Hunger. My stomach rumbled. It was annoying, but the growing emptiness of my stomach could no longer be ignored. I opened my eyes and stretched myself in my warm nest. My heart jumped. The rustling feeling of membranes peeling off one another as my wings unfolded was always a delight. Dust and small stones surged around me through the air as I fluttered my wings. A tingling sensation traveled through my body as my heart pumped blood quicker through my veins. I sniffed and puffed to ignite the slumbering fire in my chest into a smoldering inferno. I could feel the temperature of my body rise and it didn’t take long before the small tendrils of smoke I respired through my nostrils turned into thick, dark clouds. The walls around me resonated in a deep orange light as fire emitted through my nostrils. Tongues of fire disintegrating several brave spiders and their cobwebs.

“Pitiable little predators.” I scoffed.

Hunger rumbled through my body, urging me to leave the comfort of my home. As I walked down the short corridor that I burned through stones millennia ago, I reached for the true nature of fire. It’s wild, raging flow welcomed me home, recognised me through time and mixed with the inferno in my chest. I channeled and undid the seal that kept the portal to my home hidden. The portal sprang to life in a torrent of red, orange and yellow energy, swirled into a ball before it stabilized and allowed me to step through.

The air tasted like ashes and something unfamiliar. It clung to my nose, filled my lungs and I retched on my first breath of air. Plumes of fire lit up the top of the mountain as I coughed again and again to remove the stench in my insides. I settled for holding my breath for the time being, while I desperately tried to control the urge to retch.

“Two legs, for sure” I thought.

The same putrid smell hung around their pathetic settlements the last few hunts. The air was even thicker with that disgusting smell around their bigger settlements. As if sheer numbers would protect them from any of us, the apex predator. We were the beginning and the end. I chuckled and forgot to hold my breath. Tongues of fire burst through my nose and lit up the area as I started coughing again. I could hold my breath for long, but it was better if I could get used to the smell and the dirt. Instead, I inhaled and exhaled as shallowly as I could.

Those nasty two-legs really thought they could hide in their wooden and stone shells.

“What a joke”

I caught myself from chuckling again from their stupidity and took another shallow breath to condition myself. Once I took off, I might need to take big gulps of air and I did not want to be overwhelmed by cough when I could least afford it. Every time those pathetic two-legs came with surprises. Though I was one of the apex predators and in the prime of my power, I should be on guard. I never thought the two-legs would be able to shoot arrows bigger than themselves, but the slightly discolored scar on my left wing attested to their inventiveness. I took another few deep draughts of air to condition myself. A bolt of pain ran through my body, as the hunger reminded me why I got up in the first place. It was time. The entire mountain seemed to lit up as I regurgitated the inferno in my chest, a long jet of fire erupting from my maw.And I could hear the tumult of panic below me. Wolves, birds and other animals released panicked warnings to those around them. Danger beyond danger. I could almost feel how those below me held their breath, hoping I would pass them by without noticing them. They didn’t need to worry, I had already decided what I was going to feast upon. I roared and flocks of both day and night birds fled in terror, melting into the darkness. Satisfied, I rustled my wings, bent my knees and dropped myself off the cliff.

It was exhilarating. I loved how the wind rushed over my face and along my body with my wings folded. I loved how small movements of my tail steered me past the edges and cliffs of the mountain. Flying was the ultimate joy. I unfolded my wings and air tightened the membranes of my wings as I angled away from the mountain and leveled myself. Now the exhilaration of the drop faded, I noticed something was pressing against me. It felt like a droning noise, a constant buzzing that seemed to pulse at a set interval. I failed to notice before. But now that I did I was sure it must have been there since I left my lair. It was annoying, but not too bad. I couldn’t help but wonder exactly what it was. I decided to ignore it for the time being and focus on the hunt.

The lush valley I said good night to so many times was filled with tiny stars. White, green, red. Stars were blinking, others were moving while others were stationary and blended into each other to create big pools of light. It felt wrong, it looked wrong and that must mean it was wrong. Not only did the two-legs pollute the air we breathed, they polluted this wonderful valley with their lights and fire. Polluted the entire valley, with their presence. We had taken precautions to outlive these disgusting creatures, but it seemed their own self destructive ways were not as destructive as we had thought. We had decided on reducing our presence and let those pests destroy each other. They fought among each other like no other creature we’d ever met and with such vigor, there was no way they’d ever find a way to unite. But looking at the stars underneath me. The settlement was bigger than anything I’d ever seen or imagined.We clearly made some mistakes.. We would have to reconsider our options, decide how to deal with this pest. I roared with frustration, the sound reverberating around the valley and the mountains behind me. But before anything else, I needed to eat. My belly rumbled again as I found myself the closest updraft wind and sped my way over the settlement towards my favorite prey. The droning and pulsating buzz did not leave my side for the hour it took me to reach my destination.

