I lie in the shadow between veins of quartz, my flesh rimed with opalescent crystal, and dream of the sky.

Once, my kin were as flurried ash against smoke-dark skies. Our wings blotted out the fires in the night, our breath bringing cool solace to tortured earth; we were legion, and flame by flame we quenched this hostile world.

And then we slept, as lush green burst from scorched soil and birthed a paradise.

Soon, I will stir.

I will flex my shoulders and break the bonds of earth that hold me; I’ll stretch my wings amidst shattering stone and plummeting stalactite, and claw my way from the deep, the geology which formed my prison now my armour.

I will roar, quaking the trees in the Eden that my kin created, and every cloud shall tremble before me as I reclaim the skies.