A hawk to a snake. A bear to a fish. A wolf to a moose. The top of the food chain; an apex predator. To not worry about sudden death is a privilege for beings such as them. Then what is this? The cold hands of death are grasped around the neck. Blood running sluggishly, heart pumping slow, breathing labored, and mind blank. Eyes rolled back and tongue lolling uselessly. Death had come to claim another. The door to the other side has opened as it was the time to return the Earth and give back everything it took. In a sense, for taking from Mother Nature in copious amounts, now it’s Mother Nature’s turn to take in kind.

Teeth bared along its neck. A lone herbivore, half deaf from a birth defect. Its chances of survival were already low with its first breath. Now, in the face of death, it’s ill prepared. Slow start on a chase - being herded by another and another and another - a whole pack has it backed into a corner. Escape is impossible and acceptance is scary. They all charge at once. Limbs ripped off, skin pulled apart by vicious fangs. No longer a life but a source of food in mere seconds. Predator or prey, it doesn’t matter. The end comes without warning and without mercy.