Phoenix Feather

I fall to the floor, on my knees holding myself up with just my arms as I stare, my eyes dizzy and in disbelief.

HOW CAN THIS BE?!?!

"Uhh… are you okay?" 

I don't respond to the shadow's comment and continue to be depressed, staring intensely, but directed towards nothing. 

The shadow speaks again after staring at me, awkwardly waiting a few seconds for my response, that never comes.

"... We're approaching the Mint Estate Clinic soon, so if you're not feeling well, just hold on for a little longer, okay?"

…

He stares at me for another second before he makes his way over to me, while I can clearly hear the worry in his voice.

"Wait, are you actually not feeling well? The energy pill should've lasted at least another hour!"

He hurries down to me, and pulls me away from the edge of the wing.

"Here, take another one."

I've yet to respond or react to any of his words or actions since now, but when I take my next inhale, a weird smell suddenly enters my nose that my body fails to react to.

This can't be– wait, what's that smell?

I take another sniff, but still, I am unable to tell what it is that I'm smelling, nor if it's a good smell or not.

Wait, did he say energy pill?

My dead eyes, devoid of light and life, temporarily disappear as I shift my eyeballs to the weird, but familiar yellow pill in his hand.

Wait, Energy pill? Yellow? Again?

Doom strikes me as I finally come to realization and my body identifies the smell of the pill.

NOOO!! IT'S THAT DISGUSTING YELLOW ELIXIR HE FED ME IN THE TRAINING GROUND!!!

I try to push myself away from him, but his other arm, holding me in place, has too strong of a grip around me.

"Come on, Arthur, don't be so difficult, you've taken this before and know how effective this pill is. Well, there will be a terrible drawback, but it'll keep you in prime condition for a few hours!"

IT HAS A DRAWBACK?!?! THIS IS THE SHITTEST ELIXIR EVER! WHAT KIND OF ELIXIR GIVES YOU A DRAWBACK?!?!

He slowly moves his hand closer to my mouth, while I struggle as hard as I can to delay the inevitable, moving my neck back and pushing with both my arms, but his hand doesn't budge.

What the hell is he? A block of iron? Why– won't– he– budge?!!!

DAMN IT, I'M NOT EATING THAT!!! 

"I'M FINE, I'M FINE, I DON'T NEED IT!!"

I scream out with my eyes closed, just as the energy pill gets as close to my lips.

"Huff– huff– huff–"

He holds the pill just shy of my mouth, without moving, before he abruptly retracts both of his arms, dropping me down to the Primordial Phoenix's wings as he stares off into the distance, holding his hand over his forehead to block the sun, setting in the west, though still relatively high in the sky.

"Brace yourself for landing, Sir Apostle, we've arrived."

What? Brace myself? Why would I need to do–

THHAAAAAAAAAAAT

The phoenix suddenly shifts from its fast, but steady flight, to an insane dive, straight down, no longer like a calm comet flying across the sky from afar, but more so like a giant, uncontrollable flaming meteor flying directly at you, while you can't do anything to stop it.

I try to grab onto the phoenix's feather, but it's too late. The last thing I see before falling down in an uncontrollable free falling spiral being the shadow holding onto the phoenix with one hand, and waving at me with another.

You motherfucker.

"AAAHHHHHH!!"

I CAN'T EVEN DO ANYTHING BECAUSE OF THE DEPRESSION THAT BASTARD CAUSED BY TAKING MY PHOENIX FROM ME!!!

I fall, without the ground being visible.

"AAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!"

I fall further.

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! —OOOFFF"

My fall stops as I hit a soft and springy surface, bouncing up and down until all the force from the fall disappears.

I'm alive? And this soft surface–

"I love you Primordial Phoenix! I knew you loved me! From now on, you're my phoenix!"

I spread my arms and wipe them on the Phoenix's feathers, trying to hug the entirety of his giant stature. Seemingly accepting my affection, the phoenix remains still as I continue to hug it. 

The keeper watches this scene unfold from the ground, completely unharmed and clothes undamaged. 

***

You're really going to let a human child pet you? I thought you were a proud divine beast!

The Primordial Phoenix's voice somehow appears in the keeper's mind.

Be quiet. I've waited two thousand long years for this. I will allow the boy to continue petting me.

