I found him.

That one thought flooded through him just before his body gave out and he crumpled into a heap on the ground. For a few more heartbeats, he was aware of muffled sounds and movement before everything finally faded to black.


When he next opened his eyes, he sat in the center of a burning forest. The flames leaped across the sky, tearing at the inky blackness of the night sky, making his feathers itch from the heat.

Wait, feathers?

He looked properly down at himself. Tawny feathers covered him, powerfully taloned feet gripping the soil beneath them. An eagle. He couldn't decide whether it was poetic or strange. A still-burning branch crashed to the ground next to him, startling him into taking off. He wove his way through the blazing trees, seeking out any means of escaping the raging flames. No such opportunity presented itself. All around him, things were being turned to ash and collapsing into clouds of dust and earth. He drove himself faster, crashing through the brittle forest.

Eventually, he reached an area the flames had not yet devoured. Believing the worst had passed, he slowed, his wings quivering with exhaustion. But he kept going. He had to. For a moment he paused, pondering over the sole instinct driving him forward. Why? Why did he have to keep going when his very core screamed for him to stop? Why must he continue when his body threatened to tear itself apart?

A dark shape, at least twice his current size, dove towards him with an angry screech, its razor like talons ripping at his back and wings. Clumps of blood, flesh, and feathers rained to the ground. And then he knew nothing but pain.

He screamed, the eagle's shrill cry melding into his own cries of agony until they became one voice. As the enormous bird tore at his wings, another shot up out of the darkness and began to rake its talons repeatedly down his torso.

The eagle's cries vanished, completely swallowed up by his own screams. His wings halted as he drew them closer to himself. Moments later, he collided with the ground, a sharp cry of pain wrenched from his throat. The large birds screeched in what almost seemed to be laughter before vanishing back into the forest.

Pain burned in every limb, every drop of his blood. The wounds on his wings and chest were still sluggishly oozing blood onto the earth around him. Every muscle was paralyzed with agony, only light tremors running through him every now and then. A rush of heat from somewhere behind him signaled that the fire had finally caught up to him.

But he couldn't fly away. He was too weak . . . too tired . . .

Curling into himself as best he could, he allowed his eyes to flutter shut as the raging flames swallowed him whole.


I'm really really really really really sorry I haven't updated this in . . . how long has it been now? A year? I don't know. But I just didn't know how to really follow chapter one. Eventually I came up with this fever dream thing that is NOT SYMBOLIC IN THE SLIGHTEST *cough cough*

I'm hoping to update again soon. Hoping.

Again, really sorry for the delay, and provide some useful feedback for me!