A fox shivered against the stony roots,
sick from eating cherries,
the only food any could find that winter.
So I brought it in.

Beneath the scabs and sucking ticks
I felt a heartbeat like two beads
rattling in a glass.  I fed the beast
broth drop by drop from my fingers
till it was strong enough to lift its head
and lap at a thin gruel.

A white crow tapped at the glass,
spying the eyes of the fox
shining like cherries,
like coins to be stolen–but that was the fox’s life,
and it rose in self-defense and hunger
for the unhealthy bird, which lurched away
cawing.

I found the bird much later
on the grass beneath the tree,
white holes full of worms burned in its wings.

The fox sniffed the carcass while
market bells rang, which he feared
as though his pelt were luxurious.
The sound of a hunter’s gun had not been heard
in many months, but each of my heavy steps
frightened the fox.

“I nursed you,” I said.  “I wouldn’t hurt you.”

Winking lights from the cherry tree
blinded me and the fox was gone.

My story “Pokky Man, A Film by Vernor Hertzwig” is appearing in this collection, just announced for an October release.  Joe Lansdale’s novella, Dread Island, will be published first as a standalone book, available at Comic-Con.

Link to IDW’s press release.

Let me add that I have gotten partly through the detailed tutorial, may never actually play this game, but I still enjoy the stories it generates…and this is beautifully illustrated as well.

Not a Hipstamatic shot.  Scan of an actual Lomograph, shot on actual film, a long time ago.

Also, an excellent addendum here.