Written for the Through Time Competition
Prompts: Fear, deep ruby, parseltongue, Egypt, Falco Aesalon, the Diagon Dispensary, colosseum, Julius Caesar
320 Common Era
When Emperor Constantine and the Romans defeat Corinth and the flourishing world of Greece succumbs unwillingly to Roman rule, Falco Aesalon flees to England. He considers Egypt first, before remembering that they, too, are under Roman control after the humiliating dethroning of Marc Antony at the hands of Emperor Augustus. It seems like the entire world lives under a blanket of fear, and the domination of the Roman Empire is unstoppable. Those who have the ability speak in languages other than their own, for fear of being overheard by the spies that are rumoured to lurk behind every door. Falco even catches hisses of Parseltongue among certain witches and wizards, a testament to just how frightened people have become.
So Falco chooses to save his own skin, and moves to England as soon as possible, taking with him as little as possible. It's not difficult; he has no family to leave behind, no friends who will miss him – only a collection of acquaintances and admirers.
His first stop is Diagon Alley, and while he's there, he stops by the Diagon Dispensary to pick up some Purifying Concentration of Spleenwart -he's running low, and you can't get it anywhere else. As much as he loves Greece, and it'll always be his home, Falco admits that he does have a certain fondness for England and its produce.
England has become one of the rare places he can go and be left alone. In Rome, he is pestered and heckled as an unnatural creature. Under Constantine, the people loathe him and his falcon form, viewing him as a direct challenge to Constantine's beloved Christianity, and several times he has only narrowly avoided arrest. In Greece he is revered and held in the highest esteem. Some even compare him to the Gods, though such comparisons are blatant blasphemy. Yet he tires of his notoriety sometimes. Fame can be enormously exhausting.
At such times, Falco will gladly shed his human form and fly freely through the sky. One of his favourite pastimes is to find a comfortable perch and watch the sunrise and sunset. He thinks there's something sacred in the way the colours change, different every time, and the way that the movement of the sun is constant and dependable, even when the world itself may be in utter turmoil.
The blue sky will be shot through with hints of pink and, on occasion, deep ruby, and Falco will shut his eyes and spread his wings, basking in the simple pleasures of being in his own company. If he feels up to the flight, he'll go all the way to the Colosseum in Rome, just because he can. He derives no small amount of satisfaction from knowing that he's sitting on one of the world's greatest monuments, and there's not a thing Constantine and his followers can do about it. In his resentful moments, he curses the time into which he was born – surely an Emperor as renowned as Julius Caesar would have allowed him to roam free?
In thousands of years, Falco will be remembered and celebrated as the first recorded Animagi. His face will be paraded on chocolate frog cards and scholars will debate the tiny details of his life. For now though, he's a living, breathing human being, and all he wants is a little peace.