The sky broke open.
Water struck the clearing without pattern.
Large impacts against wood.
Smaller impacts against soil.
Countless impacts layered together.
The wooden body remained on its back.
The first impacts registered individually.
Then too many.
The sensory field accelerated.
Vibrations layered faster than they could be sorted.
The system inside the vessel attempted to separate them...
It failed.
More came.
And more.
The ground trembled suddenly.
A violent strike split the air.
A flash.
Then impact.
The shockwave hit through soil and atmosphere at once.
The body jerked sharply.
Not from fear.
From overload !!
The sky fractured repeatedly.
White bursts.
Followed instantly by crushing vibration.
The rain intensified.
The clearing became a field of chaotic signal.
The sensory field ran faster.
And faster.
And faster.
Every droplet striking wood was distinct.
Every strike of light from the sky was distinct.
Each one demanded processing.
The vessel did not understand sky.
Did not understand rain.
Did not understand storm.
It only knew..
Too much.
Too fast.
The fractures along its torso tightened sharply.
Internal pressure rose.
Lightning struck open ground nearby.
The explosion of vibration tore across the clearing.
For a fraction of a second...
The sensory field spiked beyond containment.
Then continued.
Hours passed.
The wooden body remained lying in the open.
Head angled upward.
Facing the source of disturbance.
Water streamed across its blank surface.
Thunder rolled overhead again and again.
Gradually....
The impacts thinned.
The sky quieted.
Rain softened.
Then stopped.
The clearing exhaled.
Water pooled across flattened soil.
The wooden being remained still for a long moment.
Then slowly...
It pushed itself upright.
The world felt quieter.
But not empty.
Shallow pools of water covered the ground around it.
One lay directly ahead.
It leaned toward it.
On the surface...
A dark shape stood.
Vertical.
When the water trembled, the shape distorted.
When it settled, the shape returned.
It moved slightly.
The shape moved with it.
A faint pale line traced the outer edge of the shape.
The interior was darker.
Solid.
When it leaned closer..
The pale line leaned closer.
The dark mass followed.
It lifted its hand.
The shape lifted its hand.
The movement synchronized.
The wooden being paused.
Then reached forward.
Touched the water.
The shape shattered into ripples.
It withdrew its hand.
The water stilled.
The shape returned.
Again !
Pale outline.
Dark interior.
Moving with it.
It raised its hand once more...
But this time, instead of touching the surface
It touched its own face.
Wood pressed against wood.
Smooth.
Blank.
Featureless.
Its fingers traced where eyes might exist.
Nothing.
Traced downward.
Nothing.
But in the water.
The pale border remained.
The dark mass remained.
The image existed.
The surface did not.
Something shifted inside.
Not understanding.
Not recognition.
But pressure.
The sensory field trembled again.
Not from sky.
From within.
Memory ruptured upward.
Not clearly.
Not coherently.
Fragments.
Structures collapsing inward.
Light tearing through darkness.
Worlds breaking against other worlds.
Landmasses suspended in nothingness.
Creatures without form twisting between collapsing spaces.
Screams without sound.
Fragments colliding and disintegrating.
Shards of unknown origin drifting through shattered reality.
Pressure from directions that had no direction.
The internal system could not contain it.
The fractures along its torso pulsed violently.
The wooden body trembled.
The pale outline in the water flickered once.
The dark mass distorted.
The surge intensified.
Then.
Silence.
The wooden body fell sideways into the mud.
Unmoving.
The puddle rippled outward slowly.
The pale outline vanished as the water broke.
The clearing returned to stillness.
Clouds drifted away.
No one witnessed the collapse.