Striding through the knee high water, I wondered if maybe they were getting weaker somehow.

I had just gotten done fighting the pair of flamingos again. This time had not really gone in my favor. I had approached their territory a little recklessly, and attacked them on the ocean. A place with some kind of strange shelf of a reef, where one could walk for miles and miles out into the ocean and the water never went higher than my stomach.

Usually fighting in the ocean wasn’t that big a deal for me. But this time it hadn’t gone very well.

“Good thing mother hadn’t been there,” I whispered at myself as I remembered how quickly I had been subdued this time.

They had used their intense heat to create giant explosions of vapor. Then the male used its breath ability to focus that vapor onto me, and it almost quite instantly knocked me out. They had then used the opportunity to escape, and I had woken up what I assumed was not even an hour later, half floating and half laying in the ocean.

Their heat had evaporated a huge chunk of water. You would almost think the tide had gone out, considering the water that had been up to my waist was now below my knee.

Sighing at myself, I wondered how I could have been so stupid. Of course attacking them while surrounded by untold amounts of water had been a bad idea. Their heat was strong enough, and instant enough, to turn the water… even sea-water, into instant vapor. I should have not been so stupid.

I should have waited until they flew off to the nearby land mass. It was far enough to barely be seen from here, but I could have just sat and waited for them to return to it. Even if it had taken months.

No matter. They were gone now. At least, as far as I could tell. This whole section of ocean was rather calm, likely thanks to how shallow it was.

Honestly this place was nice. I was half tempted to stay here for awhile. I hadn’t seen any kind of fish, but that was likely thanks to the heat. The ocean was still really hot, thanks to the flamingos, but I knew eventually that heat would dissipate. And the fish and ocean-life would return. Once they did this place would likely become a paradise.

I’ll dedicate this place to memory.

“What had they even been doing out here anyway?” I mumbled as I approached the spot they had originally been perched upon.

They had attacked me the moment they had seen me approach. But they had, originally, been sitting together out at the end of this strange reef-like shelf. And…

Slowing as I approached a raised section of the reef, I noticed the soft sands… and what were obviously eggs upon them.

“Of course…” I grumbled as I paused in front of the nest, or at least what had been a nest.

Giant eggs, white ones, were scattered around the large section of raised sand. Or at least, parts of them were.

The eggs were broken. All of them. And…

Stepping up the sandy nest, I walked up and into it, and frowned at the carcasses of baby flamingos. Ones that were roughly my size.

“Dead from the heat, maybe? The battle?” I wondered.

I slowly strode into the huge nest, and realized there were no sticks or anything. They had simply laid the eggs in the sand. Though I couldn’t blame them, this place was nice. A perfect place to roost in my opinion… even if…

Stopping in front of one of the larger flamingo corpses, I frowned as I stared at what was obviously a hole.

Had… had they pecked at them? On purpose? It looked like something, or someone, had drilled into the flamingo. Right into its side. A huge, bloody hole was going almost through it completely.

I’d blame some kind of strange animal, or ocean dwelling fish, but I knew even if monarchs would have allowed such simple creatures near their eggs in the first place… There had not been any predators they had needed to worry about. Nothing would have been, or had been able to survive the heat the monarchs had produced.

“Slaughtered their own young…?” I wondered. Had they done it before or after I had arrived?

“Ate us.”

I spun, startled at the sudden voice. My heart thumped just once, although did so very solidly, as I came face to face with a flamingo.

My jaw clenched at the sight of it, since it looked absolutely pitiful. Even for a monarch.

It was my size in height, but not because it really was. Its head was hung low, limp and weak. Its legs were wobbling, and not just because they were broken. Both of its wings were hanging low, drooping as if from exhaustion… but one was only hanging on by a few strands of flesh.

The thing’s beak was broken too. Reminding me of how I’d done similar damage to its mother many decades ago.

That had to hurt.

“Ate us. In hopes to heal,” it said weakly.

I frowned at it, and shifted a little on the sands. I felt my feet dig deeper into the sands, thanks to my weight, but I hadn’t sunk too far. The sands here were very compact, likely thanks to the immense heat and weight that had been sitting upon them for who knows how long.

“Heal…?” I asked it, unsure of what to think or say.

It nodded, and in doing so made a bunch of pink blood splatter the sands. The blood didn’t sizzle, but I knew it wasn’t because the world wasn’t hot enough for it to do so.

It had its parent’s heat resistance abilities.

And a heart. I could feel it thumping. Beating strongly.

It wasn’t in its head, or behind its beak, but instead near its chest. Near the spot the wing was barely hanging onto.

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I focused on that spot, and decided I could spare a tiny moment. To hear what it had to say, and what it meant.

It was on the verge of death as it was, even with its heart still within it.

“From you,” it answered my question simply, and it sounded almost…

Yes. It was about to pass out. Or at least, it had sounded like it was. Plus it was wobbling, and its earlier trembling from pain had started to lessen.

I hadn’t damaged them much in our current fight. I had gotten hit by those vapor explosions almost instantly. So the only thing I could think of was either they had hurt themselves in their own attacks, a possibility, or…

Were they still healing? From the wounds I had inflicted last time?

It was possible, I suppose. Monarchs, even the powerful firstborn ones, took time to heal. Sometimes even a long time, when the damage was great enough. And I had indeed hurt the female one terribly during our last meeting.

