(Made for the May Freebie Contest at Daz, theme “To Be Beautiful) The idea of “beauty” can be confining. Long, boring hours of preparation, uncomfortable clothes, strict fashions, tight hairstyles… And in the end, you don’t really feel like yourself. It’s all a mask, held up to please everyone else. Sometimes it’s good to step back and take a good look at yourself, and ask yourself if you really need all this? Wouldn’t it be so freeing to just… Be the natural you? This phoenix has lived most of her life in a beautiful golden cage, inside a gorgeous, manicured garden. All around her are trained, perfect peacocks and carefully raised butterflies, not seen at all as living beings, but as pretty accessories. People crowd around her cage all day, marveling at her. But now, she has had enough of this false paradise. As the sun sets, the phoenix does what is most natural for her - she turns to flame, shining brighter and more beautiful than ever, until there is nothing left of her but ashes. Plain, ugly ashes. But from those ashes, she reforms and remakes herself, this time no longer in the confines of her cage. The phoenix escapes, leaving behind her adoring fans, choosing to follow her own path. Rendered in Daz Studio Iray. Postwork in Pixelmator Pro. No AI used.