Chapter 6 - A Last Bit of Warmth (Epilogue)

Timber's eyes finally come out of hibernation to witness a sunset, oranges and yellows and pinks painted across the sky. His hazel eyes twinkle with delight at the Painter's creation. "It's beautiful, isn't it, Maw?" Timber whispered. He snuggles up closer to the creature's stiff and cold body….Maw? Timber pressed his ear against the creature's chest, but couldn't hear any thumping that was like music. Its chest felt dry instead of slimy from the usual mucus that excreted from its pores. He sits up a bit to try to shake the creature awake using its paws, but the creature doesn't even flinch or move its webby digits. "Maw?" Timber cracks. Pressing even deeper against the creature's chest, he tries to hear even the slightest thump, but he is met with silence. He rubs his paw gently along the scaly chest, whimpering, "M-maw?" He gets up to at least see if being on the creature's chest was restricting its heart from beating, or perhaps suffocating its chest from having room to breathe. And then he saw the crime scene: the lime-green blood that had been pouring out of its neck and neck less head and dying the sand, its eyes had rolled to back of his head, its tongue hanging completely out of its mouth and no longer reaching out for water, its gills not even opening and closing slightly, its pale skin practically having its scales cracking and wrinkling and peeling off, and its dark blue veins branching to all parts of its body. "MAW?" Timber yelps. He looked for its obsidian eyes again, but that purple gleam had faded away. He picks up the head of the creature, holding it in his arms like it's his newborn child. As tears welled up in his eyes, he pressed the bloody head against his furry cheek and circled it around, searching for a last bit of warmth.