When Bones Turn Black

Chapter 1: Clouds, Bread, and Ambiguous Rocks

"Mono, there is no such thing as a 'depressed cloud'."

"But you're telling me that it doesn't look sad? Just look–look at it!"

"It just looks like a stupid puffy white thing."

"A depressed, stupid puffy white thing."

Mira sighed deeply, wondering why she even bothered to say anything, "You know what? Fine. Keep your depressed cloud delusions, I don't care. You can be dumb if you want to."

Mono huffed, crossing her arms, "They are not delusions. Someday, one way or another, I'll prove to you that clouds can be sad too and you've just been ignorant this whole time."

Mira glanced over to Rayne, who wasn't even paying attention to the conversation anymore, "Rayne, get over here and convince this idiot that clouds don't have feelings."

"Can't. Busy."

"You're literally just staring at a flower."

"Yes. Busy."

This wasn't an uncommon sight. Residents of the nearby village of Lockwood would often see three young adults, two girls and a boy, sitting on the grassy hills right outside the town borders. Sometimes they were sharing a meal, sometimes they were throwing rocks at each other, but mostly they were just laying on the grass, watching the clouds drift by and having conversations like these.

The three of them looked so different you would have never guessed they lived in the same kingdom- hell, they didn't even look like they belonged to the same world.

They all had some kind of animal qualities, though they still looked like humans for the most part; Mira with the features of a wolf, Mono a cat-like being, and Rayne with the grand wings of a hawk. They jokingly referred to themselves as the "Wild Siblings" once, and the name stuck. Sure, they weren't blood-related, but they might as well have been from the way they did –or rather didn't– get along.

"Hey, I know!" Mono piped up, moving on from clouds, "Let's play 'Name that Ambiguous Rock Figure'!"

The other two stared at her with the exact same expression on their faces, Rayne even tearing his attention away from the oh-so-important flower, "What?"

Mono continued, pointing out the stacks of rocks scattered across the hillside, "Find a stack of rocks, and say what you think it looks like! Like... that one," She pointed, "That one looks like... umm...a decapitated squirrel! Mira, you go."

Mira rolled her eyes and gestured in the general direction of a pile of rocks, "That one looks like a cup with holes in it, because it's dumb and useless and so is this game."

Ignoring the sarcasm, Mono turned to Rayne, "Your turn!"

Unlike Mira, Rayne actually seemed to put a little bit of effort into this. He took a while choosing a rock pile and studied it intently, though that might have just been him squinting from the sun in his eyes. "Hmm... this one looks like a sickly Victorian child, if I tilt my head the right way."

Mira stared at the pile of rocks. One of them fell off. "Please explain how that looks anything like a person."

Rayne shrugged, "I don't know... maybe I've just got sickly children on the brain? There's been a lot of them around lately,"

"That's true," Mono remarked, "I've noticed that as well- a lot of people are getting sick lately, huh? I went to the market the other day for groceries, and almost all the shops were closed."