The Firebird

Where panic should have bloomed, she was unnaturally calm.

They had chosen evening as a fitting time for her to expire. The flames would mount high and be seen for miles around, a testament to what happened to impudent servants. The King was in attendance on a high balcony, with an entourage of nobles who hid their smirks behind gloved hands as they watched her procession.

The ropes cut into her flesh and bound her limbs to the post.

From this vantage, she could view all the commoners that had come to witness her demise. Those she might have considered friends now scowled at her with hateful expressions. Children threw rotten fruit, most of them missing quite impressively.

Men with torches came near, though they hesitated at the sound of their King's voice. "Witness what happens to those who stray from their duties," he called over the crowd, breaking from his well-dressed entourage to address his people. "Witness," he repeated, "what happens to those who steal from your King."

The King nodded to the torch bearers, then turned away and adjourned into his castle without another look at Sapphia.

A cacophony of shouts erupted from the crowd below. "Burn her!"

"Get it over with!"

"Kill the traitor!"

Traitor, she thought as she watched the kindling ignite beneath her feet. I suppose I am a traitor. She looked up into the sky as if she'd still find the firebird there, still drifting on a high wind. As the flames spread beneath her, tears fell, hissing upon contact with their merciless tongues. Pain gripped her like she'd never felt before, crawling into her flesh and turning it black. She tried not to scream.

Oh, how she tried!

But the pain was too great, swallowing her up and eating away at her clothes and skin. She thought she could take no more, and finally, her throat worked through the choking smoke and reek of burning flesh.

It was not a scream that escaped her, however, but a high trill, like a songbird's call. And the flames became something else entirely, brightening to make a marvelous fan of glowing feathers as she shot up into the sky on wings that now belonged to her.

Sapphia breathed fresh new air, the pyre shrinking beneath her clenched talons. A wind carried her up, up, up, into the sky as even the memory of her pain vanished. She forgot the agony in exchange for unfettered joy, climbing ever higher.

That's when a glowing form came into view on her left, spiraling around her in a wide arc as she gained her bearings. She recognized him instantly, and her heart soared in her chest.

Then, he cut up through the sky past her, making way for her untested wings.

A song arose from her slender beak, a felicitous greeting that made her feathers flare. The firebird returned her call, a bright and joyous thing as they spun and spiraled in perfect unity, streaking through the sky like twin stars without a destination.