Lightning
skewers the clouds, penetrating the dry fecundity of the earth. Flames
seethe and dance as they flare outward and envelop a newly hatched life.
Trees splinter and crackle as they crash to the ground. Sap simmers and
sputters, smoke plumes overtake the once-blue sky. A sharp crack echoes
as another home, another cache of memories, collapses under its own
wounded weight. Rain is nothing to this awakened inferno. The young
beast writhes and moans in ecstasy, snorting redundant sparks. The
blackened forest weeps with the charred blood and flesh of the life it
once hosted, and the dragonlet feasts.
