Clockwork Fossil

Grit yields beneath fingertips to reveal a fossilized nautilus, its chambers housing rhythmic, pulsing gears of oxidized copper patina. The silt between teeth tastes of ancient dust and heavy iron rivets, grounding the sudden mechanical heartbeat against the weight of vertical basalt pillars. As light flickers through bruised violet shadows, every measured movement discloses a subtle geometry carved into this inherited machinery.