026 — The Ice Sculptor’s Lament | Talon Z. Gray

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Welcome to the other side.
I’m so glad you stumbled upon the truffles.
This is your first time, I assume?
Well… let me help you.

I am the finest ice sculptor in all the land.
They don’t pay me to stop Mt. Placeholder’s glacier from cracking.
No, they pay me to carve the cracks into beautiful feathered wings.
My job isn’t safety—it’s art direction.

For centuries I’ve shaped disasters into masterpieces
so no one notices the decay beneath their paws.

You see those wings etched into the glacier’s fissures?
Those innocent dogs below—they cannot.
Only here, in the void, can you perceive the essence I’ve instilled in the ice.

Listen carefully.
The glacier echoes down the valley walls—
cracks like veins splitting open, dumping their water into the abyss.

Any moment now,
this installation will be severed,
and my work erased.

There are three glaciers here, each bearing its own spirit-form:

—The Raven, dark and wise.
—The Octopus, twisting in silent warning.
—The Bear, carved only recently—its claws still sharp.

These are the guardians of collapse.

When you entered the void,
your eyes opened to the hidden mechanics of this place.
Now you can feel when a glacier is about to break away.
You can see messages scrawled in the snow.
You can uncover treasures blocked from perception.
Heal your spirit meters.
Combine energy with other strays to bring a fallen dog back to full health.
Each glacier fills a different meter in the world.
Consult the ancient pawscrolls for guidance.

But be warned:
this vision won’t last.
The mountain will mask itself again,
and you’ll return to your normal, safe world
—oblivious to the artistry beneath your paws.

Would you like to begin the Pawturial to learn the basic mechanics?

Select: YES for "Pawturial™"
Select: NO for “Let’s Go Whale!™”

(The dogs seem amused. Several do play bows and zoomies.)