Karmine

Karmine rested on Fodder's head, as she usually did. The Imperial was lying down in a wide depression in the desert. A pointed formation of rock provided them with shade, even as storm clouds churned overhead.

Karmine tapped her partner's head idly. She was located right between his eyes, on his big forehead. Fodder had taken his mask off, and was slumbering away. He sure slept a lot!

Karmine, restless, crawled around his head, antlers, neck, wings, and eventually his tail. She played his his dorsal tuft, and pondered.

They were in the Lightning Flight, both born there, yet their ancestors had certainly not called the Shifting Expanse their home. Of Wind and Light, she and her companion were. Now, they were imbued with their electric birthright. But, was Lightning so different from Wind or Light?

She blinked at the swirling clouds overhead. Lightning arched within the thunder cell like muted fireworks. Wind buffeted the clouds, and light was created every time lightning struck.

How curious, then, that the Gods insisted on such exclusionist ideologies. Did they not see that every element was connected? There were ancient stories of Flight-wide harmony, sure, but in the modern age interflight tensions were as high as ever. Propelled by the news of their God's supreme glory, nationalists teemed within Flight borders. Expansionist philosophies were growing amongst all cultural corners of Sornieth.

Karmine clasped her small paws together. She felt the wind, saw the lightning, smelled the petrichor, blinked away the raindrops. She looked into the sky and saw how the shadows and sunbeam played amongst the angry clouds. Shrubs thrived amongst the skulls. At night, ice crystals covered a desert laid naked under the cosmos. Did no-one else feel the harmony of existence?