[[Drabble]] Bows to Bones

Prehistoric worlds mostly seemed the same. Hot, humid, and not a whole lot of grass. But a whole lot of rocks. And bugs.

All of these plagued the Repairman in some way as he tried to steer his cart up a slope. The way was rough, and he could feel his ink become runnier than normal. Marie wasn’t helping. Not because she didn’t try, but because she was assigned to “keeping watch”. He wasn’t too worried for either of them, though; most carnivores don’t care for ink or paint.

Still, he thought, at least he can keep his job another day…

He reflected on this as he wiped his brow, flinging several confused mosquitoes off of himself. The way up was slow going, and the heat certainly wasn’t helping. Even if the way was rocky as all get-out, he was going to do it by himself.

Halfway up, he took a quick glance at his so-called “assistant”. He had to admit, she was looking pretty vigilant. She was looking this way and that, and even her large green bow was looking tense and alert. If there was some kind of primordial creature after them, she would be ready. Thankfully, it wouldn’t come to that, but still…

He would never admit it, but he could respect her enthusiasm, if nothing else.

Marie seemed to notice her older brother looking at her.

“All clear so far!” she called out, cheerfully.

The Repairman rolled his eyes and continued uphill.

Finally,about twenty minutes later, he was almost…to…the…top…when…

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”

The Repairman jumped in shock. Big mistake. The cart slammed into his chest and they both rolled down…down…down…

He couldn’t hear it over his own screaming, but the feminine yell was still going…slowly fading away…

WHAM!

The cart stopped, with the help of a boulder some distance away from the hill. The Repairman was little more than a sticker on the rock. After peeling off and bringing his shape back, he looked around frantically.

What in the world…? Oh, no…

His eyes widened as they passed Marie’s post. She wasn’t there.

Guilt and panic hit the inkblot like a runaway cart.

“Marie!”

Oh, why did he have her keep watch in prehistory? The land of dinosaurs?!

He ran around all over the place, looking for any sign of his sister. Any!

“Marie!”

After what felt like an eternity, he heard something other than the buzzing of insects and the bubbling of distant tar pits. He heard…

…whimpering?

It was coming from behind a nearby bush. He peeked in to see Marie, but something was different…

In place of a bow on the blue paint spatter, it looked like she had a cartoonishly clean bone on her head, kept on by non-specific plant matter. She was tentatively poking it. Every time, a small toing! rang out.

“Please…” she quietly begged. “I just want my bow back…”

The Repairman pinched the space between his eyes. All this time worrying, and this was the mess she got herself into…?

“All right,” he groaned, “what happened?”

Marie looked up at the inkblot, startled by his sudden appearance. She could feel her cheeks turn reddish as she explained, eyes darting from side to side.

“W-well…”  she stammered, “um, I was keeping watch and I dunno, nothing was, nothing was happening, so I, uh, just stretched, and began to play with my bow…”

She poked the bone again, with the same toing!

“It turned out it was kinda stretchy, so I pull and pull and next thing I know…BOING!”

She looked up at the bone, and began to get a little teary-eyed.

“And now I don’t know what to do and I’m really sorry for not keeping watch but this is freaking me out howdoesitstillfeellikemybowalskscvmns…”

The Repairman sighed as the rest of what she said became gibberish. He shambled over and placed his hands on either side of the bone.

“ascvkwe–huh?” Marie stopped speaking, not knowing what her brother was up to.

Then, in a flash, the inkblot clapped his hands together, and the bone seemed to squish between them. He removed his hands and stepped back to admire his handiwork.

“AUGH! What did you–?”

She stopped, and felt her head again. Fabric…familiar fabric…was on top of it.

Quickly, she glanced up to see a bit of familiar green.

“Hurk!” exclaimed the Repairman as the air was expelled out of him.

“Thankyouthankyouthankyou!” said Marie, giving her brother a big hug.

After the initial shock, the Repairman awkwardly patted her back.

“Yeah…It’s fine…”

No way was he going to admit his relief.

“…I should probably go back to fixing the Wall…”

“Oh! You need me to keep watch again?”

“…Actually…I, um…might need help getting up that hill…”