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I’m not sure what I expected to see. I’m not sure how I could be so naïve. But when I flew over the crest of the last mountain before my intended hunting ground, I could do nothing less than gape. I was staring at yet another myriad of stars strewn across the valley. The humans had not only not destroyed themselves, they had claimed every hunting ground for themselves. Polluted it, destroyed it. Before I could decide my next steps,

I felt something speeding towards me. I spun around towards the South and saw three dark figures flying straight at me and coming closer at an unnatural pace. They looked like birds, but were faster. What puzzled me was that they did not seem to move, yet they came at me with such unbelievable speed. They kept their wings straight to the side and they did not seem to budge. Their tails seemed solid, yet they managed to turn and split up into three different directions as they closed in and passed me on three sides. My ears rang and my head hurt as they sped past me with a loud crescendo, which faded quickly as they moved further away. I glided upwards on an upward draft and watched them make a long unwieldy turn to face me. Their loudness had put me off and dazed me for a second, but I knew what to expect now.

The birds had now finished their turn and were speeding at me yet again, though slower than before. It was hard to see their exact movements in that static form. Three smaller figures detached from their unmoving wings, then rushed towards me with a trail of fire behind them. I knew instinctively that I should not let those hit me. With a few powerful strokes of my wings, I increased my speed towards the incoming projectiles. I folded my wings and whirled my tail to start spinning downwards. I closed my second eyelid and took a deep breath. A solid jet of flames hit one of the projectiles, while I kept spinning to avoid the other. Heat of my infernal breath washed over me harmlessly, but didn’t affect the projectile either. I dove at the last moment and heard and felt its hissing breath pass by me closely. A little bit too close for comfort. I whipped my tail down and managed to hit the projectile and slam it downwards towards the star strewn valley.

I roared a challenge at the three birds and unfolded my wings to stabilize my flight. Another draft carried me upwards and I started circling to find the birds. They had split up again, one flew at me at a menacing pace, spitting smaller projectiles at me that ricocheted off my scales. I smiled.

“Now it’s my turn” I roared yet again.

But before I could close in on the bird, it seemed to realize its efforts were useless and it dove to the side without using its wings. I swatted my tail to chase and peel its skin off from behind but at that moment the misdirected projectile crashed into the ground in a ball of fire. A strong blast of hot air stretched the membrane of my wings, it carried me upwards. The hot air suddenly dissipated beneath my wings and I whipped my tail to twist around into a forced dive. My shoulders hurt as I spread my wings to full extend, to slow down my descent. In the meanwhile, the bird that I wanted to tear apart, was engaged in a similar drop. I smiled, the birds had already shown to be sluggish compared to myself. So I retracted my wings against my body and used my tail to alter my course. The air howled around me as I sped up towards the bird that now spiraled down.

As I plummeted towards the spiraling bird, it opened its beak at the front and spat out a black shape. The black, dark shape shot upwards towards the sky and I snapped at it as it flew past me. A pale, red-faced two-legs stared at me as he flashed by me. I came closer and closer to the ground, but didn't manage to close in fast enough. The motionless, spiraling bird crashed into the ground, the air shook again, but less heavy. its corpse was engulfed in flames. Again these two-legs! I looked up to see the Two-legged-vermin hanging from a white plume that hung higher into the air. Even from far off, I could see the white of its eyes and its chest heaved heavily as it stared at me. It seemed to tear its frightened gaze from me and made a wide, weird movement with its limbs at something to my left, then to my right. I let him float across the sky and checked for the birds that peeled off the one that was now burning on the ground.

Both of the birds circled around me, subtly increasing the distance. Then realization struck me, and it struck hard. The two-legs motioning at the two birds and them taking more distance. The two-legs and the birds were conspiring against me! Battle-rage took over and obscured my vision. Before I knew what happened, I roared a challenge and set course for the slowly descending two-legs. They would die for their insolence, die for challenging the terror of the sky, they would remember me and next time, they would shake and quiver in their useless husks of stone and wood. I snapped up the pitiable two-legs and iron tasting blood filled my mouth. The rumbling in my stomach flared up.

Distracted by hunger, something knocked the breath out of my lungs in a deafening explosion. I felt something rip and could feel patches of skin exposed to fresh air as scales were torn from my flank. The pain, the smell, taste of blood and hunger fed my rage and I roared another challenge at them. My flank hurt as I heaved myself upwards with full strokes of my wings. Then I pretended to flee by toppling forward in a strong downward curve, beating my wings at a quick, irregular pace.

It worked and the birds quickly followed me on my tail. I felt something approaching rapidly from behind and spiraled downwards. A blazing projectile hissed by and I smiled as I spotted the birds close behind me. Too close. I took a deep breath, closed my second eyelid and spun around, a blazing stream of flames from my maw. As expected, both birds turned on their sides to move away from the inferno in front of them. I was more agile than the birds, and I spiraled along with one of the birds, relentlessly releasing jets of flames on the bird. I lashed out with my tail and hit something hard and got knocked off-course. The bird however spun around and lost height fast. One of his wings spiraling downwards separately.I stabilized myself, then plunged after the falling bird and snapped up the two-legs that jumped out of the birds beak

The metallic taste of blood was satisfying and my belly flared up again. I spun to face the last bird and was disappointed to see it fly away at high speed. Despite it being sluggish, I would not be able to keep up with it, Let alone catch up. I didn't expect the two-legs to wait for its inevitable death. Nor did I care for the chase. Instead, I searched for the biggest star on the ground.

I landed on the edge of a big, round open husk made of metal and with an open roof. Inside, row after row after row of two-legs were sitting around the edges of a green field. All of them were focused on a big patch of dirt in the middle of the husk. I roared, then prepared for a the biggest breath of inferno I had ever released. It was time to feast.