Inktober 2025 - 28 - Skeletal

"Did you know that a turtle's shell is actually part of their skeleton? It's like fused vertebrae or something."

"Er… No. No, I did not know that, no."

A moment of silence ensues, only disturbed by the flipping of pages.

"Huh! Did you know that a narwhal's horn is actually a tooth?"

"No! I did not know that either! Don't you have anything better to do?"

"Than read about skeletons? I don't think so."

"Where did you even find that book, anyway?"

While his detractor crosses his arms, the reader points upward:

"Upstairs, on a shelf. I'll have you know it's an anatomy treaty, with a focus on bone structures; under the circumstances, I don't see how any other book could be more up our alley."

"Does it say anything about human skeletons?"

"I haven't found that chapter yet. But we already know there are 206 bones in the human body, although we may have lost a few."

"Why would you say that?"

"Well, it's difficult to believe that the smallest bones in our bodies, the stirrup, hammer, and anvil, which make up an important part of our auditory system, are just floating around in there without an eardrum or anything else to hang on to."

"And yet, we can still hear each other."

There is much rancour in the tone of this remark.

"We also appear to be able to see just fine despite the lack of eyeballs in our eye sockets, and speak without any issue despite no longer having lips, a tongue, vocal chords, or even lungs. So, you know…"

"And I guess there is nothing in your little science book about that, is there?"

"I haven't gotten to the end yet! You never know!"

"Those things have tables of content and glossaries for a reason. Unless 'necromancy' is listed in there, I remain of the mind that you are wasting your time with this."

"Oh, I'm sorry, I must have missed your brilliant plan to deal with our current predicament. I'd say I all ears now, but…"

"For starters, beating around the bush and calling it a 'predicament' or 'circumstances' is not helping. We are dead. We were killed in battle. And our bodies were dragged here by our enemies to be thrown into that acid pool over there, that we came out of earlier. And now, we are under the spell of a necromancer."

"Are we, though?"

"How could we not be? We are talking skeletons!"

"Well, not exactly. We weren't talking bodies before, were we? We are still ourselves, with a mind of our own. I have to say I did not expect that. I thought necromancers reanimated the skeletons of dead people as simple tools, under their total control, but we're evidently still knocking around in our skulls."

"How generous of them… But how does that help us?"

"For all we know, we are free skeletons. We can just go wherever we want."

"Except… as skeletons."

"Maybe the alternative is worse. You never know…"