oreramar:

Happy birthday, @zilleniose-chu! Enjoy. 🙂

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He fell
like a star – burning.

Fire
leaked from his teeth, licking against hardened scales, whipped away by the air
that roared around his plummeting form. He tried to slow himself; a high shriek
tore itself from his throat in another burst of flame, his voice crying out in
sympathy for his wing joints.

So
many had aimed true. Too many, even for him.

Streaming
blood and fire, burning inside and out as he fell, and still he dimly hoped
that he had gotten far enough away, that his body, out of control as it was,
would not cause them harm in what may be its final moments.

He
struck trees first, mighty branches snapping like twigs beneath him, splintered
edges gouging and tearing at scales and membrane and perhaps even flesh. Then
there was the ground and more trees still, piling up around him as he ploughed
through them all, exploding into the air and hailing back down, stifling the
fire at his maw for good.

The
silence that followed rang in his mind like a bell. He lifted his snout from
its newly dug trench, clods of earth and felled trees sliding away with the
motion, tried to shift his claws beneath him, and crumpled again with a rumble
which verged on a whimper. The fire was gone, but the blood remained, and it
burned inside.

He
laid his head back down. The world was dark; he closed his eyes, just for a
little while, just to rest.

When
he next opened them, there was light.

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