"Brothers and sisters of the sun, I call to you." Her furious voice rang out across the sand, wings spread and forelimbs struck toward the sky. There is a fire within her she can no longer contain, she had bided her time patiently, painfully as she had carried her twins to term and as the seasons changed with a solemn hope the wind would change and herald in another golden age. She had waited since the day Gaucho's fire had run out, counted each listless hour in the sea of days. It had not changed, the tree's had shed their leaves and a turbulent autumn brought in a silent winter. It was time then, that someone spoke out and filled the silence, and took fate in both hooves. So she called with an inferno, beseeching her family to come to her now, hoped and prayed that they would answer her summons because they had gone too long without the winds carrying the heralded cry to their ears.

Locks of salt kissed obsidian and burned orange tangled and pillowed in the winds whipped and tunneled by the canyons and rocky faces she called home. They are her banners, emblazoned and dipped in the very colours they called home. She waited, with painted and tattooed neck arched and nostrils flared, tail raised and wings spread. She cared little for the repercussions of such an act, not when they had already suffered in the silence, not when there were creatures once more beyond their island home with light fingers and unknown motives. They had been deadly, they had been fierce and they had been beautiful. Where was that fire now? Had it died with the Wildfire that day? Was there not an ember left that they could stoke back into an inferno that soared in their wings as well as their hearts, that did not burn their mark into the grass as they strode forth?


"Too long silence has reigned in the wake of our Sultan." She stated, her dual toned eyes looking to any and all who had heard the summons and gathered. "There are thieves at our door, and there is a creature once more who lurks with unknown intentions beyond our borders. I have seen the wake and aftermath of the Rift Battles, and I was there when we drove back the Tiger Goddess with a thunderous cry. The land goes without our presence, and we are blind to the new dangers which come beyond the waters and the mainland. We are lacking, our knowledge limited, stunted by the lack of growth and lack of interactions with herds who dwell upon the mainland. Our warriors stagnate, I did not become a Guardian to sit listlessly by while the days roll on, we are without training and without patrols, our healer ranks are desolate and bare, our crafters do not have a vision of which to craft in iron. We linger waiting for that which does not show. I say no more." Nephele's head raised high with her last note, her hoof struck deep into the grains of sand beneath her.

"We are a proud people, we are strong, we are fierce and we are a sight to behold when we take flight, or when our hooves strike against the earth. We face an unknown horizon, a new dawn has come to us with the grace of our God. There are uncertainties we face, and it is an uncertainty that can be removed, a horizon we can run towards unafraid and heads held high." She stopped as she found herself pacing back and forth in front of her family, the feathers of her wings raised higher instead. "I ask you to place your faith, your fire within me. Let me be the fire to Sikeax's healing light, the storm which looms behind calm waters, the fight when peace is no longer an option. It is a new era for the Dragon's Throat, but it is not one where we must cast off all that we are and embrace all that we are not. I ask you to let me be the tradition which stands as the mountain does, while the water gradually, slowly, shapes and changes that what it touches." She paused for breath, the golden ring looped through her nostrils vibrated with each punctuated breath. "Our shadows will hang over the mainland once more, no land will go without feeling the gaze of our eyes, no more will the threshold be absent of our guiding hooves. I will see that when able, all that which has been taken from us will be returned." She ended her speech, her blood felt like liquid fire in her veins, threatening to consume her inside out as she awaited their judgement. Let them see the fire, the determination, the unwavering want and devotion which poured from her in bright waves.