I tried to remember just now, the fight I had just lost. Had they looked hurt? I couldn’t remember. I had been furious at the sight of them, and had charged forward without much thought.

A foolish mistake.

“Do you know where they went,” I asked it, hoping for more information from the thing before I killed it.

“Flew… east…” it spoke weakly, and started to turn its head. As if to point its broken beak in that direction… but right as it did, it slumped forward.

Instinctively I reached out, and before I knew it I had caught the flamingo as it collapsed.

“Hey!” I shouted at it, and myself, as I found myself holding up an unconscious, and dying, monarch.

Grinding my teeth, I groaned at the feeling of heat. And not just from its blood.

It did indeed have its parent’s abilities.

Which meant once it grew up. Once it became an adult…

It’d be just as dangerous. Just as powerful.

Shifting the huge bird, I lowered it to the sands and reached out to the side of its body where the heart was located. I paused a moment upon noticing the hole.

Its wing had nearly been ripped off since it had been pecked at.

How had it survived…? How was it still alive…?

Actually…

I glanced around, and realized this was the only one with a heart still. All the other flamingos were not just dead, but no longer had their hearts.

“They had eaten the hearts,” I whispered as I understood the truth.

It hadn’t lied. They had eaten them, as to heal. As to grow stronger.

In fact them having a clutch in the first place might have been their attempt to gain more power. For one reason or another.

Maybe they believed, and knew, they couldn’t kill me. Not outright. Not right now. So they were trying to give birth to more children, just so they could eat their hearts. Just to amass more strength.

It was a ridiculous idea, but to a monarch it made perfect sense.

And in fact, it would also explain some other things too.

I had noticed a distinct lack of monarchs lately. And these flamingos were always moving around.

They had been hunting their own kind.

No wonder they were so strong. No wonder I was struggling so hard and…

A tiny wheeze drew my attention back to the dying flamingo. I winced at the shaking body, trembling from pain, and the glowing tears leaking from its huge closed eyes.

It was weeping.

In pain.

Betrayed by its parents.

My hand was on its side, near the heart. I could feel it. It was as big as me, if not bigger, but not so big that I needed to worry or use much force. Its feathers were still soft. Not as hard as its parents. It was likely a year or so old, maybe, but it was far from an adult. Even though its heart was strong, and it was a child of a firstborn, it was nothing to me.

I could end it easily, even if it had been fully ready. Even if it hadn’t been so hurt.

Yet…

“Careful Vim,” I whispered to myself a warning, as I thought of my mother.

She for all her realism, her black and white approach to life… was also a kind and gentle soul.

What would my mother do right now?

“You know damn well what she would do, Vim,” I mumbled.

For a very long time, I sat there. Agonizing as I debated my next action.

It wasn’t often I encountered a newborn monarch. Not a true one, made by flesh and blood and not by a god’s whims. In fact I could count on one hand how often this had happened.

Those other times had not bothered me. My decisions had been swift. Immediate. For many reasons. First and foremost, it had happened while I had been in a pure rage. And other times was because they had not been sentient.

This one had spoken. Clearly. And had understood. It had reasoning and sense.

Even if still just a baby.

But even if a baby, even if it hadn’t done anything evil yet…

It had to die. Before it grew up. Before it became an adult. Before it killed thousands upon thousands, just by existing.

It was an abomination. An insult to the natural order.

It broke every rule. And would break countless more as it lived its long life.

Buy most importantly… it was a reminder.

A walking, living and breathing, reminder of my parent’s failures.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered as I slid my fingers into the thing’s side, into the bloody hole, as to grab the heart.

It writhed in pain, but didn’t wake… and as I felt my fingertips touch the heart, I felt it pulse.

A wave of heat filled me, but not one of pain. It hadn’t burnt me. It hadn’t boiled my blood.

Instead it felt warm. Comforting.

I wasn’t too surprised, really. A monarch’s heart was a conduit. A link to their creator. And although their creators had been evil, vile beings… their power hadn’t been. Wasn’t.

The power was pure. It corrupted, yes, but not intentionally. Not on purpose.

We simple creatures of existence simply couldn’t handle the great power within them. We couldn’t house it. Couldn’t contain or control it. So it corrupted us. Ruined us. destroyed us.

Yet it wasn’t evil itself.

I sighed as I pulled my hand out of the wound, and sat back. I sat onto the sand with a thump, and wondered if I had finally grown old.

“It’s just a baby,” I whispered, trying to find every excuse I could think of to not kill it.

“Mother would give it a chance,” I added.

“Father would put it in a zoo,” I considered.

“It was born here. Hasn’t hurt anyone, or anything, yet,” I reasoned.

On and on I listed the reasons to spare it. To play devil’s advocate. To do what my mother would have wanted me to.

Yet no matter how hard I tried… I couldn’t bring myself to stay my hand. I couldn’t find it within me to spare the monarch.

So I tried some more. I sat there, as it writhed in pain… slowly healing from terrible wounds… as the night came and went, and the next day followed.

I sat there. Even as its sibling’s corpses decayed around us, and the tide came and went, I sat there.

“If I kill it, I’d be the same as them. As those gods,” I finally whispered as the sun slowly rose, admitting it.

After all it had been what started all of this. The actions of those gods that day.

“What do I do?” I asked my parents.

And as usual, heard no answer.