Oriens
Means 'orient, east, rising, morning, dawn, sun-god' in Latin
Dawn was usually the time I awoke. The magnificent colors in the sky matched my feathers perfectly, but something woke me before dawn this morning. There was an acrid scent to the air, something I had only smelt anything similar to once or twice. It was strange... My blue eyes opened sleepily from my nest, and I soon remembered where I had smelt that scent before.
The night sky was glowing an angry yellow and orange color, and the smell I smelt was smoke! Apparently something had happened during the night, and now there was a large fire. Suddenly worried, I jumped to my feet and flapped my wings, looking towards the strongest point of the glow. My heart dropped when I realized it was coming from the island of a good friend of mine, Stella. Oh of all the things to wake up to!
I flapped my wings furiously and jumped from my nest, feeling the air get warmer as gusts came from the fire. Heart pounding, with my gut feeling sick due to the dread I felt, I took off towards the fire.It wasn't an easy flight, other Shionnix kept trying to get me to turn the other way and run form it instead of go to it. The heat from the fire also was a deterrent. It was extremely hot, and I wondered what had caught fire that would cause it to burn with so much heat.
Finally, I spotted Stella under her nest; The fire was raging closer to her and she struggled, as if she were stuck. Closing my wings to my back, I dove down quickly and thudded to the ground beside her. Her tail feathers were pinned under a fallen branch, so I reached my maw around the hunk of wood and proceeded to pull, trying to free her.
It wasn't working, though, and the longer I stayed there, the closer the fire got to me and Stella. Frantic now, I started to pull and push harder on the log, pushing all of my weight onto it and get it off of my dear friend. Her panicked cries echoed in my mind even after she couldn't make any sound form a raw throat.
Finally, the log rolled off of her tail feathers and she took off. I did too, and just in time. The branch we had just moved caught fire as the flames took over the spot we had just been. However before I could go very far, I felt a searing pain in my tail feathers. I cried out, the burning pain shooting up into my buttocks and I ad to land. I turned my head around and looked to my feathers, the beautiful things burning with flames.
I screamed loudly, proceeding to kick dirt onto the flames with Stella's help. Stella seemed oddly calm, so I could only assume she was in shock. Finally, the flames were out and tears of pain rolled from my blue eyes as I took in the burnt feathers. Over half of their length was gone!
Stella and I were safe from the fire, however I'd lost a good portion of my tail feathers in the process. I wouldn't change it for the world though, as Stella was safe.
Picture of a pretty sunrise:
Sorry it took so long to finish. ;-; I had to work quite a bit this weekend.