▪ Username: Soriams
▪ Whelkon Name: Brooklyn
▪ Why you chose this name:
Having lived in the US my entire life, I looked at this poor Whelkon and immediately thought of the few times I have visited New York City. Though I've never actually lived there, I've seen the streets and people and I can feel the heart of that city in him. Brave and strong he could overcome all adversity, yet at the same time, he his utterly vulnerable and alone. As people move about, their minds blind to the pain of others, so too is he isolated from the rest of his kind and the lush embrace of nature that his soul so craves. ▪ Whelkon Name: Brooklyn
▪ Why you chose this name:
▪ Story:
((Well, the story I wrote is like 3x too long for the form, so I'm just going to post an excerpt. If you have time, I'd love it if you'd read the unabridged version anyway! It answers a bunch of the questions this little bit raises. I've posted it here.))
The soft voice lifting up from the riverside startled Brooklyn, and he leap back, catching his antlers in the branches above and sending a shower of blossoms swirling down to the ground around him. Did.. Did I really just hear that? It had been so long since he had heard the sound of another whelkon’s voice that he had almost forgotten what it sounded like. Eventually though, his curiosity overcame his trepidation, and he looked over the edge of the embankment. There, standing flat-footed in the mud is a little whelkan, her fur as black as the mucky water swirling past her legs. ”What on earth are you doing down there?” He said, in a wavering voice, scratchy from disuse.
”Oh thank goodness, can you help me out of here? There was a flood and it washed me all the way down here…” She paused for a moment, hanging her head wearily. ”And now I’m stuck…”
Brooklyn looks at her quizzically, finding her lack of knowledge difficult to understand. ”Of course you are. There’s no way you’ll ever be able to climb those cement walls. You’ll have to go over to the spillway and climb out there.” The whelkan just stares up at him with wide, scared eyes, not understanding what he was trying to tell her. With a sigh he backs up away from the edge and calls back to her. ”Come on, this way. I’ll show you.”
”But… But… That’s the way I came! There’s nothing there!” She called out, sounding desperate, but he could hear the splashing of her hooves as she followed him upstream. Knowing that she is at least smart enough to take good advice when she hears it, he didn’t bother to answer and just walked on to the other end of the park. The humans have built up a little dam to hold back part of the water into a pond, and with the recent rains it has swollen to the point where it tumbles down the stairs in a sift swath of white water.
Standing at the top, he looked down on her once again. ”See? Much easier. Just climb up the stairs.” He said, feeling a bit smug as though talking to a child. Yet it seemed as though something else was wrong, as she lookd even more terrified than before. ”Come on then, what’s wrong? I know the water is moving kind of fast, but you’re already soaked. It won’t hurt you to get a little more wet.”
The welkan shook her head violently, as though he had suggested she grow wings and fly out of the culvert. ”No, it’s not that… There’s a human up there! Can’t you smell him?”
Brooklyn lookd at her incredulously and shook his head. She has got to be kidding… This whole dammed place reeks of humans, and she is worried about one of them? Give me a break… Truth be told, he had become so accustomed to their scent that he hadn’t even noticed there might be one nearby. With a sigh, he followd his nose a bit further down the runoff until he picked up the sour stench of alcohol. There on the cement wall separating park from river, a tattered, tired old man sits with a bottle in his hand, looking sightlessly out over the water below. ”What, him?” He calls back, and received nothing more than the sound of her nervous prancing in reply. ”Oh, come on, really? He’s so out of it he doesn’t even know we’re here.” As if to offer proof, he walks up to him and snuffles at the drunk’s ear, who did nothing more than reach up and swat at him limp-wristed as though he were a fly. ”See? Now climb out of there, because I’m sure as heck not coming down to pull you out.”
It was then the welkan’s turn to look on in disbelief, but his little charade was apparently enough to convince her and she quickly made her way up the stairs, nearly tripping over her own feet in her hurry to be out of there. She leapt out onto the grass and immediately ran behind Brooklyn, putting him between her and the human. Eyes wide with a sort of morbid curiosity, she stares at the homeless man as he sipped at his dink, the fur on her chest gently brushing his flank. ”Uh… Come on, this way.” Brooklyn says after a moment, feeling awkward and uncomfortable from her closeness. He turned, and led her back to his trees, where he pushed beneath the riverside shrubs and settled down on the ground amongst the scattered blossoms.
Shivering from the cold and soaked to the bone, she tried ineffectually to shake herself dry. ”T-Thank you… Umm… My name is Karona, by the way.” She said haltingly as a chill griped her thin frame. She then looked at him expectantly for a long moment, but when it became clear that this welkon had no idea what she is waiting for, she asked: ”And uh, you are?”
Brooklyn blinks in confusion for a moment before answering slowly. ”My name… My name is Brooklyn…” He replied. It had been so long since he had used it, he had almost forgotten that he had a name.
Karona seemed to smile at him, and take their simple exchange of names as some sort of invitation, as she immediately settled down on the ground next to him. Surprised, he flinched back from her touch as she snuggled into his warmth, her chilled body still shaking against his. ”Brooklyn… What a strange name… Anyway, thank you again. For saving me…” She said softly, her words starting to trail off. The weariness in her voice growing heavier, and she eventually rests her head on the ground next to him.
Unsure of what to do, Brooklyn just lookd at her. How… How could this have happened? Out of nowhere his solitude had been shattered, and it had shaken him to the core. To have accepted him so easily, without question or fear, and to take comfort simply from his presence, it maked him wonder just what it is that his life had been missing. Poor thing is completely soaked, even her undercoat is drenched… I can’t just leave her like this… What do I do now?
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