New Life
A friend brought to me an idea for a prequel to my first, tiny little story. So...I ran with it and wrote this on the fly.
The Earth below rumbled and shook, the wildlife scattering as the very roots of the mountain trembled. Smoke arose from a crack in the peak, and an immense heat bellowed from within. The mountain was coming to life, giving birth to searing flame and devastation. The terrified cries of the native fauna echoed about, all but drowned out by the chaos stirring within the peak they desperately sought to escape. Cataclysm was to befall the forest surrounding the lonely mountain, but within...life stirred. A solitary heartbeat murmured within the boiling lava that acted as a chaotic cocoon for the infantile lifeform within.
The intense rumbling reached its apex, and the mountain fully came to life. Black smoke poured from its peak, darkening the skies with its life-snuffing ashen rain. Lava boiled over and trailed down the peak in waves of flaming death and decimation. The life within stirred once more, and awoke from its incubation. Slowly it unfurled from its lava shell and burst forth from within the mountain, letting loose a birthing cry that pierced the heavens. Its wings flew open with a mighty gust of wind that befell the black smoke of the volcano, and its piercing blue eyes blinked painfully in the light to look upon the world it now called home.
His vision blurry and his breathing ragged and heavy, he gazed in confusion upon the landscape before him. Sounds, scents and sights befell him in waves that battered his senses, overwhelming him as he struggled to fully understand. He blinked away his blurred, newborn eyes and what he saw, his first sight, was a cold, natural wonder. Forest as far as his icy blue eyes could see, shrouded in a white shroud of snow. It was...marvelous. That nature could produce such beauty was beyond the understanding of his infantile mind.
Upon finally freeing himself of his flaming womb, he looked about the landscape that surrounded him with awe. He saw nature's true face, the beauty that was this untouched corner of the world. He loved it, as he does now, and forever hopes that his home remains unchanged and untouched by the industrious hand of mankind. He now wanders the world, and among humankind to learn and grow. He seeks to know of this world's history and how his home functions, it's biological machinations. The name he has chosen for himself is a recent one, derived from a form of human entertainment. He is Talos.