Heat, searing heat. Each breath a thousand needles. The air itself weighed down on her chest. There were bright flickers, dulled through lids. Thoughts of panic screeched across the mindscape, broken only by the intense pain that would have forced spasms if not for a weakened and battered body.
One brother, at least, would not be in such pain. It was a little comforting.
The pulsing glows died.
A last congruent thought.
The heat is not so bad, now…
It was surprising. Not something, but that there was surprise. Only darkness to be seen, but there was something beneath her. Harsh grains and hard lumps… coarse sand and stones, perhaps?
Her?
Yes, that sounded right…
The next sense was smell. The assaulting, overpowering scent of recently lit charcoal, overlaid by a much fainter and fairer whiff of saffron incense.
Ears ringing, she could barely make out a few sounds. Something falling, wooden by the crashing thump.
Sight returned soon after. Blurry at first, the air stinging and making her eyes water further. Indistinct shades of blues, reds and browns bled together, slowly coming into focus as her eyes adjusted, showing a much clearer picture.
The open sky of mid-morning presented itself right above, nary a wisp of cloud in sight. It was framed by the ragged outline of brown timbers, charred black in plenty of places, with a small white swath that she almost didn't recognized as a muzzle, right at the bottom. A large red shape shifted, just out of her direct line of sight.
Tilting her head, she could see it was a magnificent bird of crimson, flecks of color reflecting off rainbow-hued primaries, easily five times her size, perched on one of the few seemingly stable beams above. It turned its' neck, looking directly at her.
Ruffling its wings, it took off, slowly gliding down on the huge surfaces. It landed, lighter than she had expected it to, alighting right near her.
"...Hello there," he, for the voice was clearly masculine, spoke in rich, dark tones, comparable to that new foreign sweet… chocolate, was it? Despite his imposing figure, she felt no fear. No desire to run. Something felt missing, as though there was something she was supposed to do in his presence.
"H… hello?" she answered softly, struggling to stand, or at least get off her side. Flexing a leg, she found it to be a bit stiff, but no longer weak. Wait… why had she expected it to be weak? Putting weight on her forepaws, she raised herself to a sitting position.
"Good to see you awake," the Fire-type said, for now she saw him up close it was clear that heat was rising from his plumage.
"What are… you?" she spoke carefully, sounding out each word with precise vowels and consonants. Her voice was oddly unfamiliar, her own tongue tripping her speech.
The larger Pokemon, for she was sure of that much, hummed contemplatively, as though it was a somehow difficult, or at least complicated, question.
"In a literal sense, I am a Ho-Oh. In a more abstract sense, I am your Father," he seemed proud his response, if not slightly surprised. She knew what a Father was.
"What… who, am I?" Father chuckled, a soothing, light-hearted sound.
"You are my Daughter," he said, as though it were the most simple thing in the world.
And that it was.
AN In case you're confused:
A) the POV character is a Suicune
B) this is when Ho-Oh resurrects the Beasts
C) it runs on the fan-theory of the three first eeveelutions being turned into the Beasts
Part 1 of three
