rating: PG

- Wishes of Violence

- Violence from a loved one

- Acceptance of loss

- Parental failure

- Self shame/hatred

757 words (excluding headlines)

Once I find you...

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Cloaked behind thicken fog, Luverne, with his light purple hair down and swaying in the wind, rested on a slab of marble misplaced in a forest clearing. For days, he was hunting for a giant coward that he felt owed him more than just the rare treasure of gouache comfortably sitting on his shelf back at home. Knights that worked with Luverne had told him that this giant was one of the most wanted rogue knights by rival rogue clans, and yet Luverne was the single pouflon that knew this "legend" was a mere coward.

No cave or rock nearby this coward's home was left unturned. Tens of rough and tireless pouflons assisted Luverne on his search. If even one of those ruthless knights had found this wanted pouflon, there was no doubt in Luverne's mind he would douse that boy in the darkness Luverne had to face all on his own. He was starved of news about the whereabouts of this giant, yet he was downtrodden by these useless hunts.

Since he could not locate this towering bundle of scraggly fur, he instead continued facing the days he left back at Snowhurst. Staring up into the ring of trees providing him cover from the drizzle, Luverne ached, readying himself to confront what was truly bothering him.

My child that lies to rest

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Here in the rubble of a deserted cottage, Luverne dug up a wooden bow that belonged to an instrument that held reflections of failure Luverne did not want to look back at. Standing in a living room that was more intact compared to the rest of the cottage, he took in his regret of failing a child that depended on him. After the harrowing attack upon those snowy mountains, he showed himself as being the type of weak father he had always hated all his life.

Luverne wanted so much to hold his child within his grasp, letting her rest on his side, have the strength he believed a father should've had to lift his child on his back. The amount of power he needed to focus keeping that cello supported while she sung her tune-- he lost it. His body, with its fickle terribleness showing it could hold his own darn weight, acted as if it could not support that cello. Luverne knew he was not light, much heavier than his child, and yet he couldn't pick her up.

"SHE TOOK HER!! She took my baby..." Luverne wept, and he watched his tears fall to the wooden floor like the rain the poured over his cello the day he had to say goodbye to her.

All the funds and places of safety his parents poured into him caring for that child. Gone. His teachers' lessons of love towards music. Gone. Hours, days, years, all gone. There was nothing he could do to save his gift, just slowly watching his will to play the instrument cease day by day.

"I did everything, I tried with all my will to save you," Luverne sobbed while staring at his bow.

My "love" that lied to stain me

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To see that awful ugly pouflon do this to his ability to care for his music talent... Luverne shouted to the top of his lungs in terror just thinking about what would've happened if they had a pouflon child. What would that horrible thing done to his child that could stare back at him in the eyes?

If that thing said the words she said to me to this child... if she used those whips of water... Luverne launched at the one door standing in that halved room, sinking his teeth into the hinges. Down the nearby hill, that door flew, shattering into splinters of wood. Whatever was left of that doorway, one would not want to say. Just as this artist's hooves took that cottage apart piece by piece, the hurtful creature that wanted to take so much from Luverne torn him apart within.

The familial disappointment, the absence of worth within himself, the eyes that stared at his frozen wing, the mouths that whispered tales of what happened to him. This was what "romantic love" left him. A hideous scar that was only visible to those that he used to know, forcing him to abandon them as they would not stop looking at his scar of failure. Luverne no longer could look back at having friends, he could only make new ones that could not see his life's scar. That whole experience was nothing but a stain, and in the end, left him with a stain he couldn't wash out.