I followed the little colt, eyes watching him as he traversed the land with such knowledge. Before I knew it, I had ended up in the Meadow with him. He had run off ahead but I paused. Taking a deep breath of the land in the gentle yet growing warmth of Tallsun. The dawn painted the meadow with such an array of colors that it had been quite beautiful. I, then, decided that I should probably pay some attention to the child and so I trudged on into the grasses before his head popped up. He ruffled some of his feathers and got up from laying in the grass. He trotted over to me and I just smiled to him, shrugging my shoulders, fanning my wings out in a bit of a proud manner. “Well, child, it has been quite some time since I’ve roamed these lands.” I said, a half chuckle escaping my lips before I moved past him and charged forward, spreading my wings out. I fanned the air between my feathers before I came to a stop and turned to face the colt.

“I want to try something I haven’t tried in such a long time.” I called out to him before walking over about half way between him and I. I took a deep breath, closed my stone eyes and pushed that feeling of warmth that had settled into my chest. It spread out like spiderwebs across my body, a burning sensation that caused quite a bit of pain. I grunted against the pain, clenching my teeth until the feeling was over. It took a bit, I couldn’t move at this point. But when I opened my eyes, I fanned my wings forward to where I could see them. Fire crackled along my feathers and I was soon in a blaze of purely orange flames. Curiosity grew stronger in my head, I felt the painful sensation begin to die down, but I could still feel the almost ticklish sensation of the fire as it crackled against me. I wondered what I looked like now. Back when I was a foal, the only thing I could remember was my wings being laced with fire. Had I changed since then? Had it gotten more intense?

I angled my head down only to notice that I didn’t have four feet anymore, instead I was entirely a bird. I exhaled and screamed with a shriek of excitement before flapping my wings against the dawn air and pulling myself into the air. “What do you think, Aeolus?” I called out to him as I hovered higher, a bright ball of firey light in the sky. I looked down to him, curious what the boy would think.

"Talk."

the only problem with the story carved on your chest—

is it’s hard to read

when you’re missing your ribs.