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Standing erect, I plant my feet, closing the four eyes that cover my face, and the hundreds of eyes that cover my wings. Willing the elements upward into me, I bring divine fire to my form. It swirls atop my horns and over my arms, enrobing me in its splendor.
It’s simple, really. Perhaps a little too mundane.
I shall vanquish them all through fire.
But for all of the elegance it lacks, I know that it will still inspire terror in their hearts. I also know that it will leave me the least vulnerable to them. Fire takes little effort to command. Its power has become innate in me over my many centuries of controlling it.
Leaving the dim light of the cavern, I step forward across the stone halls that I call home. I look out over the sprawling white and brown sands.
Its desolation has always been beautiful to me. I love the deserts of Protheka.
But as my eyes wander over the cresting sands, I feel something else enter my heart, and I can’t quite place its basis in sentiment. The dark skies reveal thousands of stars that shine white and green.
With as much power as I wield, I have no equal. I struggle to imagine a being, capable of enjoying my wrath, who I would not immediately strive to strike down. I want to share laughter when I extinguish a camp of intruders. I want to empty halls and cities alike, bringing plagues across the land, hand in hand with another entity.
My victories are growing unsatisfying to me. They’ve grown stale.
But still, I must continue. I cannot relent in the faces of my pathetic adversaries. Their wickedness deserves my attention. Their greed deserves my wrath.
Unfurling my wings, I take to the skies, coasting forward against the light of the rising sun.
3
ARIE
Onward, I trod familiar paths, moving across paved deserts. The scorching heat sears my feet as I stroll. I am careful not to get lost in a mirage or in the glare of the sun overhead.
One wrong step in these sands could mean my death.
My cavern rests due south of me. I have only wandered in a straight line with very occasional veering, for the sake of backtracking.
Because there are no signifiers to speak of which would guide me back if I got lost… no strange rock formations, no plants… I have to take care that I follow a very clear path.
“Nothing yet,” I say out loud, looking up at the dreary gray sky.
Eerily, I have not run across any roaming creatures. I’ve brought a dagger with me for protection, expecting to at least run into stray worgs who make their home amid the sands.
But there is nothing. The deserts seem unusually uninhabited around these parts.
Of course, I’m partially thankful for that because it means that I haven’t had to pry my life from the claws of predators. However, amid these sands, I need to find salvation before the desert itself condemns me to death.
I might find that salvation in the sanctuary of others like me, who have also escaped from confinement.
I’d even take the remains of an animal who ventured too far from the beaten path as a way to satisfy my unbearable hunger.
Quietly, I hum to myself. I don’t remember where I first heard the song. It’s a pleasant melody, and it uplifts me from my trudging despair, if only for a second. I like to imagine that my mother sang it to me when I was a child, but my memories of my mother have grown more distant with the passage of time.
It’s been years since I’ve seen her face.
I still can’t believe she’s gone. My mind wants to project her out somewhere in the sand. I want to believe she’s still alive, despite knowing differently from personal experience.
She’s both my reason for wanting to live and to die. I know she would want me to go on, and she died protecting me. I’ve heard that I might see her again in the afterlife. I don’t know that I have much to live for anymore.
But I take solace in knowing that my mind is mine again, at least for the moment. Any company at all would be great in the sands. I know that with imagination, my mind can only lead me to ruin.
So I can’t simply imagine a companion, for fear of my brain making it real. I’m on a delicate track. The slightest thing could set me off, spiraling me into another reality.
And I’m never sure what could trigger it, so I have to move with caution, regulating my every thought.
