Wings of Flames

Gifts and Goodies

Few weeks passed now Ezra recovered and they went to train together. Every day after 4 hours of training they went in the forest and taught the Splashes how to do so.
While Stella's phoenix was already fully grown their was still just a size of a smaller horse. They could ride it and fly it low.

Stella got extra classes due to her having a Light Flame. And one day on December it was a little different.
'Todays lesson, healing.' The woman on the Light Flame said.
'Healing? T- they can heal?' Stella murmured.
'Certainly yes. But it's really hard to do and you have to master it out before you actually try it.'
'At least I'm not the only Light Flame here.' She took a glance at the instructors phoenix.
'Because it's snowy it's going to be harder for us to train. But it gives us a great opportunity. Their flames might not be as hot as Blue flames but if you know a little about fire, they can melt snow.'
'And boil water...'
'Exactly, but water can set out fire too. That's why it's dangerous for first graders to go down.'
'Why, what's down?'
'I'm not supposed to tell you this but, there are water phoenixes. Well they were supposed to be. Once they were just as common as Flames. But one day, when a Splash - that's how they call them - went wild, everything changed. It killed near 20 innocent Flames. Ever since then they made it illegal. They never met their owner, because no one even went for them. They didn't made it to the island to hatch their Splash. So they hatched alone, wild and without an owner. When they are still just hatchlings they them down to the wilderness. The rest I can't, won't tell.'
'So when am I learning how to ride my phoenix?'
'First healing, thats much more important.'
'Alright, alright... let's get into it.'
'You need to be in contact with your phoenix to do it. Communicate with your phoenix through the bond. Tell her to light up, the process is slow but worth it in the end. And make sure to not overheat, but you're not even capable of that yet. Just don't try too hard.' Stella hopped on the back of her phoenix and closed her eyes. She thought of the fires in her phoenixes wings emerging from under. The thought of fixing something broken. Thought of a wing that was ripped apart and it filling up with blood and life. When she slowly opened her eyes she saw that her phoenix was lighting up. A small white round aura around her sizing up and the flames of her feathers getting higher. The heat was getting to her, Stella was sweating and her head started to hurt.
'Enough.' The woman gestured and grabbed Stella under her shoulders and got her off of her phoenix. The flames stopped in an instant and the white aura shrunk.
'I think we're done with the healing today. And maybe forever.'
'I'm sorry' Stella scratched the side of her head.
'At least you did a great job, too good.'

She went to the forest and Ezra was already teaching them and praising them for the smallest things.
'Awesome! Great job over there Charlie!'
'Stella is back from her extra training hour! A bit early but okay.' Yuki ran to her and hugged her gently.
'Now come on, Ezra was asleep half the training, he thought us nothing!' Charlie said from further almost shouting.
'Okay, okay. And Ezra, you gotta stop praising them for everything. They won't learn!'
'I know! I just can't help it, they're doing so good!' Ezra said but Stella just rolled her eyes.

