Crunch Time He shifted, catching a hint of red from the flames.

Sirens oscillated on the breeze somewhere far away. Eric squinted in the failing light. "It's a dog...Over there...It's pissing. Sec its leg? Damn, they've shifted again. But it was a dog, like that one back on the roof in San Francisco. You paying that?' Cecil frowned. "Didn't look like any kind of animal to mebut maybe 1 saw some legs, just for a second there. Changes so damn fast though, hard to tell for sure." "That's the beauty of it." Eric moved a little to the left in an effort to get a better view. Ill take half points on that one. Your turn. You've got ten. starting now." Cecil stored hard. It was so damn difficult when things changed so quickly. Perhaps it had been a mistake to come here. It had been easier down by the lake; not so many trees obscuring the view and not so much smoke in the air. Less cluttered. Patterns shifted before his eyes but it was only random movement, swirling tides of colour and sound. "Five," said Eric, tone suggesting he'd already won. "Four, three, two" "Elephant." Cecil pointed. "There. By that bunch of trees." Eric swung his head in that direction. "Where? Don't see it." "There. It's moving its legs. Quick. No, its trunk's dissolving. Wait a moment...' He lifted a foot and brought it down hard. The ground trembled with the impact, trees shaking and thrashing. "Ground's pretty soft, should still be there." He carefully lifted the foot again. A few motionless bodies clung for a moment to the fine scales on the underside of his toes, then dropped back to the ground. They hud comprised the tip of the elephant's trunk, he saw sadly. Now they lay as a scattered tumble of tiny arms and legs, their colourful clothing darkened by mud. But the rest had stayed in their places, at least a hundred of them, neatly pressed into the green of the grass. There were the ears, the tail. Even the four legs had been perfectly preserved. "Elephant," Cecil said. Eric swished his giant tail in annoyance, its spiked end taking out the last of the buildings nearby. The tide of noise from the panicked, fleeing crowd below swelled on the evening air. "Alright, you win. Next bridge is yours. But there's a big glass dome over on the cast side. Now we're playing for that."