{"sf1_id":872156,"sf2_id":"3egzkgM1","title":"Under a Burning Sky","author":"Narune Watercrest","words":377,"posted_at":"2015-06-12T01:23:00.000Z","tags":["Angels","Demons","Fantasy","Heaven","Hell","Poem","Story"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/872156-under-a-burning-sky","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/s/3egzkgM1","image_url":"https://cdn.sofurryfiles.com/submissions/thumbnails/ae/2c/ae2c1119-fff4-4cc4-8756-30cd2c070040","description":"Just a taste of another world I'm building for a series. Hope everyone enjoys. ^.=.^","content":"The world is screaming now.\n\nThe sky is painted in the colors of a dying sun.\n\nApocalyptic winds scorch the land, spreading ashes far and wide.\n\nThe oceans boil and rumble, steam washing over the shores.\n\nThe heavens are burning.\n\nA figure stands below, staring up.\n\nA man with tattered, bloody wings.\n\nHe has a silver sword in one hand, a ruby pendant in the other.\n\nHe is clad in armor as blue as the ocean.\n\nAs the sky combusts, he murmurs a promise.\n\nThe ground is shaking; tremors are felt the world over.\n\nTowers are toppling; the pristine, white marble now charred and blackened.\n\nStatues are crumbling, they no longer bear the image of those whom they were sculpted for.\n\nThe man takes a step forward, then cries out his fury to the immolated heavens.\n\nHe holds the pendant tighter, sensing his foe near.\n\nSomething stirs before him, the ground shifting.\n\nA massive form erupts from the shattered earth.\n\nIts bony head turns to face him.\n\nA crown of antlers adorns its skull, crackling as they sway.\n\nIt is a writhing, black, oozing, hateful, malevolent thing.\n\nIts body is undulating, squirming darkness.\n\nOily black and worm-like, it gurgles and hisses.\n\nDripping spines twitch in hunger.\n\nIt is but one of many of its kind.\n\nNighmares glimpsed by madmen, dragged into reality.\n\nIt slithers forward, as fast as a lightning strike.\n\nThe man holds the pendant out, speaking words of power.\n\nThe slimy thing recoils, spewing acid phlegm as it roars in anger.\n\nIt is weakened, his one chance.\n\nHe charges forward, sword held out.\n\nA vertical slash cuts most of the throat; a horizontal sweep separates the skull entirely.\n\nIt lands on the ground, beginning to dissolve.\n\nThe enormous body loses its shape, oozing back into the soil.\n\nThe man can hear distant roars.\n\nMore of its kin, more tar-black blood to spill.\n\nHe sets off towards the chaos before him.\n\nHis rage at this desecration fueling his strength.\n\nThere is a fire raging in his heart, a promise that he must keep.\n\nWinged figures are now tumbling from the skies, battered and broken.\n\nOthers like him, others that should be alive.\n\nHe pledges to avenge them, to see this through.\n\nThe war has just begun.\n\n  \n  \n\n"}