Those who have fallen

Chapter 1: The Fall

As every moment passed, l got closer to that dreaded rock. My skin erupted with flames as I lost feeling in my wings. The screams that left my mouth were overshadowed by the howling winds and the crackling roar of my burning flesh as my body went numb from the unbearable pain. As I descended lower, breaking this world's atmosphere, my divinity left me in more significant quantities. My thoughts of despair, defeat, regret, shame, and sorrow raced. "Did I truly deserve this?" "Was this the price I had to pay for my mistake!" "Why should I be punished for doing what was right!" I braced myself for the inevitable impact, and with a fiery crash, I struck the earth. That familiar scent of those before me lingered in the air; I was not the first of my kind here. Every move I made and every breath I took added to my agony. Inhaling the air was painful, but the thoughts of what was to come were worst— a slow and unwelcome death in an unfamiliar land.

My body was broken, unlike ever before. Simply breathing the air was excruciatingly painful as the impact damaged my lungs. As I opened my eyes, the world's sounds rushed through me. I was overwhelmed and consumed by the noise bombarding me all at once. Chirping, crashing waves, and crawling insects were a few sounds I made from this cacophony. As I climbed out of the crater left by my impact, I was disappointed to see nothing but the greenery of trees and grass, which had no end. As I took my first step onto the grass, it turned black and withered around my foot. I looked at my hand and saw that my once graceful and delicate skin was charred with pink flesh peeking through the cracks.

I shut my eyes, enraged; I angrily screamed at the sky at the top of my lungs. As I calmed, l realized that my stomach was raging inside me from hunger, and my throat was desperate from thirst. I listened to the winds and heard the sound of something breathing near me. I looked to my left and saw a snake on its side two feet away from me. I noticed the snake's life energy was leaving its body irregularly; it was dying. I compared myself to the snake; we were both wounded creatures. I held out a hand towards the snake, feeling compassion, and the snake looked at me curiously and then gazed into my eyes. The longer I stared into the eyes of the snake, the more I started to hear voices filling my head. The snake then lifted its head in my direction, struggling. Intrigued, I touched the head of the snake, and it instantly went limp. I had unknowingly absorbed its life energy. Almost immediately, the snake's body began decaying at an unnatural rate until there was nothing but a skeleton.