Conifer trees dot the landscape, a lush green that appears nearly endless from the base of the mountain, but falls short of the peak by several hundred meters. The occasional calling of pidgey flitting among branches stifles the early morning quiet, a dramatic sign of the incoming autumn on the slopes of Letivity Peak, accented by the lower-pitched chatter of forest rodents, swallowing up any remains of the pidgey's efforts. Most life has already moved off the mountain for the cold season, following the river away from the scarcity to where freezing temperatures have not yet taken hold, leaving the birds and rodents without predators to take advantage of their increasing focus on food. Even in this relatively safe wilderness, most have moved on, and the remainder will after the first dusting of snow, driven down-slope by lack of food, and lethal blizzards.
But, due to ignorance or stubbornness, one predator still remains.
Hot, ragged breath rises out of the sparse vegetation clinging to the tree line on the side of the mountain, lingering before its replacement pushes it far enough to carried away on the wind. On this section of the mountain, there is no chatter. The pidgey flutter their wings silently, wearily listening for a shuffling bush they know they heard. The silence is occasionally tempted by birds pecking at the ground, desperately hoping to unearth a seed, or fallen pine cone, but the noise is so weak the wind easily casts it away.
Inexplicably, or because of some unheard sign, every bird lifts its head at once. Several take the effort to look around, but finding nothing amiss, all return lazily to searching for food. Soon enough, even they will leave the mountain. None notice that one bird is missing.
[A/N]: So, we meet again. It is still happening. This is what I think I'll settle on for the first "chapter". No, the whole story is not present tense. Yes, I'll remove this note once the second chapter is up.
But it's changed quite a bit. Once the last chapter is up, I feel I can explain more all the changes this went through without spoiling too much.