Memories Preserved

Excellence Award in the 'Summertime Fun ONLINE' competition


A lush, vibrant leafy landscape of rolling hills ascends to the brink of the dark horizon where ominous clouds cluster to form an endless abyss of grey. Below lies the eden of a complex ecosystem of grassy undergrowth with every minute creature dwelling in its safe canopy. Trees cloak the undergrowth with their mossy, towering branches. Every shade of green is infused in the ferns and plant life of the rich moisture filled soil, giving life to every flora that thrives in the dense ecological community.

I bolt through the brush; my enormous lumbering body is reaching its maximum speed. The girth of my legs is about the width of a tree trunk, crushing everything in my path is an easy feat when the need for urgency is great. My lengthy, spiked tail and wide tank like brown body with its durable amour-like skin match my legs colossal size. My face is not one of a predator, my teeth are not sharp, but my eyes are cautious and searching. Willing not to become dinner is what is always on my mind.

My season mate and recent single offspring resemble me with the only difference of size. They plod on with haste and precision knowing the danger of the situation. Their faces mirror my own, petrified and confused. Their eyes are filled with complete and utter terror, looking to me for guidance. I can find a shimmer of hope in my mate’s facial expression, that’s all I need for faith as well.

Chaos surrounds the once peaceful and serene landscape. Many members of my herd and other different species that live here are scrambling in roughly the same direction with panic and confusion in mind. The current disaster is baffling and frighting enough… until I jerk my head around for the hundredth time to check for my family, but this time they’re gone. My emotions go into absolute overdrive, I have no idea what to feel, anxious, frightened, or sad? Or maybe a mixture of all.

As soon as I swivel my giant figure around and start searching intensely for my kin, rumbling back through the jungle of undergrowth retracing my steps to the last minute I saw them behind me… my eyes become fixed on a monstrous flaming ball of fire in the abyss of grey sky. Smoke billows behind it, leaving a polluted streak of black in the sky. Flames engulf the entire sphere with the bloodiest shade of red, it grows larger every second I spend staring at it. I had seen it before, minutes ago and understood that it was coming for us, but it was a speck it the sky. Larger it becomes, closer, closer, closer, until it is milliseconds away from colliding with the earth. And me.

The skull was encased in layers of hard ash and mud, preserved perfectly for millennia. The deep supple groves probed by the wiry brushes of paleontologists told stories of which no stegosaurus skull has ever wielded.

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