1-Flying Above
I dream of a firebird every night.
Its wingspan stretches wide enough to engulf a small car. I’m running through a dense jungle, chased by shadowed figures with blades that glint like crescent metal fangs. I feel their breath on my neck. They’re too close.
And then I hear it-a shriek. Piercing. Hopeful to me. Haunting to them.
I see it-the Firebird, swooping in with origami feathers of molten light, folding the sky in flames.
Everything goes black.
I jolt awake, drenched in sweat. My chest tightens until I feel the warm hand of Dadiji. She doesn’t say a word. She’s seen this before. She wraps the blanket closer and tucks my hair behind my ears.
Outside, our bamboo walls creak with the weight of the wind. I can hear the distant grind of machines-Min-Co’s drills, roaring somewhere by the riverbank, beyond the tree line.
Even in the middle of the night, Kongai-Rock never sleeps.
Anger rises in my throat. Min-Co has turned our home into a corridor of corrosion. Their mining rigs, half-buried in red earth, blink with rust-orange lights-like droning, massive mechanical beasts.
I can see their glow from my window, faint under the canopy. Once, fireflies lit up the forest. Now, it’s surveillance drones over the mine borders, and search beams from the watchtowers dancing between the thick trees.
I wonder if I should start reporting.
Not for clicks. But just to let the world know about Min-Co’s rampant blaze to scrounge my home like a vulture.
I shut my eyes. I try to let the dark carry me back. But the fear is stubborn tonight-tight in my ribs, loud in my ears.
Dadiji rolls over, gently pulling me into her arms. She strokes my head, her voice a gentle whisper.
“It’s okay, Zareen.”
Slowly, I am lost in the world of dreams, firebirds, and the comforting darkness of sleep.
