Introduction
The dusk was cold, with drafts bleeding along the floor and between the cracks of scales and chipped claws. Sephrain's gold adornments glowed a bloody crimson under the light of the red sun, the darkening sky drawing lower on the horizon. He lay languid in the sand, his feathers darting gently in the breeze. The air was still- but dry enough that he found himself licking his lips absently on more than one occasion between the hours. Sephrain had been waiting beside the old temple with a subdued kind of energy- he was calm, but wound tight like a mechanism of cogs. He was breathing deeply and slowly, eyes intent on the heavens above. The only betrayal of his control was the nervous twitching of the tip of his tail. Even so, the surrounding air was palpable- his heartbeat loud and staccato beneath his ribs, noisy against the silence of the sand dunes. It was long after the sky had started to dim before the first star blinked into the sky, upon which Sephrain's wings flew wide and his eyes locked with a heavy gravity.
This is it, he had thought.
Finally.
The star continued to wink and Sephrain was transfixed, nerves an exploding spitfire under his skin. Jagged claws dug into the dust at his feet, eyes glowing bright like stars building to a supernova. The winds around him started to swell and spin and Sephrain's robe billowed behind him like a serpent, whipping and swiping at his feet. Sephrain remained unperturbed by the whirling cloud of sand and steadied his breath. The wind began to lift him, tail whipping in the wind and feathers fluttering. His wings fought the storm in a steady rhythm of long powerful beats.
Take me home, he said with wide, clear eyes.
Take me home.
The star blazed above him, the surrounding constellations starting to flame brightly.
I've waited, he said.
I've been waiting for so long.
The heavens were suddenly burning with light, the red sky blanched white and glorious. Under the glow of the night, Sephrain continued to hover anxiously- unaware of the light gripping to his scales with an unearthly glow, majestic and otherworldy in it's illumination. He looked ancient and powerful, the light seeming to leak from inside him, alien and beautiful as the stars revealed his true glory.
I'm here, Sephrain shouted, voice rattling against the tidal force of the whirling sand. A rumbling voice like thunder spoke from across the skies.
You have deserted us, Ra-In, it roared, shaking the foundations of the fallen temple and ripping away leagues of sand.
You no longer hold a place in our world.
Sephrain froze in the air, the lapse catching sand in his throat and ripping him into the spiral of the hurricane. He felt his heart gripped in a cold horror as he struggled furiously against the storm. The voice continued, but Sephrain could barely hear over the sound of the wind and the burning pain of sand clawing at his eyes.
You will remain on earth until you have lived through a hundred years of servitude for your betrayal.
Sephrain opened his mouth to shout, but felt sand immediately choking his throat and filling his lungs. He spluttered out a cry, but was drowned by the sound of a crack across the sky that seemed to richochet into oblivion. It rumbled the valleys of sand and threw Sephrain from the storm. He crash-landed with a skid across the terrain, smashing husky remnants of the temple as he tumbled to a stop. The light in his eyes began to burn as he gazed above at the explosion of stars and storm. The sand sliced against him and the heaven above blazed down like an ocean of fire. He saw the flickering stars slide into a blur of white before his vision faded to black. Beside him, a cracked fossil began to glow, ancient sigils illuminated from underneath layers of dust. It shone a ghostly blue, casting out whorls of old magic, flooding the air in a cloud of glittering light. The cloud swirled to the ground gently, pulsing into the form of a small creature as it decended. It gave a long, high pitched yawn and relaxed it's wings, knocking into Sephrain's sprawled form as it did so. It jolted to look at his sleeping form on the ground.
The shrill chrip it gave in welcome was lost into the night.
