Earth.The word coalesced in Saer’s mind.
That’s what the surface was.
The same Hellsfire used to create Saer held the power to transport him from Hell, to Earth, and back.If Saer had more practice or held more knowledge of this new world, he’d have directed his location with precision.Instead, he relied on fate and chance.
Saer emerged from the roaring fireball with a shudder and a deep growl.Adjacent fauna scattered in a panic.Rodents?Deer?Once more, new words leapt into his consciousness, flooding him with built-in knowledge.
Twigs and pinecones crunched under his silver hooves as the mixture of dirt and melted snow sank under his monstrous weight.The wooded area carried a frigid chill, pulling at his inherent strength.
Heat and Hellsfire sustained him.Colddrained him.That instant decided it for him.
Hehatedcold.
Saer stretched and shook out his wings to dismiss the uncomfortable sensation and found it invited the frosty sting closer.Steam wafted off his searing flesh, escaping his nose and mouth with each biting breath.The cold persisted.
Cold.Away from Neyu.His distaste grew.
He tucked his wings tight against his back and angled his head upward.In Hell, the cavern of rock hovered over them at all times.High or low, the stony ceiling existed no matter where he’d dug or traversed.
Here, a bright swath of gray coated all else, endless and airy.Sky.Saer’s eyes squinted before long.Perhaps his maker’s cure existed there.Could he touch it?
Saer steeled himself, then thrust his wings out and down, catapulting his body upward.
Cold!
His lungs spasmed as he ascended, a burning pain infiltrating his chest that had nothing to do with fire.Fluid leaked from his eyes in the abrasive and endless gray.Wind whipped against his flesh, thieving his warmth.
Higher.His teeth clenched with the heaviness that built with the climb.
The edges of his field of view shuddered and darkened.He gasped with the sudden realization that he’d forgotten to breathe.The thinning atmosphere poured down his throat, frigid and unforgiving.
Wispy edges of clouds caressed his limbs, dotting his flesh with droplets of condensation.
Higher!Saer willed his wings to thrust downward once more.
They froze instead.
His vision tunneled.
Then nothing.
A permeating and arctic ache throbbed in Saer’s bones.Intermittent light flashed over his eyelids, and he furrowed his brow, attempting to open his eyes.They’d frozen shut.Or he’d lost all strength to open them.Perhaps both.
The red light faded.It returned.Faded.Returned.
Cold remained.
This was life without heat.Without fire.
Without Neyu.
The last thought squeezed his heart in a cavernous chokehold.
Is this what would happen to Lucifer if It never replenished Itself?Descension into a meaningless heap of tissue and bone?
Red light.Darkness.Light.Darkness.Endless.
He’d been here too long.
