the plateau of herons was barren now, save for a fisherbird here or there hunting frogs in the downpour. tt had been near-unceasing over the past month, and now long-exposed rocks had been swallowed by the rising waters. bordered by a floodplain, the plateau began to fill with water, the lake lapping eagerly at the new land it could now access with its swollen palms.
the lake rippled, breathed, thrashed against the stone edge at the far western edge of the plateau. distressed that the shrinking patches of their land had grown muddied and watery, unfit to roost, the remaining herons took to the sky with aggrieved calls.
and still the water came, piling the snapped trunks of spindled, weak trees against that distant edge, the tangled sedges, silt from the lakebed. and amid this, the limp carcass of a drowned elk, caught in the cascading lungs of the lake as at last the ground began to give way, wetplains sinking to floodland. the roil of earth clawed downward beneath the rushing waters as foaming white flowed west across the broken edge.
the lake rippled, breathed, thrashed against the stone edge at the far western edge of the plateau. distressed that the shrinking patches of their land had grown muddied and watery, unfit to roost, the remaining herons took to the sky with aggrieved calls.
and still the water came, piling the snapped trunks of spindled, weak trees against that distant edge, the tangled sedges, silt from the lakebed. and amid this, the limp carcass of a drowned elk, caught in the cascading lungs of the lake as at last the ground began to give way, wetplains sinking to floodland. the roil of earth clawed downward beneath the rushing waters as foaming white flowed west across the broken edge.
ebony
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