Dawn and Desolation

Plodding across rough trodden earth, its feet caked with mud and ash, a tiny mouse managed to escape the horrors of the night, yet devastation and flame still threatened to consume it at every turn. With every gust of wind, every crackle of ember, its heart would sink like the mud underfoot and its body would fall still, hoping to go unnoticed and slip through death’s grip once more.

With dawn’s first light came the shadows of imagined monsters dancing in the fading light of flame, their teeth and claws cast far and wide upon the ground, denying the little mouse of a moment’s peace. Heart pounding, it scurried into the burnt remnants of a structure at the village’s edge where it could hide until those shadowy monsters departed.

Here, at least, it could find solace, however brief.

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