"All right, Sammy … are you ready?"
The plush lynx peeking out of Sascha's backpack didn't look as convinced as the little bear hybrid was, but still he seemed to nod ever so slightly.
"Then off we go. Hold on to something."
Speeding off with his bike he took a few sharp turns, easily staying on the racing line of the his self-made racing course. Picking up more speed he was almost flying down the street.
"Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee...EEP...WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
crash
It had been a great idea. Or .. should have been.
Or in fact … it all sounded better in his imagination.
Reality however wasn't half as fun and in the end it proved to be very, very painful.
When Sascha prepared his obstacle course for his bike he didn't calculate for the pretty steep street and the fact that the road surface in one of the corners was covered with sand.
His tire slipped and he lost control of his bike. The crash into their neighbor's wooded fence was hard, loud and painful and the lil ursine got his wind knocked out of him. When he managed to pick himself up again, Sascha was pretty banged up and covered in bruised and abrasions.
Sammy, who got thrown out of the back-pack, was lying a couple of meters away in the garden, seemingly unhurt. But Sascha wasn't taking any chances with his best friend. Snatching up the plush lynx and his scratched bike he hobbled home, trying his best not to cry. He was a big boy after all, wasn't he? Just as he entered the house he walked straight into his step mum who took him and Sammy right into the bathroom, trying to comfort the sniffling little bear cub who finally lost his fight against the tears. Lucky for him he wasn't severely hurt but his injuries just hurt too much and a little shock was settling in as well.
Crying into Sammy's fur he was undressed and his ripped clothes put aside and he had to sit down on the toilet seat. Carefully his mum wiped away the blood, cleaned the wounds and then placed some band-aids on his bruises... and then a few more for good measure, because she knew the colorful band-aids for kids (with some get well wishes printed upon) would cheer him up a bit. Even Sammy, who was lying on the changing table, got his share of the colorful band-aids and even some bandages.
"Are you feeling a little better now, honey?" his mum asked him. "Shall I make you and Sammy some hot cacao against the hurting?"
"With marshmallows? Sascha sniffled, slowly regaining his composure.
"Of course with marshmallows. Two with every cup".
"Three"
"Well, okay three... Keep sitting there for a moment, I'll call you once the cacao is ready, ok?"
"Oki, mum" A few tears were still running down the little bear's face and Sammy looked like he was about to cry as well, but the prospect of getting some hot cacao made Sascha and Sammy feel better already.

Wow.
Plain and simply .. wow.
dulcis really did a masterpiece of art, showing my little bear after a self-imposed bike crash. The background story to this picture is based on a real-life event, although I did not have Sammy and of course I wasn't padded to break the fall.
I really, really love this picture, even if I can almost feel Sascha's bruises myself. The emotions, the pose and the facial expressions of both Sammy and Sascha are simply awesome... as is the amazing level of detail.
Like the get well-wishes on the band-aids.
Thank you so very much ... that's a really great picture and I really wanted to give the picture a fitting backstory.

(And no, I won't tag it as mature for some little bruises and a lil implied blood.)