The Forest of Stone Birds

The storm had passed in the blink of an eye, but the world it left behind did not feel like the same world. Where the Desert of Sand had stretched flat and empty the evening before, a forest now stood — tall, dark trees with thick leaves, and on every branch a bird of stone.

Hundreds of them — sparrows, doves, nightingales, eagles — all grey stone, all silent, heads bowed as if listening to something far away.