Stora Skuggan's Pine is definitely pine: bark-rough, evergreen-needled, mineral-edged, and windswept. But beneath its damp-sapped woodland weight is ...a weird, savory surprise? Picture it: a late afternoon light filters through pine branches, thick and amber-green. The forest closes in—not a real forest, but a micro-memory invented just for this moment. My chihuahua, also a figment of my imagination, darts between tree trunks, a teacup blur of muscle and movement. The air is pure, bracing conifer at first. Sharp. Resinous. Each breath knifes my lungs, cold and green. The trees rustle, and a weird, whistling wind carries an unexpected scent. Corn chips, the warm, salty smell of a dog's toe beans. My little pupper bursts from a thicket, tail wild, dirt-smeared, slightly feral. In his mouth: a raven's skeleton. Bleached bone, delicate as paper. The forest seems to pause. I grab him to me and hold his small, trembling body close. He drops the fragile corpse at my feet. The dark branches fold behind us, dense and silent.
Stora Skuggan's Pine is definitely pine: bark-rough, evergreen-needled, mineral-edged, and windswept. But beneath its damp-sapped woodland weight is ...a weird, savory surprise? Picture it: a late afternoon light filters through pine branches, thick and amber-green. The forest closes in—not a real forest, but a micro-memory invented just for this moment. My chihuahua, also a figment of my imagination, darts between tree trunks, a teacup blur of muscle and movement. The air is pure, bracing conifer at first. Sharp. Resinous. Each breath knifes my lungs, cold and green. The trees rustle, and a weird, whistling wind carries an unexpected scent. Corn chips, the warm, salty smell of a dog's toe beans. My little pupper bursts from a thicket, tail wild, dirt-smeared, slightly feral. In his mouth: a raven's skeleton. Bleached bone, delicate as paper. The forest seems to pause. I grab him to me and hold his small, trembling body close. He drops the fragile corpse at my feet. The dark branches fold behind us, dense and silent.