The Bug skittered across the surface of the water in a zig-zag pattern. To all outside appearances, the insect had no true destination.
It only paused for a moment, hovering over the ripples lightly and casually.
This moment of stillness was all it took.
The Fish jumped out of the water, swallowing the Bug in one greedy gulp before falling back into the shallows of the lake.
“All too easy”, the Fish would have thought, if fish were capable of such traits as pride and ego.
It would be the last coherent thought the Fish would ever have.
It took the Fish a moment to realize he had been scooped out of the water, when he tried to breathe and nothing came out.
He was somewhere new and strange now, surrounded by something that was… not.
There was very little time to process his new surroundings before the fish found his head detached from his body, being ground into nothingness by the razor sharp teeth of the Bear.
The Bear was satisfied, plopping himself down against a rock to scratch his back.
Did life get any better than this?
A shot rang out, answering that rhetorical question in as final a manner as possible.
The Bear fell before he even knew what had happened.
From behind the scope of his rifle, The Hunter smiled.
This was a story he’d be telling his lodge brothers until the end of time.
Which, little did he realize, it was.
“Cedric! Cedric, get over here! You won’t believe what I just did!
There was no answer.
Where the devil was that lazy–
A loud pop, like the sound of a car backfiring.
The Hunter fell like a ton of bricks.
Behind his fallen corpse, the Hunters Brother-In-Law slung his rifle across his back. He let out a loud laugh, one tinged with bitterness.
“Sorry, old boy. But you never should have seduced my wife…”
The Hunters Brother-In-Law grabbed the corpse of the Hunter and began the arduous task of dragging him to the burial spot. It was a bit of a hassle, but it was also part of the plan.
Everything had been accounted for.
Everything, except the slick patch of moss.
The Hunters Brother -n Law slipped, tumbling all the way down the hill and hitting every rock and loose branch on the way.
As he broken, bloodied body slid beneath the surface of the lake, he only had time for one last, morbidly comical thought.
“Oh, what wicked irony! I thought I had found a forest of justice! Instead, all I have found is yet another forest of death!”
A single Bug skimmed across the water where mere moments ago, the Hunters Brother-In-Law had breathed his last… he seemed headed in no particular direction…
Pryorball. 