Days and days of days had passed. And the most loved holiday was coming up, Christmas. The island was cover in fluffy snow. From shirts and shorts to thick jackets, sweatpants and pompon hats. Theirs neck was curled around with scarfs and their hands inside of gloves. Campfires were set every Saturday night for everyone to enjoy roasted marshmallows or hot cocoa.
The room decided to have Secret Santa to get to know each other more, and keep the tradition alive. They got a hat, put their names in it and pulled out each one of them. Charlie pulled his own name twice and they decided to take it out and put it back after. Then Stella pulled out a paper and inside was written Carly, for them known as Yuki, but they didn't tell Ezra that.
Now Stella was riding Heaven's Blaze in the snow the the gift shop. Most of the stores. we're in a cave, under the island, luckily there was a path to that. She forgot to bring her hat so she got her hood up her hair. The tunnel was lit up with candles attached to the rocks every few meters. Loud chattering was already hearable since everyone wanted to buy presents to their family and friends. The cave was huge with multiple of shops and other buildings in it. She rode to a shop that was called Gifts and Goodies. Stella got off of Blaze, tied her to a small wooden pole and stepped into the shop. A small bell rang when she opened the door and one thing she immediately saw that the aisles were thin and crooked. This shop had the best options and on an affordable prize. Lots of people came here for the presents.
   She headed straight for the chocolate dipped jelly candies. She putted a handful of them in her shopping basket and walked to the small useless items. From snow globes to nut crackers everything was there. Small elf plushies, advent calendars and magazines. Her eyes didn't catch anything and she walked over to the baked goods. Buns, croissants and muffins lined up in the trays, freshly baked. She got out a pretzel and putted it in a paper bag, after that in the basket. She got a Christmas card with a phoenix tangled in colorful light and a red and green pen. She threw them in the basket and went to the cashier. She paid for a Christmas themed gift bag and putted her stuff in it. Stella left the store, untied her phoenix and rode her phoenix to the closest library. Tall shelves of books emerged between Stella. She knew Yuki liked fantasy books so she headed towards them. A whole aisle was assigned for fantasy books, from phoenixes and unicorns to vampires and wolves.
   'I know she likes horse books. I am looking for magical horse or rider. Unicorns, Pegasus's or even Alicorns. And for kids, around 10 years old.' She said to the librarian who lead her to a pole of book shelves.
   'This whole book shelf. The best ones are up there.' She pointed to almost to the top of it. Stella climbed up the unstable ladder and got the first book she saw.

Their room was empty, only her in it. All three of he roommates were out training or shopping. She hung her jacket up and got out of her snowy boots. She got out the pretzel and stared eating it. One thing she bought for herself. After that she packed the gifts into the bag and got to her table. Stella opened the Christmas gift card and clicked the red and green themed pen to red. Wrote a letter, click it to the other color, wrote another click it back to the original color.

Merry Christmas Yuki!
I really hope you will like the gifts
I gave you and you're enjoying
your Christmas (I know Frost
Wing does :D). xoxo

Ps: I wrote this with
the pen I gave you :)

She wrote the card and threw it back in the bag. About an hour passed and all three of her roommates came in at the same time, covered snow from head to toe.
'Frost Wing went so wild in the snowball fighting!' Ezra laughed out.
'You guys had a snowball fight and didn't invite me?' Stella crossed her arms and rolled her eyes.

The blackboards was now filled with not only answers but new questions too.
'So we know, why, when, where, and how did a phoenix attack a human. But we don't know why do they even exist.'
'Uhm Stella I-' Yuki tried to say but Stella cut her off
'Yuki please. We're in a meeting please put that book away. I know you love it, I love it too but please.'
'No, I think I've got it! This book has the answer!'
'Oh M G Yuki! You're a genius! I love you Mwah.' Stella gave her a chef kiss and took the book.
'So we all know that there are wild phoenixes right?' Everyone nodded and Stella continued.
'And every year kids come here to see if they get a phoenix. But some eggs hatch without a kid in front of them. Cuz their owner got rejected just because they were going to have Splashes.'
'They want to protect the Flames from Splashes killing them. And they prevent this by not having Splashes in the first place. But to not have them they shouldn't even let them in the island. You get a red pen if you are a Splash, and because your name and color of your pen they'll know not to go to your house.'
'In short when the eggs are placed down, no one will feel it heating or cooling down, because the one who was supposed feel is back at home waiting for a phoenix to light up the room. But it never will happen because when they wrote the test they wrote it in red, meaning they probably put it in a dumpster.'
'Can we not talk about this now? I'm losing the Christmas spirit! I want it to stay in me. So can we talk about it after new year?' Yuki was rolling on the floor.
'Okay, enjoy your little Christmas, we'll continue on February. Alright?' The kids nodded and stoop up from the rug. Stella rolled the blackboard back to its place.