Fire Phoenix

Adrian Knight

Three days had gone by and Azaliah still showed no sign of waking up. We learned that the corpses were Azaliah's parents but the weird thing was that the bodies contained essence from a royal family from the other realms. After what happened that night, Jade, the seer quickly operated on her and bandaged her wounds.

Azaliah had lost a lot of blood. But the four of us were worried about her. She was bitten and slashed. Luckily the vampire didn't give her its blood and the wolf never bit her. At least for now we didn't have to worry about her turning into a vampire or wolf.

Jade told us about herself as a seer. She had visions of Azaliah being attacked but she never knew that Defaeron was the person that was going to do. She never expected that her family would have been in danger. She and Daniel were in contact with each other because the person that Daniel was in love with was none other than Jade. She was the girl he always spoke about and fawned over. It made sense when he wanted to watch the concert.

Jade also told us about Felix, Azaliah's little brother. He was sick with a disease that was from the other realms. That's how she knew that this family was gone into hiding on Terrae. She never made herself known and decided to protect her friend. It wasn't her business to pry into Azaliah's life.

"But you know it's strange... why did he give her a curse mark? She's a human..." Isaac said leaning against the wall in the kitchen.

"Maybe he wants to experiment with humans?" Isaac said as he scratched his head.

At the moment we were all staying at the seer's house. As soon as Azaliah's condition was stable, we brought her here.

"I think that was the reason why he gave it to her because she was a human," Daniel said as he walked into the room.

"Humans cannot survive the curse mark and maybe if she was a Caelestian, then she could survive," Isaac replied.

"You guys think that humans are fragile creatures. You'd be surprised by the humans in this realm that is capable of harming Caelestians." Jade walked into the room.

I glanced at Jade, “You sound as if you know there are humans like that out here.”

Jade stood next to Daniel, “Well of course I know who they are but I never allow myself to be seen by those kinds of humans. It’s taboo for us seers to make contact with them. It breaks the law of caelestians.”

Daniel nodded, “Plus we have specific rules not to use our powers to interfere with the humans that can harm us here.”

Isaac cocked his head to the side, “For a person that doesn’t speak that much, you sure know a lot,” He teased him.

Daniel then taunted, “Well you just know too little.”

Jade chuckled at their light banter. A light heartfelt moment between this lonely despair that had been wrought upon us. But like all happy moments, it must always come to an end.

Isaac perked up and quietly told us to keep quiet. The four of us were ready for battle. He sniffed the air.

"There's someone in Azaliah's room!" He warned as Jade was the first to run to her. We dashed up the stairs.

"No! The door is locked! And I can hear voices inside." Jade said as she pounded onto the door.

I couldn't believe this was happening... I pulled Jade away from the door. We had to break it down. But no matter how many times we banged the door, it wouldn't budge.

"There's a barrier spell" Daniel had his eyes shut concentrating on breaking the spell.

"Isaac, keep trying to break the door. Jade and Daniel, get rid of that spell now! I'm going to go around through the window." I commanded and ran outside only to freeze when I heard a scream.

"Felix! Don't go!" Azaliah screamed as she jumped down from the second floor. She woke up as if nothing was wrong with her. It was like seeing a ghost come back to life. She had survived.

"Felix!" She started running and I looked in the direction that she was heading. She was going towards the forest. But the person she was chasing... no... It was a Caelestian... and not just any caelestian. Because flying in the sky, was a fire phoenix in its true Caelestian form. All the phoenixes have been extinct! But there was one flying in front of me and a human was chasing it. I quickly ran to catch her.

"Azaliah!" She paid no attention to me and her focus was on running to catch up. She was faster than she was before. It was as if she was no longer human. With all the scars upon her tattered body, she still managed to break free and her strength had overtaken her as she dashed through the forest.

I chased after her as she made around about to the place we had met. In my view, the phoenix was still a teenager. But from my knowledge, phoenixes age faster once they hit a certain age. And yet that was a long time ago. The Phoenix clan had died more than twenty years ago and it was all Defaeron’s fault. He wanted power and would do anything to get it even massacring tribes and many other kingdoms.

"Don't leave me alone again! Don't leave! Please!" She sounded so terrified, so weak. The phoenix stopped flying and she stopped running. I looked up at the phoenix and he was crying. Those were fire tears. A phoenix could never cry or show weaknesses. They were the creatures just like the dragons that never showed their true feelings. And yet here in front of me was a fire phoenix that was shedding his fire tears for a human of all creatures.

He stared at Azaliah and then looked back at me. I gasped when I heard something in my mind. My beast even awakened when he heard this phoenix use its power.

‘Take care of her, for I no longer can.’

Those words... were whispered in my mind. It was his words... the phoenixes. The fire tears that fell formed into crystalline. Azaliah caught it in her hands and fell to the ground crying. And at that moment, I felt something inside my heart. Something began to burn, something that ignited and I clutched my shirt as I felt the pain sear through me.

The curse mark that was put on me by Defaeron has now been activated.