THE STAG Fire, the leveller of all plans and dreams, the breaker of all schemes.

Rushes down the hillsides like lava, only faster. Quickly becoming the day's big disaster. Heat so hot it melts metal into slag and leaves standing only one lonely stag. The king of all that is left to survey. He stands alone there seeking how to make his way back to his family, but refusing to stay here in this desolation. Here there was no consolation, only bad memories and heat and unfamiliar smells. So he journeyed up and down the hills and dells always seeking that which he would not find. Heading always downward, towards the wind of the river's bend. There he could send out his call to his loved ones if they still lived to hear it. Only he cared enough and gived enough to make it happen if possible. And there, in the distant mist and smoke a faint bleat sounded through a choke and a cough. Just across that trough! Yes, it was they, still alive and well. Happiness more than he could tell welled up in his Stag's heart. Not soon again would they depart from each other! No matter the weather, or the once in a lifetime disaster. No, he was again the master of all he surveyed. And in this new unburned land they stayed. ------------------------------------mindbringer, 29 June 2013