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Grade
12

My child, my dear sweet child

The ice’s edge shrinks inward

Salty water pools up through cracks beneath us

Not a single savory seal in sight

It’s getting warmer and warmer

Your soft, white fur now patchy and grotty

Little black paws, little black claws

Much too weak and too small 

To hunt, to feed, to survive

You grow skinny and weak

Meek coughs sputter out as we roam the frozen desert

I know you’re scared, I know you’re hungry

My blubber thins too

But you must trust me, I’ll be back, I swear

Stay in the den, my child

The others won’t ravage you there

 

I go off into the deep blue yonder

Orcas’ merry fweets turn to somber fluting

Narwhals joust with diminishing vigor

The fish school deeper and deeper

I know you’re waiting for me, my child

But I must journey onward onto bountiful lands

Where the seals dot the shorelines

And the walruses are plump and plentiful

All for you, my child

 

My paws pitter patter on the rough, craggy coast

Verdant sprigs shine through as snow recedes back

A figure comes out of the fog cloaked in muted red

With black fuzz on his paws and atop his head

Yet peaking through the layers was pure, pale flesh

So rotund...so full of meat...so -

BANG

As I lunge forward to reach nearing ambrosia

A sharp and searing pain stings straight into my side

I moan and growl in intense agony, 

Rising up tall as a glacier and flailing my limbs violently

Crimson gushes out in a furious, unyielding stream

The familiar smell of shredded prey hits my nostrils

Yet the figure remains steadfast

A bizarre creature betwixt his paws

Skinny, sleek, and immobile

Mist from its two rounded mouths

What was -

BANG

Piercing pain returns once more

I cry out yet again, but I can no longer rise

I sink down with a great thud

Crimson floods around, soaking into my fur

My eyes struggle to stay open

I did all this for you, my sweet child

I couldn’t bring back the food you needed

I’m so sorry, I know I’ve failed you

Please live on...for my fading soul…my child...