Feathers Through the Seasons

Snow dusted the winding hills, leaving it’s fine powder glistening like crystals as the gentle rays of the winter sun kissed the fallen flakes.

The chilled air caressed and aided the lift in my wings as I soared freely through the skies, searching with a keen eye around the riverbank for small fish to snatch up with my majestically pointed beak; the promise of breakfast twinkling in my gaze as I scanned the waters of the village below thoroughly.

I shifted my trajectory mid-air as my keen eyes caught sight of my target, and burst internally with triumphant glee as I soared down with striking precision— effectively snatching my intended prey with ease.

I flew a safe distance from the water and feasted happily upon my catch, the fresh taste of the fish filling my senses with a simple joy as my stomach was finally filled.

This was how it always had been, and exactly as I preferred my day to start. Although I knew not how many full revolutions it had been since I had gained both life and consciousness.

I remembered my birth, bursting through the darkness of my temporal shell to finally experience the warming touch of sunlight gracing my glistening feathers. The soft winds ruffling me as to cool the rays of the fiery sphere that resided in the endless, open skies above. Everything was in balance. Just as it should be. I soared knowingly, my immediate self-awareness proving me to be wiser than the easy to catch prey that I instinctively hunted for nourishment.

Endless cycles of light and darkness flashed by seemingly in an instant, during which I charted the cosmos with inquisitiveness. I drifted about the lands below me before an indescribable pull came to my attention with the passing of time, bringing me to one certain area for reasons unknown to myself. Yet, I did not question it. I resided in the area through numerous revolutions around The Golden Sky God as the endless flash of days to nights came and went.

I watched with interest as curious looking creatures built shelter in the area, the number of the beings growing substantially over time as the buildings grew larger, more detailed and intricate. The population flourished, but their hierarchy troubled my heart. With the beauty of their society, there was also pain, disease and death that followed closely behind like inevitable shadows. Those who were deemed inferior to those in power lived in formidable clutches of poverty and as the seasons changed and the lands were cast in ice, many were claimed by the frosty chill of death.

It pained my soul to witness the agonizing demises of those poor, tortured creatures as they desperately attempted all possible solutions to their cling to life, many of which were extreme and violent in nature.

They would lie, steal, cheat, sell their own flesh to sate the lust of another of their kind, and perhaps the most terrifying to witness; the destruction of one another as they coated their souls with the uncleansable stain of mortal blood with their own two hands.

A most unforgivable act indeed.

I hadn’t much idea as to why, but I was told to always keep myself hidden from these beings. I had no immediate Master as far as I could tell, yet I listened intently to The Golden Sky God that lit up the heavens during the daylight hours. They spoke no true words, but sang in a curious tune that not many other creatures could decipher the true meaning of.

However, I could understand every single humming decibel that the shining, golden God ever sang, so I knew instinctively that I was a special and peculiar to them.

It was not just that which led me to that certain inkling either. The faeries would whisper to me of all sorts of things in my time, the gossipy little creatures, and they had made it known to me that I was a child of the sun— according to the tales of their elders.

A Phoenix, they called me.

I had quickly learned that there had not been a sighting of another of my kind in well over six thousand full revolutions of the planet around The Golden Sky God. That was indeed a long space of time, and it made me wonder if there were any more of my kind that remained in existence. I had no real idea how long my species’ life span was, which left me quite curious as to how old I really must be after existing for all of this time.

The faeries might be knowledgeable little spirits, but they by no means knew everything. Which, to my displeasure, meant that they held very little information in regards to my kind. I found it unfair that there was so little to be known, which resulted in an eternal sense of frustration that thrummed in the back of my mind at all times.

I knew myself to be female, for that was how I felt in my soul. Even if my creator themselves, whoever they may be, were to stand before me and declare me otherwise, I would dispute it with the utmost vigor. So, that knowledge coupled with what little I could scrape up from the tiny-gossiping faeries, I knew myself to be exactly to be as such:

I was a Female Phoenix with multicolored feathers. The majority of my plume was red, orange and yellow, yet the tips of the long flight feathers of my wings were a shining, deep-purple. My right eye was blue, which was so glisteningly sapphire in appearance that it would put the very gemstones of the same name to shame. My other eye was a blazing yellow-gold color, the likeness of which could only be found in the fiery warmth of The Golden Sky God itself. My lifespan was somewhere between one to five thousand revolutions around The Golden Sky God, and after which, I would be reborn. However, that detail eluded me greatly. The information as to why and how that would occur was very scant to say the least.

I sighed internally as I pondered the little that I knew of myself, fluffing out my fast plumage with a mighty shake before stretching out the span of my wings fully and reveling in the refreshing stretch that accompanied my actions.

Now that my stomach was full from my breakfast, I set out immediately to search for various herbs to bring back to my nesting grounds. I wasn’t entirely sure as to why, but I always had the deep instinctual need to bring back various good-smelling items to my home. I particularly liked cinnamon and frankincense, so whenever I ran across them, I could never pass up the opportunity to snatch them up. I originally assumed it was because I was just a peculiar being with strange, impulsive interests. Yet I knew that there was more to it than met the eye. I was just not entirely sure what that exactly that more was.

However, I wanted to find out no matter the cost.

Not knowing how truly great that cost would be in the end...