Welcome to Gaia! ::

She was burning. Flames licked hungrily at her flesh as she plummeted through the air. The roar of the wind rushing by her ears drowned out the sound of her screams. She had been waiting for this day to come for hundreds of years; she had anticipated it eagerly, wanting to pass on the gift of life to the next of her kind. But now that she was finally there with fire scorching her entire body, burning her flesh and wings, she wished that it didn't have to happen at all. But for the next Phoenix to rise, one had to die. And it was her turn.

Another scream was torn from her lips as she flipped through the air, trying to get her wings to cooperate so she could land on the ground, but with her feathers quickly being burned away in the flames, she couldn't. She sucked in a quick intake of air as she spotted the ground far beneath her. Far, but coming ever closer. She squeezed her eyes shut, praying for the whole ordeal to end quickly because she didn't know if she could take the pain any longer.

Suddenly, her body hit the ground. The flames hissed around her, and she pried her eyes open to see that the fire was slowly vanishing. It took her a moment to realize that she had landed in water and that she was quickly sinking, her wings not being made for such a use. She sank, and though she struggled desperately, she couldn't get back up to the surface.

She floated there for a moment, her burned but mostly intact wings threatening to tug her even further towards the bottom of the lake. She could see the sun, a small twinkle far above her, and oh, how she wanted to go towards it, to leave her watery grave. But she knew that she would die; she had always known that, ever since her birth from the ashes of the Phoenix before her. But...this wasn't how it was supposed to happen. This mistake would break the chain that had gone on millenia before her.

Lungs aching, she closed her eyes and inhaled.