Fate - First Reply Reborn: From Dirt to Sky

[Dirt One-Cloud]

Darkness. His world was darkness and the smell of churned earth. The air around him was thick. It wrapped grasping hands around his neck and slowly began to squeeze as he tried to draw breath. He tried to move. He had bare inches of space. He found he had no idea where he was. He could not remember how he came to be here. He couldn't even quite grasp....Who am I.

He was trapped in a dark box with little air, and while his lungs didn't burn from a lack of breath, the discomfort of the stuffiness was making him claustrophobic. So, he did what any sane being on any world in any reality would do.

"HALP!" He screamed as he tried to beat his fist against the wooden box. "Help! I'm in here! Anybody! Please!"

He would like to tell anyone that asked that he screamed in the manliest way imaginable, but anyone who heard would agree he had sounded like a dying cat.


A large vulture took flight from it's perch on the unetched stone grave marker. It flew off into the clear sky as it shook it's head at the sound of the creature stuck in the box in the ground.

"HAAAAAALLLLLP!" The screaming continued.

 

[Zafir]

Black wings came-aflutter and stop, atop the grave markers, just above the sound beneath the sand and the dust. A large dark eye took in the sight, and a black plumed head flicked, and turned as the screaming continued.

"Well," the white chested raven spoke in its low rumble and crook. "What is this then?" it hopped down from its pearch with a single spread of its wings. The heated air of the afternoon, fat and easy to glide upon.

Scratchy talons scrabbled and clacked against the wood of the box. A croak, and a gurgle came from the raven, and its head ticked one way, then the other as it peered through a gap in the slats.

"And," it asked with a yawn of its beak. "What are you?" it seemed to laugh.

 

[Dirt One-Cloud]

He pushed his hands against the rough surface of the inner lid of the box. A small crack form after how long he couldn’t say. His voice was beginning to become hoarse from his pleading cries. Light flowed in through the crack in the wood as he fought with his wooden prison and motes of dust danced in the flowing golden illumination. He could feel the moving currents of air and though he still felt lost and confused, he felt the relief of the fresh air on his skin.

"What is this then?"

He stopped moving. The voice shocked him into holding still. He tried to see out of the crack. His stiff neck craned toward the hole as scratching and thumping echoed inside his small world.

The voice asked what he was and knocked loose soil into his eye as he had tried to see out. The soil fell into his eye and he yanked his neck away.

"Dirt!” He groaned as he turned his head and tried to blink the dirt away. "Help me? I’m stuck.”

He didn’t have a good answer for what he was. But started trying to push again.

Zafir

 

[Zafir]

"Dirt," the raven repeated. Head ticked back, some space between them. Ticked the other way around, turned near upside down. "Stuck," a croak that sounded almost a laugh. A hop and a skip with a beat of wings, as the thing inside the box pushed and pushed against their prison. The raven landed again with a scritch and a clack.

"Yes, you are stuck, Dirt," the raven went on as it looked around the wastes. "I will help you," they added. Hopped again, towards a spot he had seen the wood give. "Still now," the raven said, and paused for calm.

There beneath his beak was a nail. Head too far out of the wood, the hole worn and eaten away by beetles and sand.

A peck, and a grab saw the raven's black beak come shut around the nail. A jerk and twist saw nothing happen to the nail. A pause. The raven let go of the nail and stared at it a moment. Knocked its beak down on the wood.

"Here," it said. Knocked its beak there once more. "Hit it here," and it hopped up off the coffin's lid, and onto the lonely grave marker.

Watched with large curious eyes that burned silvery-white.

Dirt One-Cloud