Snow

Story by Araea Swiftwind on SoFurry

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#1 of Writing Corner Writing Practice

This is my first writing submission on this site. I joined the Writing Corner writer's group recently and this submission is in answer to the first prompt: "Snow is falling, but it's not white... it's red." The submission is supposed to be around 1000 words. This story is closer to 1400 words, but whatever. Close enough. Feel free to comment and let me know what you think. I appreciate constructive criticism and any and all thoughts pertaining to your experience of the story. If you feel like this should have more tags or you would like to air a grievance of some kind, please let me know in a private message, thank you.


Salty absolutely hated the cold. He was not built for it at all. It was days like these that he wished he hadn't had to move away from home. Not that home even existed anymore. Not that he missed the people who birthed him and left him to suffer their neglect. Not that he wasn't grateful that Araea took him in. But why did they have to live in the mountains? The summers were fantastic. The scorching heat, the warm breezes, the brilliant sun and gorgeous blue skies. But these fucking winters! Snow, ice, cold, overcast skies, and stupid drivers endangering everyone else around them. He could definitely do without all of it.

An unexpected sneeze snuck up on him and his eyes closed with the force of the blast followed by a full body shudder. Damn weather. Damn cold. The only upside at the moment was that it hadn't yet started to snow. Thank God for small mercies. Salty looked up and down the street, hoping that the bus he was waiting for would magically appear, even though he'd gotten to the stop early and if anything, the buses were often late. That was another thing he hated about his life at the moment: the lack of his own transportation.

He'd thought by now that his life would be different. Technically, he was an adult. Should have been married with kids by now. Should've had his own place. But according to the government, he was still a child. Stupid fucking humes and their laws. Was it really that progressive to accept the scientific notion that Dogs age faster than Humans? Why couldn't they just listen and implement? They went far enough in that direction to agree that Dogs aged fast enough to be enrolled in school earlier than their Human counterparts. But that was it. God, he wished the bus would just show up already. He needed to get out of his own head. This constant bitching about things he couldn't change was giving him a headache.

Salty decided that the best way to mentally change the topic was to focus on something else. Like today's job interview. How would that go? Would this employer be Dog friendly? Did he have enough experience? Would there be someone infinitely more qualified that would edge him out of the running? Okay, so maybe focusing on the impending interview wasn't a great idea either...

The small Dog's eyes panned the area. There were tons of cars whizzing past in both directions. Some trucks, some sedans, some SUVs. A few cyclists passed heading south. Not many people were out walking on such a cold day. It looked like there might be a guy sitting at the bus stop down the road on the other side. He'd likely get picked up first, unless the bus had already passed and was heading back to the station. Salty looked at his watch to check the time. It was still several minutes before the posted time at the stop, which meant that the bus _had_already gone past heading south and was making its way back to the station.

As Salty continued to wait, something wet landed on one of his unprotected ears. His ear twitched, but he didn't pay the sensation any attention. However, when more wet things landed on his ears, the top of his head, and the tip of his nose, he started paying closer attention. It had unfortunately started snowing. Just fucking perfect. Like the day could get any worse. Salty looked up and around, actually paying attention to his surroundings again and noticed something off about the snow. It looked a little...pink. He rubbed his eyes, certain he must be seeing things. Snow wasn't ever pink.

A larger flake landed on the back of his paw. He raised his paw up to eye level to inspect the flake. It was beautiful, but definitely not a normal snowflake. It also wasn't pink. It was... red! Why was the snowflake red of all things?

As more and more flakes fell around and on Salty, everything around him started to grow hazy. He could barely see the cars anymore. The sounds around him began distorting and he felt as though the whole world was tilting on its axis. And was it spinning faster than before? Was that even possible? Salty blinked slowly as his jumbled thoughts began to slow to a trickle. What was happening to him? And when did he close his eyes? How did he wind up on the ground? Salty smiled softly as he finally felt warm. That was nice. He liked the warmth. It felt as though a warm fuzzy blanket had been wrapped around his whole body.

And unknown amount of time later, Salty slowly blinked his eyes open. He still felt incredibly warm and comfortable. He seemed to be lying down on something soft and a bit squashy. Maybe a bed? His thoughts were still sluggish, barely wanting to move in any direction, let alone a productive one. Salty tried to kick start them by focusing on his other senses. What did he hear? A soft whooshing, almost like breath or a heartbeat. What did he smell? Huh, that was odd. He didn't smell anything. How was that possible? Everything had a smell, especially himself. But, even though he took several deep breaths through his nose, he got...nothing. Almost as if he didn't have a nose to smell through in the first place. Now, almost panicking, Salty tried to open his eyes further so he could check his sight. What could he see in this strange place? Nothing it all, as it turns out. There was nothing to be seen except blackness. No faint shapes in the gloom. No specks of light anywhere. Nothing but darkness surrounded him no matter where he tried to look. And try he did.

That was when he realized that he couldn't move. His body wouldn't obey him. His eyes were the only things he seemed to have control over. They blinked a few times as if to prove his point. He tried to twitch his nose and as far as he could tell, nothing happened. He tried to wiggle his back paws, then his front. Nothing. He tried wagging his tail. If he didn't know any better, he'd have thought he didn't even have one.

Now the panic was really setting it. What had happened to him? Where was he? What was going to happen to him now? Tears started welling up in his eyes and he desperately wished that Araea was there to make him feel better. She was good at that. He'd even take Penny at this point. She gave good cuddles, even when he didn't want any. Even_Dainty_would be better than this nothingness. The tears slipped down his nose on either side, leaving dark tracks in his cream fur in their wake.

Just as he was gearing up for a full panic-induced sobfest, what sounded like a door opened. There was no opening in front of him, so he could only deduce that the door was behind him. And, as he couldn't move his body, he had no way to tell where he was or who might have opened up the door. The light from the door didn't even illuminate anything worthwhile, just blank grey wall. He couldn't even tell what it was made out of. There were no visible seems, no visible texture...no real defining features outside of its color at all.

His breath came out in a stutter and his heart nearly stopped when he felt a large paw land on his shoulder and roughly roll him over so that he was lying on his back. The change in position told him three things: he was naked as the day he was born, his bright red member was standing at attention and leaking like a faucet, and there was a giant panda standing over him with a lecherous smirk on his face, also naked as they day he was born.

Salty closed his eyes tightly and wished he could fall back into unconsciousness. He had no idea why his body was reacting like it was. He had no idea who this creepy bear was. And he _definitely_didn't want to know what came next.

End.