Arizium

Chapter 23

Madelina woke up earlier than everyone else, as usual, since she was usually the one to go to bed first. She sighed sleepily and rubbed at her eyes before sitting on the bed and looking for something to pass the time until everyone started inevitably blundering around.

As she scanned her room, her eyes fell onto her small book collection that laid snugly in the corner. She had read all the books thousands of times of course, but noticed that there was a new addition. Oh right, she remembered stealing it off of the dolt that's head had broken her old staff, she hadn't gotten the chance to even look at it until now. She hopped off of her bed eagerly and picked up the leather-bound piece of literature that had the title "Creatures of Magic and Legend" embroidered in gold tarnish on the cover

Too excited to return to her bed, she leaned against the wall and opened the old yellow pages carefully. It was more of a journal than an actual published book of history she realized as she gazed upon the hastily scribbled notes that doted the pages along with diagrams and sketches of strange creatures.

She flipped to a random page and read the header Dragons. The notes took up over seven pages, and were filled with numerous accounts of supposed dragon sightings, as well as the history, lore, and anatomy surrounding the strange beasts.

Dragons used to be plentiful during the reign of the Asevicius family, she read That all ended though once humans took advantage of them and harvested them for their strong scales and magical abilities. Before everyone realized what was happening as a result of their greed, the dragons dwindled out and were never seen again. Ashamed of their subjects' insolence and avarice, the Asevicius family outlawed anything that came from the body of a dragon. All dragon-bone armor was sent into furnaces to be eviscerated, any blood found was boiled away. Anyone caught with possession of these items risked public execution by decree of the queen. Bored of the history, she flipped until she found the lore. No one knows where they came from, but all are aware that they were here long before humans. The Ribiv (Small child-like people that were closely connected towards magic and nature) were rumored to have an alliance with these dragons, some people say that they even saw Ribiv riding on the backs of these great beasts. There must have been some sort of society of dragons hidden somewhere in the forest, but the Ribiv people never spoke of the location in order to keep their friends in safety. She read a little of the Ribiv people, only to disappointingly find that they too became extinct long ago. She flipped to another random page, this one about something called an Orthrus.

The drawing there depicted a dog looking beast with two heads instead of one. The Orthrus is a giant two-headed dog beast, a symbol of sharing and compatibility. They reside only in myths and legends, so there is little belief that they (or it) actually exist. If they were to be real, one would find the Orthrus to have an immense power, to the point of nearly being invincible. With the two separate entities having control of one singular body, they're able to think twice as fast, as well as process twice as much information. The legends suggest that t-

Madelina was startled out of her reading by the sound of someone rudely barging into her house. Phoenix appeared in the doorway with her hands on her hips "Are you just going to sulk around? Or are you going to help us leave?" She said accusingly, to which Madelina responded with a groan, but stood up anyway and put the book back onto her pile. Once she got outside, Bear quickly filled her in on what they were taking with them and what was staying as everyone milled around doing various things under the keen eye of Phoenix. What Madelina gathered was that they were keeping the clothes on their back, weapons, a couple valuables, and Arizium, nothing else.

With a resigned nod, Madelina returned to her shack and stuffed books -both empty and full- into a small knapsack along with some ink and quills. With another quick sweep of the room, she left, grabbing her staff and whittling knife on her way out.

The clearing was crowded, Amaria and Lucius were talking quietly by the fire while Lucius ran a whetstone over his greatsword, Arro was having a conversation with Raven about avians, Bear was reporting back to Phoenix, the animals were playing some game of chase, and Lynx was helping Wolf fletch some new arrows. Madelina went ahead to inform Phoenix that she was done and ready.

"Alright," Bear chirped and slid her machete into her belt "That's everyone, we're all ready to go."

Phoenix nodded and quieted everyone down "Alright, make sure you guys have everything. We're not coming back. Ever," Once everyone double checked that they had everything they needed, Phoenix ordered, "Then get up, it's about time we got moving."

All eight of them followed Phoenix out of the clearing and into the woods. Before they lost sight of the camp, Phoenix turned around and asked Arro, "Do you have any fire arrows?"

Arro gazed at her with a confused expression, "Um, yeah, I just need a flint and steel or something to light them."

Phoenix nodded, "I should be able to light enough of them."

Arro shrugged and pulled an arrow with an oil cloth tip from her quiver, "Go for it."

Phoenix closed her eyes and made a small ball of light in her hands. She lowered it to the oil and immediately extinguished the ball once the cloth caught.

"Where do you want it to go?"

Phoenix grinned, "We're going to burn down the camp."

"Won't that set the forest on fire?" Madelina interjected.

Phoenix snorted, "Let the forest burn down. I'm sick of it."

Arro smiled back and aimed the projectile at the farthest wooden structure she could see. She let the arrow fly and watched smugly as it hit the very bottom of it and set the structure ablaze.

Wolf stepped up and unslung his bow from his back, "Here, we can make this go twice as fast."

Arro was about to object, but relented and gave him a couple arrows.

Soon the whole camp was crackling and spitting as Lynx watched with a wide smile. Madelina felt a twang of pain as she realized that there was no turning back now, they had to find Knox. No more laying about and hoping that the problem would fix itself. 

She gazed into the flames and watched them dance and twirl to a beat that no one could hear. For a second she swore she saw a face in the flames, but brushed it off as it only being her imagination and the heat meddling with her mind.

"You coming, Madelina?" She heard the voice behind her. Wolf was looking back at her with a look of concern creased onto his face as everyone else made their way forward.

"Oh yeah, sorry," she said apologetically and glanced once more at the fire as Wolf joined the rest of them. The flames were beginning to catch on the trees around the clearing, engulfing everything in their path without a hint of mercy. She saw that face again in the flames and gasped softly, no, this isn't my imagination, she realized and put her hand over her mouth before tearing herself away to catch up with the others.

There was no mistaking the face that Madelina had known for about eight seasons now. The face that scolded her whenever she did something rash or uncalled for, the face that laughed at sarcastic jokes and held you close when you needed a hug. The face of the mother.

The face of Phoenix.

(A/N: oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo i'm so bad at writing i'm so sorry. ALSO NO PHOENIX WAS NOT ACTUALLY IN THE FIRE JFC)