Chelonian

How it fights

A tank does not kill you. It outlasts you, which from the far side of an hour turns out to be the same thing. Edges dull on it and it is in no hurry whatsoever. What it takes from you is patience and every consumable you thought to bring; fights like this end when somebody runs out, and it has nothing left to run out of.

Field notes

The great tortoises are older than the paths around them and the paths bend to go round them. One will sit in the same hollow for a season with moss growing on the shell and then be gone in a night, and the hollow is a pond by spring. It eats slowly and enormously and does not look up while it does. Only its own weight moves it, so it is met on the low ground, near water, where the going is soft.