Darkness, cold darkness, an all encompassing icy night. Trapped by the freezing void near the only oasis within this hell. A small ember is all that is left to protect my existence. It is but a shard of the inferno that it once was, having been smothered by the cold to its current state over the time I have been trapped here. Time's passage is imperceivable here as I am surrounded by nothing but an inky black nothingness. I could only watch as the pyre slowly dwindled down leaving me to suffer more and more as the ice encroached into my very being. It has become so pathetic that it does not have the heat to warm my hands. Now all that is left to do is huddle next to the dying ember and hope to be released from this prison or for the flame to finally flicker out of existence and leave me to perish.
As I stare at the ember I repeat to myself, 'Watch and wait, just focus on the soft orange glow, and not on the pain of freezing or the endless darkness.' These thoughts were filled with more and more desperation, until the flame flickered. I stared in disbelief as the lone coal was reignited. The flame was no larger than that of a match but it was the sign of my escape. Tentatively, I reached out to it with my ethereal body, to cup the new flame in my hands, hoping that this was not a trick, my mind finally giving in to insanity. I held it as gently as possible, to be sure that I would not, somehow, smother the flame myself. I could feel the meager heat radiate to my hands from its' touch. Within my grasp, I watched as the tiny fire ever so slowly grew, and as it grew so too did the comforting warmth up along my arms. I could not help but burst into ecstatic laughter with the proof that this in not an illusion and it is, in fact, my release from this dark, icy prison.
I watched with glee as the flame would double and triple in size, fully enveloping me within its' warmth. But it would not stop there, it continued to grow larger and higher over time. It is almost unbelievable that the inferno before me now was naught but a smoldering ember. It now puts the bottomless void to shame, having surpassed the intensity it was at when I was first trapped within this limbo. Its' brilliance has become blinding, forcing me to shield my eyes from its' radiance. However, when I closed my eyes the light was again replaced with the dark. Panic struck me, fearing the return to abyss, so I forced my eyes to open. I was surprised by the difficulty of the task but not as surprised by the sight that greeted me.
I was greeted with the grey, melancholic clouds of an overcast afternoon sky. It took a moment for the sight to sink into my mind. And when it did, I jumped up off the ground and got ready to be confronted by someone, or at least something. But, that was not the case. All I could see was essentially nothing. I stood within the center of a circle of charred ground about three meters wide. Beyond that was nothing but a rocky mountain side covered with the tough grasses and brambles that inhabit it. I spun around to see more of the same, just stone and small grasses. The only thing breaking up the scenery was the blackened ring around me. At my feet I could see an outline of my body seared into the stone and at the center of the outline, right where my heart would be, was a deep notch in the solid stone. Avoiding the memories of how the notch was created and my subsequent entrapment, I moved to the edge of the circle to inspect my surroundings better.
At first glance there seemed to be absolutely nothing around, which I did not expect. But upon a close inspection, I could see that some of the stones rising up from the ground were not natural. They were the remains of the stone foundations of an old building. And knowing what to look for now, I could pick out more and more crumbling foundations littering the mountainside. This was unsettling as the last I remembered there was an entire city sprawled across the mountain slope. All that is left visible from nature reclaiming the mountain now are the solid stone bases of the homes and businesses that humans had made here.
I started forward out of the circle to inspect a ruined building, but when I felt something crunch under foot I stopped to inspect that first. Along the outside of the ring there was a small pile of debris that was pushed outward by my flames. Sifting through where I stepped I found plenty of small grayish shards that, at first glance, looked like pottery. However, when I ran my hand through the dirt a second time revealed longer, thicker shards, and the most revealing of them was a tooth. I replaced the bones and sighed knowing they were human remains of those that took residence here and of those that were responsible for the destruction.
I walked back to the center of the ring, biting down my sadness, and accepted that this was once my home. I felt a breeze pick up and let it wash over me and my unprotected skin. It helped to relive my melancholy and the bitter memories of when I last saw this city. I closed my eyes to focus on my body, instead of my thoughts. I stretched my arms and wings to enjoy the wind flowing over me once again. The light orange feathers of my four wings catching the air and my straight, dark brown hair dancing in the wind was blissful. When the wind died down, I reopened my eyes with new determination obvious in my red iris'.
'The home I worked on for so long may be gone,' I thought to myself, 'but, I am not. I will rid the world of the accursed item responsible for the fall of Ayuthay and the reason for my imprisonment. I refuse to allow it to threaten my existence.' My mind set, I stretch my wings to their fullest. The two attached at my shoulder blades are twice as long as my arms, and the two attached in the middle of my back are about the same length as my arms. With a jump and a beat of my wings I launched myself up into the overcast sky.