A Tangled Ring

A brass surveyor's measuring chain lay snarled against an iron floor eyelet, pinned down by a dry cluster of cedar needles. I stepped down onto the weathered floorboards, feeling the coarse grain steady beneath each talon. Lowering my head, I worked the curved tip of my beak into the fouled loop. One patient, lateral pry. The twisted link yielded with a faint metallic scrape, slithering flat along the groove of the timber. The line now rests unbroken.