Page 86

Sharing emotions, I understand that this place where they live is safe and full of rich vegetation and prey to hunt.

Humans—winged ones—dwell here as well. The dragons do not fear them, but they sense our terror. They lead us to dry, hot lands where the humans do not venture.

In this place, we nest close together for safety. Our gratitude for the dragons grows when we once again begin to bear young after several long years of captivity.

The vision shifts again to a day when a furious storm attacks the once-tranquil land. Thunder roars, lightning splits the sky, and rain pelts the earth with unrelenting force.

My nest, once secure in the crook of a mighty tree, becomes a plaything for the tempest. It tumbles through the air and crashes into a crag of jagged rocks. The distressed shrieks of my chicks pierce the storm’s wrath, sharp and desperate.

With panic seizing my heart, I race to the crag. I try to rescue them, but my hatchlings have fallen into a crevice too small for me to climb into and too deep for me to reach them with my beak.

The rain drives into my feathers, slowing my desperate attempts to use whatever I can find—sticks, stones, vines—to save my crying young.

My own cries join theirs as I struggle to free them. With each failed attempt, more devastation sinks in. In my increasingly frenetic movements, I slip on the slick rock. My leg falls into a crevice, and just like that, I’m trapped too.

Out of the storm, a figure appears in the sky and flies toward us.

A human.

Fresh terror overwhelms me. I urge my babies to remain silent, but because they never experienced the cruel confinement at the hands of the humans, they continue to screech out in pain.

ChapterTwenty-Nine

The winged woman comes closer, drawn by my hatchlings’ vocal despair. Privy to humans’ depravity, I struggle to free myself but remain trapped.

All I can do is watch as the female descends on deep red and gold wings, her hair the color of the sands in shadows. Her curiosity transforms into concern as she spies my chicks ensnared in jagged stone.

Though I hiss and shriek, she spares me only a quick glance before focusing on my young. She attempts to alight upon the rocks, and the sharp edges rake her flesh. Blood trickles from lacerations on her legs and feet.

She withdraws and tries again. Blood wells in the spot where she slices her hand. Before long, numerous injuries and scratches crisscross her skin.

Despite my respect for her doggedness, despair stabs me, the pain intensifying with each of her successive wounds.

She is but a human. Even if she is the best of her kind, determination and courage have limits.

I’m already starting to mourn when, with an agonized groan, her fingers wrap around the first chick. Leaving behind a strip of flesh, she extracts one of my precious babies from his stony prison and cradles him in the warmth of her cloak.

Again and again, she plunges into the abyss, each rescue paid for with strips of flesh.

The woman’s limbs tremble as she gathers the last of my chicks. With the brood secure, she approaches me in the dwindling daylight. A steady drip of scarlet marks her path over the rocks.

“Shh, easy now. Let’s see if we can get you back to your babies.”

Her pain seeps into me as gentle fingers wrap around my foot. After careful maneuvering, she finally frees me.

A moment later, she collapses beside me, her strength waning and her eyes dimming.

My own eyes brim with tears from profound gratitude.

My little ones weep as well, onto the woman’s lacerated skin. As their blood and tears mingle with the winged human’s blood and tears, a magical confluence occurs.

In a spectacle of regeneration, her wounds knit together, radiant flesh replacing torn sinew and muscle in moments.

Shock registers on the human’s face. Then I feel it. Even my young feel it.

A connection never before forged between phoenix and human.

The human invites us to take refuge in her home. She leads us across a river, to a beautiful swathe of gardens surrounding an immense dwelling. The male humans guarding the dwelling rush to act on her orders, and my chicks and I are offered shelter at the palace