12-15-2025, 01:27 PM
i burn from the hell i've seen, but the devil can't hold me down
He is a creature whose very essence depends on fire. It crawls through his veins and over his bones, sparking to life in the cavernous space in between his ribs and within his chest. It defines him, but does not control him. The fire is his to control.
He cannot imagine being controlled by the fire, though. How heavy a weight that must be, for despite its flickering form, fire is cumbersome in a way the other elements are not. It does not simply hurt; it consumes and annihilates, leaving nothing behind but a blackened memory and the lingering scent of soot. Only when the fire has destroyed everything in its path does the regrowth begin.
Another sorry forms at the back of his throat, but he doesn't let it slip past his teeth. There is something about her that makes him think she doesn't need or even want his sympathy. Maybe its something in the spark of her eyes, or the crisp way her words are formed as she tells her story. She may not have been born one, but she is a wild thing now, and he's never met a wild thing that felt sorry for itself.
So instead of empty words he inclines his head, offering acknowledgement and consideration as her words find his ears. Her story ends abruptly, as if someone had simply snuffed out her flame and left only the smoke behind. His eyes find hers and the phoenix in his chest stirs, begging to be let lose and heal her. He shoves it down, but the tightness at the back of his throat doesn't let up. He takes a moment before he speaks, and when he does his voice is clear. "If you could go back to how you were before...would you?" he asks, his head tilting in that avian way of his. "If I offered you my tears, would you bathe in them and hope they put out the fire?" Perhaps he shouldn't offer such a thing; he has no idea if its possible, to combat her magic with his. But it felt like a better offering than an empty sorry. Words are wind, but his tears are a promise.
fireheart
@Brinly ooc - I blame my kids and husband lurking around for this slop >.<