For Whom The Bell Tolls
Disclaimer: Pokémon belongs to Nintendo. I own nothing that you recognize.
Written for the Second Halloween event at the Imperial Palace
Prompt - shoulder blade
His club struck the earth, broken bone against cold, hard soil, his paws sifting through the dust that remained. When he lifted his head the wind whistled through the gaps in his helmet, creating an eerie howl that drifted high, and higher still, until it reached the spaces between the stars above.
One lone Cubone, seeking comfort amongst his mother's remains, searching for the lost echo of her voice amid bones and memories. Her remains were scattered across the earth, an arm bone here, a few ribs over there, nestled between fragments of a shoulder blade that had been chipped and worn.
Her sacrifice had kept him alive, and the skull he wore helped preserve her memory. He didn't want to do it, his paws trembling as they made contact with the smooth, pale surface. A low whimper formed on his lips, rising in volume until his agonized wails joined the cries of his companion.
At first he didn't hear it, the faint tingling of bells masked by the sound of his own discomfort. He reached for one of the larger bones in the pile at his feet, and paused, listening as Chimecho's hollow cry echoed through the trees. It was a haunting melody, its strangely serene tune filling the cold night air, and for one single, solitary moment he was at peace.
Cubone closed his eyes, and remembered the better days when his mother was still alive. She loved him, she took such good care of her little boy. She deserved better than this, and so he decided to build a lasting monument to his dearly departed mother.
He took the broken pieces and used braided stalks of grass to link the bones together. A wreath of flowers began taking shape, with dangling bits of bone attached to the circular structure. He worked long into the night, the moon rising overhead and slowly drifting across the sky. He forced himself to continue, through his sorrow, through his tears, until he finished his creation, and hung the macabre wind chime made from his mother's bones on the tree beside her body.
It was the best he could do for her. Most Cubones would take the bones and use them to make weapons and armor. But this particular pokémon was more creative than that. And whenever the wind blew through the trees, rattling the bones that were suspended from thick cords made from flowers and grass, he would hear her voice singing, calling from the great beyond.