What the Heart Wants

io9 has a regular feature they call Concept Art Writing Prompts. They post a piece of art and invite readers to submit stories based upon the illustration. I've started writing short—often aiming for very, very short—stories as a warm-up to my real writing. 

This one was based on a piece by Omar Rayyan. 

What the Heart Wants 

Akxthanar was never able to explain to the others just why he loved his pet so much. She didn't reek of soothing brimstone in the slightest, nor was her breath ever redolent of rotting entrails, she bore no resemblance whatsoever to regurgitated offal teaming with maggots and her voice only sometimes carried even the faintest hints of the agonized shrieks and howls of kittens being boiled alive while stretched on a rack, and that never when she wasn't overdue for her nap. And yet there was simply something about the way she held him, her hands soft as lamb's eyes, clutching his carapace, that he could not deny, made his festering heart sing.