The power! The sheer, unadulterated power I felt coursing through my body! It was… It was…

No, there is no word in any human language to describe it. I knew, in an instant, exactly what I was capable of. I understood the limits of my power, but I also understood that there was no being in all creation, aside from whatever god or gods were out there, that could stand against me.

And with that realization, the memories came. Memories of times so far distant, no human civilization had ever recorded them. My thoughts flew backwards in time.

I observed Hiroshima and Nagasaki with sorrow.

I saw Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo.

I stood nearby, watching with pride and awe as Arthur pulled Excalibur from the stone.

I remembered hunting Tyrannosaurs at dawn in what became Mongolia.

And that thought, the thought of the hunt, brought me back to the present. That lesser dared threaten me! It would prove a costly mistake.

With a sweep of my wings, I was off.