Hector, my dear brother, is among those in the line. He is able to find me during the start, a brief smile tugging at crimson lips and sparkling in those eyes, I returned that smile as his hot musk kissed a feverous path along my trembling arch. Neck bent, answering the intimate gesture with warmth, “And mine.” I whisper. We’d raced together once before, but I’d not get long to palaver about things that had passed. This glory run had begun.
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Breath came quickly, gasping from my chest with strong huffs as we struggled to climb. Fina lead the way, her body reaching elevation higher and swifter than mine. She chortled a little encouragement; wind tugged at my lips, spreading them further apart to reveal a clean row of teeth. The heat of competition raced our heartbeats and blood, but various competitors had already fallen from the pack before we’d hardly made it through one ring. I glided forward as the arching circle neared, frame slipped past the fireflies with both appendages tucking momentarily, attempting to not disrupt the hoop with the wake of wind. Warm thermals eased my transition. The race had hardly begun.

I couldn’t see Hector anymore, nor Ghost or Parelia. I assumed they were traveling in the rear. Possibly waiting for a chance to climb upward. There were still plenty of bodies around me, Cera for one. Fina soared toward his position, gliding higher than most other equines and chirping playfully from heaven. I glanced his way and grinned, hoping that the patched boy would turn a favorable smile toward me.

Africa was far ahead, her lean body able to catch wind streams much easier than this bulky species.

My wings thumped hard, the long feathers on each appendages were strong and well suited for flight. Muscles, honed from years of skytravel, responded smoothly.

The next hoop drew near, I turned gaze and full attention back to the group in front. I thrust hard once and felt a shift in the amount of air that was traveling beneath and around my feathers. Muzzle shifted left to the side, turning one curious eye to gaze beyond the curve of flesh and regard my left appendage for previously unnoticed damage or missing feather. Then there was a tingling below my knees.

The phoenix felt the sudden distress in our bond and came over instantly, I frantically turned eyes down. Untucking patched limbs to thrash heaven and witness the emergence of…fins?

A cross between dragon claws and fish flappers, my sharp and well-formed daggers had changed into useless webbed toes. Mouth had slipped apart, eyes wide and completely horrified by this sudden development. Muzzle began to tingle as well, I shook it back and forth. Swaying in the air like an awkward buffoon.

“Midas!” Fina shrieked into my mind, “calm down!” her yelling did little to stop my swaying and violent trembling that had suddenly shuttered this flesh. A duck beak sprouted forth; where once had been soft ebony flesh now stood a creamy pale scoop. I balked and slowed. The feathers I’d been momentary admiring shrank from easy view.

Panic and real fear ignited, coursing rapidly until the sounds of all the other racers become a faint hum in my ears, a frantic whinny slipped past my clinched li – beak. “For the love of…” The tingling stopped all at once; I hadn’t fallen from the sky. Those tiny feathered limbs were somehow still able to hold this body up. Insulating hair had shifted into a thicker hide with strange splotches. Fina was levitating just ahead and above, watching my sudden change and that of the other contestants. She was grinning of all things, I shot her a revolting look.

It was in that moment I realized that we were in good company. Dozens, nay, all the others were undergoing a change very similar to mine. I struggled to move my rather useless wings and creep our position forward. The initial shock slowly wore off enough for me to begin steadily moving again. Fina soared back over to check on Cera and few of our other kinsman. I watched them through brief snapshot images she sent me – not daring to turn head for fear that those tiny appendages might actually give way and I’d become a puddle of limbless, lifeless muck on the rocks below. That image made me cringe and shiver uncontrollably.