Walking through a sun ray scattered forest floor, you hear the rustle of crunchy leaves under your feet and you March on through organic layers of decayed humis and the freshly dead. For they say if every forest tells a tale then every leaf is but a breath of expression:

What are the leaves expressing today in their final breaths?

You stare into the eyes my orbital sockets hold, but behind yours all I can see is a blank desolate stare. You've brought me back only to leave yourself. You've raised your very fears from the dead and now you're stuck in the knowledge that you can only raise the person, you cannot erase the memories. The death. The pain. The anxiety. The dread. The inevitable fear that eats at you till you seek death itself in comfort. Why having me around is but a walking ghost in your life. You've already mourned what you could, which was clearly very little, and now you've enacted plans you didn't think you'd have to follow through. No problem will distract from this strain. No tangible results can ease the trauma that blinks through your nervous system at the very sight of me.

Was it worth it? Ruining the rest of your life to forcibly make me live mine?

No one ever asked me. . .

I died but I came back exactly the same. You though, I came back and you were wrong. Did the fact of my dying really damage you that much? Was bringing me back worth what it cost you? Would it have been better to just leave me?

Animal of the Day!

Dickcissel (Spiza americana)

(Photo by Martina Nordstrand)

Conservation Status- Least Concern

Habitat- Central United States; Central America; Northern South America

Size (Weight/Length)- 15 cm

Diet- Insects; Seeds

Cool Facts- Somehow, someway, ornithologists still baffle me on the names they give birds. The dickcissel is named after their distinctive call that sounds as if they are saying their name, almost sounding like an electric buzzer. Only males sport the brilliant yellow and black plumage. Dickcissels aren’t a fan of the cold and are some of the last to arrive North after their winter migration. They are one of the few songbirds to be fully polygynous with a single male mating with up to six females. Dickcissels are considered both a pest and a fortune. While they eat crop grains, they also eat large amounts of crop-eating insects.

Rating- 12/10 (Only stay north for three months before flying south again.)

Walking into a poorly torch lit cavern has led you to search out endangered bats and other specimens. Do not be afraid of the bats. Be aware of what the bats are afraid of . . .