Phoenix In The Mist

Chapter 14: Now You See

It was some time after Mulan had dried herself off, got a change of clothes and went back to her tent to get more sleep.

Ying Long sat at the edge of the shrine, looking at the dragon, hawk and lion motif, twirling a feather in his claws. It glowed molten orange, as bright as the sun rise, and the faint light in the cavern shimmered on it, but never with the same pattern. Always different. Always unpredictable.

Mulan had been so utterly tired from her partial transformation that she didn't even notice the feather floating on the surface of the water. Ying Long had. How could he not? After having guided three generations of Phoenixes, he knew what the feather meant.

"Now you see why I have awakened you, guardian."

Ying Long turned slowly to face the Dragon Queen. "Yes," he said simply. "I thought the first transformation was at puberty. But the First Feather tells me that she has never shifted before."

"Indeed," Cressida inclined her head. "You've been remiss, Ying Long. You need to look at her past. Unlike your previous charges, her Phoenix first awakened when she was five, long before her puberty hit. Since then, she has been repressing it, out of her own fear, and her family's teaching. The Way of the Three Sisters has long been forgotten."

Ying Long gazed once more at the intricate carvings. "Yes, they have." Carefully folding and smoothing out the feather, Ying Long shifted his attention back to the Dragon Queen. "It is time for me to go back to the Spirit Realm. The past awaits me." Getting to his feet, he bowed, and his corporeal form slowly faded from this realm of existence.

Cressida smiled gently. The future, for a time, was certain. In a puff of blue smoke, she, too, disappeared from the Shrine of the Three Sisters.