The silence was deafening. Wind blew through the trees, rustling the branches, but the leaves had already fallen. No animals moved through the area. There was no sound.

The hole in the clouds overhead slowly filled in. They hung low in the sky, heavy with winter, yet the snow had not started falling. The hole in the trees and the ground could not similarly close. Instead, scorch marks coated them.

A deer finally made its way into the new clearing. It sniffed around, trying to figure out what was different. After a few minutes, having found nothing of interest, it wandered back into the forest. Birds began to come back and fill the air with chatter. The forest returned to normal.

Except for the pit. It still smoldered, and its walls were higher than the surrounding area because of dirt being ejected by the impact. The object that had fallen from the sky to make it was half buried in the ground. All the animals gave it a wide berth.

Snow began to fall, quietly coating everything in white. At first, the flakes landing in the pit melted, but eventually, the smoking stopped, and the white built up there, too. Only then did his eyes open, and he started to crawl away from the wreckage.