Field guide No. 1243
Tree shaped void beneath clear ice
The tree stayed under the ice.
A sheet of clear ice over mud has a branching tree shape cut from it, filled with brown oak leaves. The tree is missing, but it left its outline.
Field noteA tree-shaped cut in clear ice, packed with oak leaves. The tree is absent, the outline is intact, nobody is wrong.
Also possible, also breaking nothing
Strained starlightPunch holes in a dome and put a bulb inside. Kitchens have done this for decades without the brochure.
Dandelion under glassA cloche over grass in a sanded-up room. Gardeners do this. They rarely do it in a house the desert has moved into.
Leaves suspended over leaf shaped voidsAutumn leaves hover above matching holes in the forest floor. The ground has filed the leaves away.
The long way homeOne bare footprint, crisp, no companions. Every part of it is ordinary; only the lack of a second step is odd.