I had a hard time thinking of something to do for this prompt but I have already skipped a couple prompts for lack of inspiration and I don’t want to skip too many. So, with that being said, this was the best I could come up with for the word splat!

My parents property had a creek that ran right along side it. It traveled through the fields and was a pretty long stretch of water. My dad would walk down the creek and go duck hunting with one of his dogs every once and a while. One of the days, I wanted to go with him. I didn’t care much about hunting but I was always up for an adventure outdoors.

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We walked for a while and didn’t see much until finally we saw some ducks in the water. They started to fly up and my dad shot one before it could get too far. His dog retrieved it, like a good hunting dog does. My dad handed the duck to me and told me to hold it by the neck, so I did. I carried it for a few minutes like this.

It seemed pretty large when it was up close and I held my arm out so it didn’t knock up against my body. It’s body started to sway back and forth from the weight and then before I realized what even happened, the duck’s head popped off and it’s body fell to the ground. I stopped and stood there for a second, just staring at this now severed duck head I was holding in my hand. There wasn’t a bunch of blood or anything. I don’t remember any blood at all to be honest. Just a duck head…in my hand. My dad was ahead of me and didn’t see what had happened until I finally said, “Uuuuummm, daaaaaaaaad!?” I was so shocked at that moment that I didn’t even know what to do. I wasn’t scared of it but just totally shocked by what had happened. I don’t know how else to explain it. So I just stood there, holding this head and staring at it. My dad carried the duck the rest of the way home but I don’t really remember what happened other than that. I just remember being completely paralyzed by the headless duck…or rather a bodyless duck. I also remember that I never went hunting with my dad again. 😆

So…yea…that’s my “splat” story! Sorry, I know I have a lot of animal lovers that follow me but then again it is Halloween time, right? Just a spooky story about the headless duck…bodyless duck…something like that! 😛

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed my sketch. It was nice to do an animal again after drawing so many people portraits. I am not good at drawing people nor do I really enjoy it but that’s the point of Inktober right? To practice something we’re not good at so we can get better. I feel like I have improved, or at least see where I can improve. Plus, I just like having this collection of sketches that I can go back to and remember good times with my dad. …Or traumatizing times! 🤣 Sorry Mr. Duck.

Don’t lose your heads, free spirits!