Pipestone Flyer
He was startled awake from his bed of comfort and security by the pinching of hoofs upon his back. He fixes his vision upon the intruders, a dampened doe leading her newborns to the greenery starting to show through the retreating winter. His frosted breath is no longer visible in the early morning sun.
A fear arises… he has overslept.
In panic, he glances around and sees many already departed. Those with whom he had spent all of his childhood, gone, without even a word. The sudden realization that he also is being called away. He does not want to leave the sanctuary of those that remain, as haunted tales of those who go come back to revisit him.
But the doe and her younglings have weakened him, in her effort to quench the thirst of her family and find them new offerings for their table. The enemy below also is ravenous in its hunger, already beginning to tear at him.
It is his time to leave.
His remaining kindred reach out to him, and try to hold on with all their combined strength, but he loses his grip. As he breaks free, he cries out in anguish and fear to those now quickly falling behind him. He knows he is now alone and that it is only a matter of time if the stories were true.
The sun is so hot.
He feels his belly begin to deteriorate as he is left defenseless against the savage attack from below. His back begins to sweat in the unrelenting sun. He feels his blood and his body begin to fade away, as well as any hope that he might have dared to embrace. He feels himself begin to fade and he now knows that it is over.
He is no more… He has overslept.
ICEFLOW IN SPRING