The Pit of Despair

So, in case I wasn’t clear, I have never seen this girl in my life. What you see there is not an exaggeration. It is not a shortening of what happened either. That’s exactly what happened. She jumped up out of no place WAY too close to me, took a good size gasp of breath, let out a barbaric yawp, and then proceeded to climb on me. She mentioned her name, but she mentioned MORE emphatically her interest in where we would be going. She mentioned these from her very comfortable perch upon my spine. It was as though that space of spine was her’s and her’s alone since the before time. Since the long long ago.  With no reins to speak of, she made due with the standard choke-hold that all children are born knowing the way tigers are born knowing only to kill.

Truth be told, it was strangely a perfect fit for us.

Something else to consider. She popped up within spitting distance of me. And after being under water, a body must first exhale the breath they were holding. The forcefulness of the exhaling breath is directly proportional to the amount of time that it was held under water. If we take that into account, I can only assume that this little girl was holding her breath for somewhere around 3 hours or more. And, alas, for this exhale breath is not breath alone. It is also mixed with the naturally funky vapors of a child’s lungs and disgusting mouth, coupled with the moisture form the pool-water running down her face, and coagulated with the traces of snot that adorn all childrens’ faces. This concoction of barbarous breath was a shot-gun blast in my face…  Complete with her yawp.

…and she was not alone.

But I’ll tell you more about that in the future.

IN OTHER NEWS
This is my favorite comic so far. I worked really hard on it and I am really proud of what I have done here on a craft level. Not bragging. Not really. I’m usually really critical, but I really like this one. I hope you do too. Hope it was worth the wait.

(((OuT)))

Gabriel Dunston
-PookeyG-