At a vast desert, Brumcia was found riding in an open carriage pulled by horses. It was high noon and the twice-ringed sun swept lingering kisses on her skin, sweat dotted her arms and she reveled under her creations. The chaos of overloading sensations filled her up. The sound of children chattering behind her, the cool humidity, and even the feel of her carriage shaking as they trudged through desert.

A kid sitting at the back carriage leaned in to whisper next to her ear, “What about this one, Brumcia? How can I make it turn blue?”

She smiled at him, pleased by his question. “It’s actually really interesting.” and went to lecture her bunch of kids about dry fallen leaves in autumn mixing with river water coming from the south. Their faces animated as the knowledge lit up a sacred fire inside them. They understood perfectly.

The moving carriage fell into an easy silence as they took in the wide expanse of the desert.

“Brumcia!“ another kid called to her. He pointed to a direction far up ahead.

Dogs were scattered on the red glittering sands, lying down on their side and breathing hard. She found herself racing to reach them, bare knees dropping on the cool sand. This dog was undernourished. Bones portruded on her skin, and her once colorful coat was paling in a sickly shade.

The kids were quick on their feet as they loaded up the sick dogs to their carriage. It quickly loaded at a full capacity. Brumcia looked to the east, knowing that the nearest tribe was that way.

A kid jogged up to her, heavy sweat dripping down his forehead “Are the roads clear?”

She nodded. “Travel to the east, this instant. I’ll deal with the rest of the beasts.“

“There are more of them over there!“ A kid yelled, pointing to the west.

She blanched as she twisted to that direction. Several dogs were near death, chest rising and falling in rapid successions. There were about hundreds of them scattered on the ground.

About 6 of the kids that travelled with her had gathered around, peering up at her with a helpless look. They wanted to help and needed to know how.

Suddenly, it became hard to swallow. She knew what she must do and it left a sea of emotions warring within her.

For every gift comes with a curse.

And she had the power to make it happen.

She raised her hand and the atmosphere grew still, waiting for a new directive. The sun grew dimmer in focus, and the sand under her feet grew warmer in anticipation.

The birth of a new curse was a rare phenomenon that stopped a universe in its natural course.

Come to see the one blessed of air

whose throne lies hidden,

flooded by a menace of liquid winter.

Let there be the sun shining

upon these blood-stained waters until

each and all could be

purified

from a touch of starlight.

As her intentions rang throughout every conceivable space universal-wide, she dreamed of a behagthi. The one whose otherworldly power can bridge a healthy balance to her own wild incarnate power.

Once more she repeated the curse, grounding its truth to her own will. And as it did, her spirit grew brighter and empowered. She opened her arms wide, taking in her growing power. The children began holding her hand, her shoulders, her hips in a surrounding blanket of security. As they did, she began chanting her gift. Together the words they spoke in harmony began to be taken in by the wind, carried unto farther reaches of space.

Now that the element of air rippled around them, anticipating more with endless hunger. She began. Took the fertile air around them in her arms and stretched it out. Guiding its element to swarm around the children until it fully disappeared in their small frames.

She took a sick dog in her arms and held it out for a kid to hold. “Run.” she ordered and he disappeared in plain sight at the far distance

In a few hearbeats, the kid returned with empty arms. He immediately picked up a dog off the ground and disappeared again in a flash of a second.

She turned to the others kids and nodded her assent.

Wild flashes of movement began appearing, inciting a mad swirl of a storm.

Dogs were disappearing off the ground, one by one.

And the winds grew bolder, stronger as if pregnant with new potential.

Off to the far north, she jogged to a crater were a large black dog was buried under piles of pebble stones. His head barely poking out of the stones. She rushed to it, shoving off pebble stones over its body in a frenzy. He was still alive, but near to death. Then, she stopped, jaws falling open. Slowly, she lifted a pebble over the dog’s throat. It had an inscription carved onto it. She looked over the pebble stones that buried the dog. It held symbols carved in some of them. Pressing a pebble into her palm, she felt its natural energy was rife with corrupt intentions.

This was intentional, she thought. Someone wanted my beast to die in this cruel manner.

She whirled around, and found a gaunt woman holding a pebble etched with painted symbols.

Rage took over, her chest burning with a vengeance filled with fury. Grabbing a huge boulder with both hands, she lifted it overhead. The thirst for retribution transforming her into a terrifying spirit.

Then she saw the woman across her to be one of her own. Hesitation gave her pause, the thought of inflicting damage to one of her creations was maddening.

But then the woman kicked her, and the jarring impact of it sent streaks of flames under her skin. Its burning sensation sparking a wild instinct inside her. One that overrode her mind and guts with a vigorous never-ending thirst for revenge.

She released the boulder’s weight in her hands, swinging it down to strike against the woman’s head and the world was never the same again after that. The wild conflict of her chaos inviting a behagthi with a power to rival a revenge-driven goddess hellbent on renewing her universe with a cleansing roar of fire.