Albatross

Albatross

On lofted wing the Albatross soars. She floats through the air in silence – the master of the seas, with body of perfect design. Across vast oceans, soaring, swooping, spiralling she travels – the ultimate mariner. Her gaze falls on plains of boundless sapphire, on the foaming crests of azure waves that roll in lazy somersaults. From her serene vantage she spans the divide between two realms – emperor of the skies, queen of the abyssal blue.
Unlike those who scuttle and crawl on the islands beneath her, she is free – the sky grants her a liberty that others cannot conceive of – trapped as they are by the chains of the corporeal.
Below, an amorphous mass of fish swarm – light reflecting off the metallic silver of their iridescent scales in a dazzling rainbow spectrum. The Albatross spots them from above - her mind scheming to determine the best way to attack her shimmering prey. She snaps her beak in anticipation – a beak of unrivalled prowess, a beak that has grappled with squirming squid, pierced the shell of countless shrimp or crab and with rapier-like precision, speared through the side of many a fish.
In a sudden flurry of movement she dives – abandoning her tranquil glide to plummet, wings pinioned to her side, to the cerulean seas below. As she falls she spins in dazzling pirouettes – an avian torpedo. She slices through the water's surface - disappearing into the cold deep.

For a moment there is silence.

She reappears, bursting into the air in an explosion of water and panicked fish. Her beak clasps the convulsing bodies of her defeated adversaries – their spasms an ecstatic prayer in surrender to their supreme conqueror.
Her hunt complete and hunger sated the Albatross returns to her peaceful domain. On lofted wing the Albatross once more soars.

Word Count: 300