"Speak." Its voice echoed for miles around, shredding the scraps of confidence I had left. I swallowed hard, desperate to stop...

"Speak." Its voice echoed for miles around, shredding the scraps of confidence I had left.

I swallowed hard, desperate to stop my breakfast's march to my mouth. "I...I have the fire of a dragon!" I paused and waved the torch in front of me. After a few sways, and nothing from the beast, foolishness slowed my actions.

I stopped. Cocked my neck upwards and stared at the creature. Rolling clouds covered its body all the way to its neck. Its head was large like a hot air balloon but with more dents. Its eyes were so white they made plain paper look grey. Strings of tight flesh looked ready to peel from its cheeks.

Fresh wind blew through me, pulling me from my gawks. I continued. "and...and like it is prophesied you will bow to me." I coated my words with gruffness, as if that was how you drag attention out of a celestial being.

It didn't move. My eyes explored its gaunt face for answers, but found nothing. Standing, flame a loft, stomach cartwheeling and options limited, I repeated my declaration.

As my mouth wrapped around the words, the hills beneath me fell way. I gripped the torch and grabbed at thin air, desperate for anything. I fell hard but hit the ground before I could build any lethal speed.

Mist tumbled around me, masking everything, even my own nose was a struggle to see. I stepped forward and the ground lifted. Every muscle in my body clenched.

I quickly breached the mist and returned to the creature's face. The ground beneath me, which was part-circled by tiny hills, didn't stop though. Within seconds, I'd left the face below and was high above the clouds. The horizon circled me in every direction. The sheer expanse stole my breath. This is what my ancestors must have felt when planes owned the skies.

The ground shook. I spun around, gripping the torch tighter than my palms liked.

The creature's head rose back into view. This time rising higher and higher, revealing it's neck, shoulders, arms and chest. Without the masking clouds, I realised I stood in the palm of this thing's hands. The hills I had climbed and then fallen from were its fingers.

"You humans and your beliefs. You learnt to control fire in your infancy. Do you think it could control me?" It reached for my torch, and killed the flames before I could protect it. "Like it is prophesised..." It mocked.

I stood surprised and then a smile grabbed my lips, tugging them upwards. "She said the only way to know it was you was through your ego." The crevasses in its face networked to new places. I pulled out the amulet. It had bleached a pale yellow, confirming everything.

Fear looks the same on every creature, even a celestial being as old as time!

**Artwork by Jacob Duncan - https://www.artstation.com/jacobduncan**