{"id":529,"date":"2025-12-16T01:10:54","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T01:10:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/storytimebyrk.com\/?p=529"},"modified":"2025-12-16T01:10:55","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T01:10:55","slug":"return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/storytimebyrk.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/16\/return\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2026Return"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Genre: Sci-fi<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plot: Global warming melts a glacier and wakes a frozen ancient predator<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Words to use: Snow, ice, thaw, virus, fang, prey, hunt, breakaway, living, extinct, prehistoric, poison, ozone, hyper, cretaceous<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the cretaceous<\/strong> period, before time remembered, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

walked an ancient predator,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

a prehistoric<\/strong> killer who stalked its prey <\/strong>without mercy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its hunger was insatiable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Uncontrollable lust for blood and bile. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It ravished all in its way. Fear spread even with the slightest sound of its roar in the distance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

All life scrambled, running over each to find somewhere to hide. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before a whimper could escape their lips, those caught were ripped open and eaten.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The weather drastically changed, the snow<\/strong> and ice<\/strong> without notice,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

a  drastic change from the usual warm environment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without the warmth of the land and sky, most life extinguished, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

extinct<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those who survived, scratched and hungered, but overcame. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every single day, the hunt<\/strong> for food meant life or death. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Time felt thin, stretched and unbearable at times. But, it moved forward\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Life began to improve, the ozone correcting itself,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 rays of sunlight beamed through, warming the ground, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

causing layers of ice and snow to melt from rolling hills <\/p>\n\n\n\n

and broad valleys, and flowing into crevasses and cracks<\/p>\n\n\n\n

like claws in the worn rock. Joy returned, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

the times of long ago forgotten, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

a dream emerging from a nightmare. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roars of predators were not on the minds of offspring <\/p>\n\n\n\n

who flourished after the great thaw<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a time, the idyllic sound of birds sang from the dense green leaves of trees and bush. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perpetual ease and freedom of oppression ruled the land. The ice became only a memory to life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it passed like the cold and like a virus<\/strong> spreading, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

a hyper<\/strong> expanse of sky with no clouds, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

the heat began to rise from the ground, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

the soil that didn\u2019t get quenched from morning dew nor afternoon showers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even the mountain tops, which had remained frozen solid, began to melt. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Water rolled down their sides, filling lakes and streams. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Centuries had passed since waves of heat wilted the happy flowers, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

they no longer danced in the cool breeze, but hung over, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

petals fell one by one, twirling their way down<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 to be stomped down by mindless feet attached to thirsty beasts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few landed on the limp head of a delicate fawn hidden in the yellowing grass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, a fang<\/strong> appeared through the layer of ice,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

then a twitch of muscle made the ground rumble,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

a breakaway<\/strong> boulder rolled down the steep slope, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

exploding as it hit the bottom, shards of stone flew in all directions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The poison<\/strong> of the predator returned \u2013 sudden and fierce. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It came with a roar that found innocent ears. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their end without notice nor warning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Genre: Sci-fi Plot: Global warming melts a glacier and wakes a frozen ancient predator Words to use: Snow, ice, thaw, virus, fang, prey, hunt, breakaway, living, extinct, prehistoric, poison, ozone, hyper, cretaceous During the cretaceous period, before time remembered,  walked an ancient predator, a prehistoric killer who stalked its prey without mercy.  Its hunger was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":530,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,9],"tags":[5,7,44,10,11,4,20,12],"class_list":["post-529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-sci-fi","tag-author","tag-fiction","tag-scifi","tag-shortstory","tag-story","tag-storywriter","tag-writer","tag-writingprompts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimebyrk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimebyrk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimebyrk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimebyrk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimebyrk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=529"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/storytimebyrk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":531,"href":"https:\/\/storytimebyrk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529\/revisions\/531"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimebyrk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimebyrk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimebyrk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimebyrk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}