The tall trees formed a dense, green canopy over my head.  Hearing the whistling sound of the bird I had come to see, I stood still, listening. Camera ready, finger on the shutter, I waited. There it was again. I crept as silently as I could toward the sound.  There in front of me, a patch of sunlight beckoned. I saw the bird light on the ground. As I took the picture, I heard another sound. It wasn’t the sound of a creature of the forest. It was the whistling of an incoming object. I looked up as a large boulder crashed through the trees.  I stood still, seeing smoke above the clearing.

The volcano I had read about? Could it be starting to blow?

Another boulder fell close to the first. I ran then, out of the canopy of the trees, to the field in front of me.

A TREBUCHET?

I rubbed my eyes and stared, not moving from the edge of the field.

Karen Hydock