The CrowFeast Mask

The harvest wardens raised it to keep the crows off. It failed at that. The birds learned the shape of it, then learned what was standing behind the shape. Farmers who worked those rows reported a sound like wind moving through dry stalks on nights when nothing moved at all. By the fourth season nobody harvested there. The mask stayed up. The BoneOrchard Watcher moved to the ridge above it and has not come down. The mask is still watching an empty field.

Every layer line is left visible on purpose. The banding across the straw reads as fiber, the ridging across the hat reads as woven reed, and the filigree holds its edge because the machine was told to carve rather than smooth.