A Cruel and Swift Instrument of Nature
Every world is a collection of many worlds, each one conceived, used up, and excreted by nature to make room for the next. On a warm summer day several million years ago, one such world ended on our planet.
A world of gentle giants grazing the fields, gathered in family herds for safety and companionship. Where titanic beasts eternally prowled the earth in search of food and pleasure, prehistoric Jolly Rogers. Where small conniving creatures slithered through underbrush, scavenging off the strong and preying on the weak. This was how their world worked; savage, cruel, and without mercy. The only world their primitive minds could contemplate. The only world they’d ever known. The only world they’d ever know. The one that was about to end.
The tyrant king of the lizards awoke before sunrise to prowl the land, inspecting his kingdom. With each step he took, his immense body shook the earth. Mingling odors of spit and blood poured from his reptilian snout. The many creatures of the world cowered before his awesome presence, for any creature with audacity enough to defy the king, would need only glance at the pile of bones nestled in his cave, to know how angry the retribution of the monarch could be. And for their fearful reverence, they received his indifference.
