All rights reserved by the respective authors. A time when creatures take refuge from the glaring sun by dozing under rocks, in caves and cracks and crannies, beneath cool leaves, and in quiet river shallows.
Thunder growls faintly, far away.
Only memories of water remain where the rushing creek used to be, the silty bottom now cracked and dull. And yet, right there, something stirs. A snake is sloughing its skin in the creekbed. The new skin gleams as the reptile slowly emerges from the one it has outgrown. Thunder rumbles again, possibly closer now.