WEBVTT

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The world up here began not with sound,

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but with the slow bleed of pale amber

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across a jagged horizon.

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At ten thousand feet, the dawn did not

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warm.

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It merely revealed the bitter, breathtaking isolation of

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the Himalayan ridge.

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Against the canvas of frost -shattered shale, a

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ghost moved.

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With paws broad enough to tread the deepest

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powder -like air, the snow leopard prowled the

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precipice.

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Every movement was an act of fluid, deliberate

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architecture.

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Thick fur, patterned in smoky rosettes and ash

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-gray camouflage,

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rippled seamlessly beneath a heavy coat designed to

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defy the lethal bite of the winter wind.

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It paused, a magnificent silhouette against the fading

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stars, lifting its heavily furred tail,

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a long, balancing counterweight wrapped snugly around its

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own muzzle to tame the freezing air.

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Drifting winter snow scattered nearby, kicked up lightly

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by a careless step,

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swirling like diamond dust in the quiet morning

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light.

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Down in the valley, life was stirring, but

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here, the wilderness atmosphere was absolute,

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serene, and fiercely solitary.

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The great cat turned its pale, piercing eyes

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toward the valley below,

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inhaled the crisp scent of high -altitude frost,

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and melted effortlessly back into the mountain stone,

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vanishing as though it had never been there

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at all.