Pyre

Atop the unscalable Mt. Xing, a group of harpies circle another as they caw and guffaw at her, pointing their winged arms at her. The one at the center of the tempest of ridicule is injured after recently exiting the Cave of Pyre.
“Another failure eh, Yuma,” says a young harpy on the sidelines as they nudge a bright-eyed girl in a short red dress. “Aren’t gettin’ nervous, are you?”
“Nervous? I’M ALIFT! I get to be the first harpy today to clear the Navi Trial!” Yuma screeches as she grabs and shakes the young harpy, causing her bright autumn-colored feathers to flutter.
“Aren’t too confident are you, dearest Yuma?” a voice calls from behind. Turning, they see a discerning young harpy as she floats in and fixes her giant head feathers. “Would be a shame if the ‘pride of our generation’ were to fail or get hurt, wouldn’t it?”
“Xiaran! What do you want?” Yuma asks, finally letting go of the harpy who falls over from all the shaking.
Turning her head slightly, covering her mouth, Xiaran mutters, “My! Always the rude one. I simply came over to wish you luck. And perhaps a warning–”
An elder glides in, unamused. “Settle down you two,” he says. “Yuma, must you always act so unbecoming? I do wish you would take your role as Jicheng seriously.”
“Oh, come on grandda’, you know Xia’s always like this!” Yuma protests. Xiaran scoffs.
The elder merely sighs and shakes his head. “Well, my grand hatchling, are you prepared?” Without answering, Yuma nods and launches away, kicking dust into the elder’s tired face as she flaps off. Before she could shoot into the cave, she’s grabbed by a wide harpy’s taloned grip.
“Well, well, well! If it ain’t Yuma. Your turn’s up, is it?” the large harpy says, still holding onto Yuma.
“Guo, mmn! Come on lemme go, I’m ready!”
Guo bellows a hearty, but scratchy laugh that resounds through the village. “Aye, I know, I know, but you also know tradition has procedures.” He says and lets go of Yuma.
“Ugh, reeeally? I know all the rules and everything!”
“Of course, now,” he begins as he pulls out a well decorated scroll and unrolls it. “I’ll give ya the rundown after you read this and sig–”
“Yoink!” Yuma quips as she grabs the scroll and signs it. She tosses it over her shoulder and, before Guo can react, runs past him. He calls out, but Yuma’s unable to hear him as she performs a dazzling twist and a practiced dive into the mouth of Pyre Cave.
•
Unbeknownst to most of the village, she’s done this before. Many a nights, Yuma would sneak out into the cave to practice the Navi Trial so this is all very familiar to her. Through the dimly lit tar-colored walls of the cave, along the winding tunnels, between the elaborate systems of stalactites, Yuma flew effortlessly as she dodged left and right to avoid obstacles and take the correct turns. The Pyre Cave is a massive network of interlocking bores into Mt. Xing; the deeper one went, the more holes one would see. The paths may be ancient, but very little of the Pyre Cave was really mapped out and the Navi Trial’s route would change every year. Yuma, being the next heir, had access to this year’s route; as much access one could afford from residing in the same home that housed the map locked away in a drawer anyway. Of course, she had to break the lock; after all, how she could live down being the first heir in history to fail the Navi Trial? No, that was not an option she thought as she flew in a spiral motion in a corkscrew section of the Cave.
According to the route map she studied, she was making great pace. The Trial was long, but soon she would reach an exit and be applauded and celebrated as the quickest Trial in the history of the Baofen Village, or so she hoped. In an instant, a rumble vibrated through the walls and the low light torches blew out one by one. With no time to react, Yuma slammed fast into a falling boulder as her vision goes dark without a light. Fumbling through the air reaching for something, anything to slow herself down, she falls through a tunnel but that does nothing to stop her tumble as she crashes into the ground and rolls along the sharp corners of rocks until finally she attempts a cast of wind magick to aid her yet, not being one to have practiced magick, this only serves to propel her into what feels like an ornately carved bit of rock which crumbles as it stops her force; she raises her head but in a second her vision flashes white.
•
Say, do you know the history of the Pyre Cave?
No, what’s it matter?
Well, I mean it’s strange, don’tcha think? ‘Pyre’, what a weird name.
I guess.
I hear it’s cuz people burned down there. The walls blackened from a ritual fire.
Pffft. What? Like living sacrifices?
Uhh, yeah! They use to offer lives to the fire deity down there, or so they say…
Have you been listening to the elders’ tales again; you know they make stuff up, right?
Ugh, Yuuuma!
“–ma! Yuma! YUMA!” a voice calls out.
H-huh, where am I, she thought to herself. Last I remember was the sound of rock tumbling. R-right. I was… I was flying, acing the Navi Trial. The caves, pathways; I flew through easily, record pace even, heh- ow. She winces as she grabs her left shoulder. Ugh, and then… darkness. I crashed into… some sort of shrine. Then a flash, a hot one. She rubbed her eyes and felt something, or rather, nothing. M-my feathers! Suddenly, she sees a sliver of light shine through a crack amidst a wall of rubble.
“H-hey! Who’s there? It’s me, Yuma!” Quickly, the stones are tossed aside. Vaguely, she heard mumbles on the other side and soon enough, the cave-in was cleared.
A small crowd is there before the opening and Yuma’s elder pushes through, shouting, “YUMA! My Jich– Y-your arm, it’s–” The elder falls faint before he could finish.
Yuma, reaching to catch him, finally takes notice of her left arm. The feathers were singed clean off, arm wrapped in a rippling char that burned deep; deeper than she could know at the time. The others began to rush in to see the elder and his granddaughter who stood before what once was the decrepit altar to the Ruler of Stars.