Hooves pounded against the broken asphalt, a living shadow weaving through the ruins of a forgotten city, breaking the eerie silence with its rhythmic beat. It duck down and hid under a small bluff.


    Virginia Creeper, English Ivy, Wisteria, and countless smaller growths climbed and draped over the crumbling concrete roof, offering a momentary sanctuary. Small rays of sunlight pierced the canopy, casting dappled gold and green hues over the shadows tense, heaving form. Its ears twitched, body coiled, every muscle wired for survival.


    A twig snapped.


    The shadow exploded from cover, dodging and weaving through the thicket of bracken ferns, dandelions, birch, and elder trees popping up from the scars on the cracked concrete road like a ghost of the undergrowth. It zigzagged across, its hooves lightly striking concrete where nature had not yet won.


    Black and gray boulders, shattered window frames, and twisted metal littered the old road. Rusted rebar stabbed upward from the debris, turning every step into a fight for life itself.


    Yet, the liquid shadow glided through the skeletal remains of the city, untouched by the chaos of man’s forgotten empire.


    An effortless leap carried it over the rubble, landing smoothly onto an old gravel trail. Rusted iron fences framed the path, leading into a dense, untamed forest. In the distance, an overgrown geodesic dome loomed, its fiberglass panels still intact, yet smothered in moss and strangled by vines. A relic of another era, that had had once cradled exotic life from every corner of the world.


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    The stag flew forward, muscles burning, heart hammering, freedom only a leap away!


    click.


    A rope snapped taut around its front legs, yanking the animal skyward, its world flipped upside down. It thrashed, kicking at the air as it swung beneath the canopy, bathed in a greenish glow where light filtered through the thick leaves of an ancient Oak tree.


    A chorus of panicked chirps burst from the treetops, wings slicing through the light-dappled canopy as the forest’s as the mighty beast wobbled the leafy crown.


    “Haha, I got it!”


    A light, triumphant voice cut through the forest, followed by the soft tap of leather-bound feet moving quick and precise. The stag kicked, twisting violently, fighting the rope with every ounce of its strength, but its struggles only made it swing harder beneath the canopy.


    A small, lean figure, swift as a cat, emerged from the undergrowth, her long black hair tightened into a ponytail. Her movements were effortless, calculated. As she got closer the stag lunged, antlers flashing toward her face, but she darted back without hesitation, unfazed, her knife already in motion, catching the dim green light as she stepped in.


    One fluid motion she closed the gap, seized the stag’s head, and slit its throat.


    A whisper, barely audible over the slowing breath:


    “It’s okay, your fight is over, just relax and give in to the eternal dream”


    She held the beautiful strong animal, arms wrapped around its trembling body, almost tender, cradling it as a mother would her child before putting it to sleep. The blood came slow and steady, pooling at her feet, going back into the earth.