Young Writers Society

He shifted ever so slightly, studying her face as he responded to her reply. "So mammals are viewed badly in your world?" Discrimination was nothing new to him. Earth's modern civilizations had been, for the most part, built by it, and the majority of the worlds he encountered had some form of it.

"No, non-humanoids generally are. Lower on the food chain, I suppose."

"I'm sorry," he quietly replied, even though he knew very well that words could never make up for all of the hate that someone could receive.

She shrugs. "It is what it is."

He looked up at the stars. Even though he was trapped on an unfamiliar world, they held a certain beauty. Whether it was their arrangement or the unique perspective that made them so beautiful, he was unsure. But it was impossible to deny how breathtaking they truly were.

"What are you going to do when you leave this place?" he quietly asked, enchanted by the night sky. "...I think I'm going to visit my home."

Or as close as he could get to home, anyways.

She's silent for a few moments, gazing at the cosmos. "I'm going to complete my quest for vengeance."

Those are the last words before she lays down next to the fire, wrapped in her cloak, with the aquila-like eagle perched beside her until morning.

The sunrise was unsurprisingly stunning. He had seen many sunrises, but this one in particular was as beautiful as the night sky that had come before it. He could have stared at it for an eternity. Huddled by the smoldering remains of their fire, he took in the gorgeous sight.

She awakens with the first golden rays of dawn, her massive raptor still perching nearby with a foot tucked up on contented rest.

He heard movement from nearby. Turning his attention away from the sunrise, he saw that she was awake. "Good morning," he said with a smile. "Are you ready to explore these ruins more?"

"Ready as I'll ever be." She stands, brushing herself off. Shakarri rouses and puts her other foot down, feathers slimming against her body as she readies herself to fly.

He surveyed the ruins. He wasn't sure what exactly he was looking for; looking for some remnant of the Ancients was always a safe bet, but he didn't know what to look for besides that. "Are most ruins like this where you're from?" he asked as he continued his search.

"No, mostly they're burned remnants of the Elves' old civilizations before the demons came," she replies.

He started to politely nod to show that he was listening, only to freeze when the words finally registered. He cast a glance over at her. She wasn't giving him any sort of look that indicated she was talking about his kind. Besides, demons were in almost every culture! Hearing people talk about them was nothing new.

But it didn't mean that he no longer felt uneasy.

"Most of the ruins I see are from the Ancients," he replied. His voice was shaking, but he kept speaking. "There's some from the Goa'uld, too, but it's more likely to find remnants of the Ancients' civilizations on different planets."

"The people you speak of are unfamiliar to me."

He pointed up at the sky. "The Ancients were a people that lived in a highly advanced civilization. They looked just like humans, and some of the people throughout the universe still carry their blood. They went almost everywhere. I'm not sure what wiped them out, but everyone looks up to them." He fell silent, lowering his hand. Things had been so much simpler back then; a small part of him wished he could be back in their cities. "The Goa'uld are a race of a parasitic aliens. They take over the bodies of their hosts, and they pretend to be gods. They enslave countless worlds...They're not good people."