I was laying flat in the river Nile, content and at ease. My belly was full, and the gentle lapping of soft waves was comfortably massaging my scales. The full moon shed a pleasant light on the shores, and I could see the beautiful dunes, the trees and the birds whose chirping was music to my ears.
I laid there for a long time, for the moon's position had changed quite a lot by the time an odd sound occured to me. It was weak at first, but slowly started to replace the sound of the natural order. Birds stopped singing. The wind in the leaves started making another, crispier sound.
Opening my eyes, I saw a weird orange glow in the distance, and wondered whether it could already be dawn, but the moon immediatly disabused me. A flock of birds flew over my head away from it, and their agitation could only mean one thing. Fire !
Abruptly woken up from my slumber, I started swimming against the current and away from the fire. Something was odd. The harder I swam, the stronger the stream became, and even though I was making all due haste, the fire was catching me up. At first it was just its noise. Then its smell. Each time I felt a renewed vigor, and swam twice as hard, but as soon as I slowed down even the tiniest bit, it gained yards by the dozen on me.
Then it was its heat. Everything around me was now ablaze, and I was swimming in a rapidly heating Nile between shores of fire. I couldn't distinguish one thing, and felt like there were walls of fire on both sides, boiling water behind me, and an unsurpassable stream ahead !
And behold! I saw a great falcon wheeling in the flame rimmed skies above! And on the shores of the great river, where water bubbled and the harvest was but a wall of flame, a great lion stalked. They saw me not!
But I was Sobek, God of Nile, and I wouldn't be so easily subdued. Gathering all the strength I had been given, I swam down to the riverbed, where the water was cooler and still bearable, and moved on again. Above me, I could see that the surface of the river was now afire too ! Devilry !!
Ahead and above, I saw a patch free from the accursed thing, and I quickly swam up to it to catch some breath. But what did I see around me !!! A necropolis sprang from the very earth, casting aside boiling mud and water in a rush that sounded like a prayer. Ancient was this place of the dead, with great pillars rising to the sky. And on these pillars, an Eagle. And under the Eagle's wings the land did not perish nor the river burn, even as the Black Land was cast into the fire and turned as to ash! And in the silence of the waste, a Falcon cried and a Lion roared.
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Thanks to YYC for the help !
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