The world moved around him and he stood still.

The rotting dog skeleton smiled, beckoning, and it gave in to the call, bent down and rolled - the two were one.

when she rolled over the log black powder filled her face, and she sickened and died

He was the last one standing on the boulder in the end. (... If I recall correctly)

she didn't know what had gored her, but she watched her life's blood flowing freely

She sang a song for the kin who wept alone in the dark, a song for the kin too weighed down to sing their own, a song for those who had succumbed to the swamp. A prayer to erase their grief.

She flew higher and higher to escape the flames, but they licked at her feathers and blistered her flesh.