For a brief moment, their eyes met. Somehow the boy knew that he would remember nothing from that day so clearly as the bottomless brown pools of the stag's unblinking eyes, eyes as deep and mysterious as the ocean itself. Then, as swiftly as it had appeared, the stag leaped over the twisted roots of the oak and vanished from sight. I stand alone, beneath the stars. The entire sky ignites into flame, as if a new sun is being born.
People shriek and scatter.
But I stand there, unable to move, unable to breathe. Then I see the tree, darker than a shadow against the flaming sky. Its burning branches writhe like deadly serpents. They reach for me. The fiery branches come closer.