Daybreak stretched across an infant world. Whispers of light, unfurling delicate hues against the endless sky, hinted secrets from the void. A star, low and languid, pulled gold through the mist, its warmth kissing the surface of shallow tide pools. Water beaded along jagged rock faces, pooling in crevices where life stirred for the first time.
A gentle wind sighed through tendrils of moss, pulling against fragile, unformed leaves. The air carried a quiet hum of existence, a rhythm just beginning, unaware of its own fragility.
Below, nestled within the still waters, something moved. Tiny, near shapeless, yet alive. Organic compounds stitched together, forming the first threads of complexity, its minuscule presence insignificant against the vast canvas of sky and sea. And yet, it was everything.
A shift, nearly imperceptible at first, like the exhale of something unseen, swayed leaves. The ripples in the tide pools twitched, then stretched, as though fleeing from something not yet present, but already inevitable.
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The light dimmed, not gradually, but unnaturally. The gold gave way to bruising reds, abnormal violets, the very air thickening with static charge.
A roar split the heavens, tearing through the fabric of tranquility like a wound opening wide. The peaceful tide pools shuddered then quaked, the water within them sucked violently upward in trembling spirals. The wind, once soft, became a gale—screaming, ripping at the land, pulling debris into the suffocating heat.
A firestorm punched through the atmosphere, obliterating air, igniting stone, turning delicate seedlings to ash before they had the chance to stretch toward the sun. The ground—this young, breathing world—convulsed, tearing apart at its seams, vomiting molten fury into the void where forests might have grown. The life that had begun never stood a chance.
Above, where the sky once stretched endlessly and invitingly, the rogue planet barreled onward. Unstoppable. Silent. Undeniable. And beyond it, in the distant black, more worlds lay in its path, prisoners of fates they may never understand.
