I'm feeling rather proud of this story, my first fanfic that isn't from a manga.

Thanks to Karasu Kyra for beta-ing this for me! I'm glad you're a good friend. ^_^

Disclaimer: As much as I love Oliza, Danica, Zane, Kiesha and Maive, they don't belong to me and neither do any of the other characters or places or plots of Kiesha'ra. Which is good for everybody else considering my great powers of finishing something over 600 words.

"Careful, cobra. You're as insolent as Kiesha herself, and are making all the same mistakes." Syfka to Zane Cobriana, Chaptre 5 of Snakecharm.

Fangs Unto Death

By Phoenix to Flame

Kiesha was intimidating, even to Syfka, even when her blood was spilling away into the moon-pale sheets and tinting them as crimson as her eyes, even when death lay close to her and licked at the heels of the Avians and Serpiente already killing each other over the death of their leaders.

Kiesha's fangs were bared in a snarl at Syfka, her voice fading slowly, but still as venomous as her other form. "You will never be forgiven for this, Falcon. Anhamirak will see it so. No rest for traitors—even to the gods."

Syfka fought annoyance away, brought from the dying cobra's words,—the words affected her without her consent—with a laugh. "You cannot claim such truth, seeing as your lover turned away and all that happened was you drove her away."

The crimson eyes glared with long-held pain just below the surface of anger and vengeance. "And not once has there been a minute when I regretted my choice. There isn't a second when I haven't wished my harsh words back." A sharp inhale into lungs running out of air far faster than

normal, and the light nightdress that she wore to cover the half-finished slash across her belly, shifted. "You shouldn't speak so carelessly of the woman who gave you your wings and your gift. You could have just as easily been a toad, instead."

In response, Syfka swung her hand out and slapped Kiesha's face. Kiesha only laughed at her, a hand momentarily brushing the red print already forming on her pale skin. "I curse you, Falcon. I curse you and every being of your race until you topple from eating away at yourself from

underneath. I curse you to know every consequence of every thought that you ever make. I curse you and your race to topple when my people come together again and oust you and your kin from your false throne in your White City of cold stone, away from true life and power. And I will

see you fall."

Her laughter rang around the room with her slain siblings until Syfka thrust her dagger across the Serpiente's throat and Kiesha's laughter drained away with what remained of her life and blood. Syfka then wiped Kiesha's cooling blood off her blade and onto the sheets. Looking at her

hands, she could see patterns that shifted and settled under her skin. She could hear the sharp cry of another falcon and shivered involuntarily.

As unstable as Kiesha was in her dying state, her curse had set on the Falcon race—a curse that would last until this war that was started by Syfka and her siblings ended and Kiesha's magic reentered the world in safety. A die cast in a game of fate between Anhamirak and Ahnmik. A fate

that would devour the falcons alive and bring Kiesha's soul to the White City to exact a punishment as potent as the one the Falcons gave to the Avians and the Serpiente.

a'vehl-a'jas-a'toth

To tears, to compassion, and to love.

a'le-Ahnleh