The intro of ‘The Field of Ice and Blood’, the short story I wrote for Vocal's $30K contest. I think it's bloody good, *far* better than the Capsule:
“The Sun ascended slowly above the land of the rising Sun. The sky was ice crystal clear and the low Sun was so red that it looked as if it escaped from a Japanese flag. The last few hours were dead quiet in the frozen Tokachi wheat fields, in Hokkaido; a male barn owl just finished hunting rodents hiding among the wheat fields and the snow.
The owl caught two red squirrels, a crying rabbit and a small snow-white lizuma weasel; it caught its last prey despite having hidden perfectly in the thick snow and barely making a sound. It stood no chance against the barn owl's acute hearing though. It was a good night’s harvest for the male owl, his mate and their four fledglings...”
The rest can be read here:
https://tiny.one/ice-blood
And here is (nearly) my entire web footprint:
http://my.bio/sharpedon