This brings back memories, when I was just a small bird. Meridal, mother, why did you have to send me away to protect that child? You said you would return…

***

I let go of the feathers and roll off the wide back of the Great Phoenix, who had his wings retracted, acting unconscious as I freefall from it, before taking control of my legs and landing perfectly on my legs.

Love to do it.

Then, the loud sound of metal clanging started to come.

That must be the Mint soldiers from before. I feel like I'm more stable now, and able to control myself from killing that guy, but that's just my biased theory. 

I place my hand on my chin and hold it, moving my finger across it frequently with a relaxed look on my face.

They should know me by now, so this should be a speedy process. But hmm… where will my phoenix stay though? It's almost as big as the entire clinic, so it can't exactly just come in with us. And that will just be one of the better case scenarios. One of the worst case scenarios, would be the Imperial Wardens being called, or even worse, the Royal Guard! They're strong swordsmen coming from the fearsome Kingdom of Auroria, many of those in the Guard, being at the Swordmaster and Imperial level! The commander of the Guard said to be a former rival of my master! It would be a bit troublesome for these two powerhouses to go fighting each other in the middle of the city. I can't really tell how strong the Primordial Phoenix is, but just from the feats and stories I've heard of, he's at least at the level of an 8th circle! I say 8th circle, because I've never met, or felt the power of a 9th circle. And you can't really compare the mana felt from a swordsman, to a mage. But if I had to say who's stronger, my master, Thorne would be stronger.

Author's note:

(Shit about the Kingdom of Auroria will just be my personal fun, and few will understand the jokes I am making)

I look over at the shadow and he looks back.

"What are we going to do about the Primordial Phoenix?"

I try to signal to him, just using my eyes, while slightly nudging my head in the direction of the Phoenix. 

The shadow looks at me in confusion, his eyes squinting and his eyebrows moving along with it.

"I don't know what you're doing, Apostle, but let's just hurry to Dustin before he actually dies."

Right, all this would all be for nothing if Dustin dies. Still, I am worried about my phoenix… 

"I already have the phoenix feather right here."

He reaches into his cloak and pulls out one of the phoenix's giant orange feathers.

Seriously how does he do that? And how could he just rip a feather off the Primordial Phoenix?

I sigh deeply, looking at the phoenix, staring back at me with its calm, but ferocious-looking red eyes. Reluctantly, I turn away from the phoenix and start walking to the shadow, the loud iron clanging and heavy stomping becoming more clear.

Just before we start walking away, I take one last look back at the Phoenix, but the sadness I was expecting to feel, is instead replaced by surprise.

What? Where did it go? How did it fly away already? I had my Heightened Senses activated, which would've definitely been able to hear, or at least feel it fly away, from the flapping of its wings, or the wind pushing toward me from its take-off! What insane flight it has! Matter of fact, I hadn't realized it when we were flying, but it didn't flap its wings a single time! Otherwise, me and the shadow would've been blown away! What an unbelievable power, it truly is worthy of being called a godly beast, not just from its appearance, but from its powers as well.

After my cold and calculative mind finishes its analysis, my emotional one comes back. 

Wait, the phoenix is gone! I can't believe it… it was my first tamed beast, and it ran away after just one hour. Maybe I'm not that good with animals after all…

I suddenly, slightly felt something soft touch my hair, something that drifted down so slowly, and so light, that even with Heightened Senses, I barely felt it. 

Did something touch my head? I swear, it better not be the shadow's hand, trying to comfort me because I know he can't relate since he's the one who tamed the Phoenix!

I turn my head around, ready to throw hands, but come to an unexpected surprise as I see the shadow staring at me in disbelief, though, I can tell that his eyes aren't directed at me.

What is he looking at? He's looking a bit higher than my eyes. Does he have eye problems, or is there–

I move my hand above my head, when I suddenly feel my hands touch something, my instincts urging me to retreat for a second, feeling an unknown object.

Woah, what the hell was that? It feels kind of soft, which is weird, because how can some random dust or something be softer than my hair? Oops–

The unknown object on my head, suddenly falls down, as I anticipatingly wait.

I stare in disbelief at the objects that slowly drift down, my eyes following it carefully and my hands cupping themselves as the object stops its drift, ending in my hands.

I… I can't believe it… it's a Phoenix Feather!!!