Dragon Blood

Chapter 5- Ash

Phoenix groaned sleepily as his eyes slowly opened. Slowly sitting up, he put a hand to his lower back and stretched with a yawn as the uncomfortable position in which he slept made his back ache. Suddenly remembering everything that had happened, he looked up to see Hazel's white bed empty and a small red blanket slipped off his shoulders and fell onto the blue carpet.

"Hazel?" He called, gingerly walking out from the room. Tiptoeing down the small corridor, Phoenix got a feeling of déjà vu from earlier that day. Stepping into the warm living room, Phoenix sighed in relief as he saw Hazel sat on the sofa. However, that relieved sigh soon turned to one of pity as he saw her puffy bloodshot eyes and all the tissues that were on the arm of the sofa. She was hugging her knees and rocking herself gently.

"H-hi Phoenix" She whimpered, rubbing her eyes frantically as she saw him come in.

"Hi" Phoenix mumbled, sitting next to her whilst slinging an arm around her bunched up shoulders.

"A-ash...." She whimpered, unable to speak as she fought back tears. Realising that Ash must've been the horse that had died, Phoenix sighed and patted Hazel's back awkwardly, looking at her with an eyebrow raised in surprise as she buried her head into his chest before bursting into tears. He had hoped that he would wake up before her so that he could break the news to her instead of Hazel having to find out herself. But alas, he had used too much magic energy again and overslept.

"Hey..." Phoenix mumbled, his Bostonian accent becoming more apparent as he didn't really know what to do. For a while, the two didn't move as Hazel bawled into his chest with Phoenix swallowing his pride and patting her back as he chose to ignore the fact that his personal space bubble had been popped. After a while, hazel sniffled quietly and got off him with a yawn as she had already tired herself out whilst Phoenix sighed quietly in relief.

"So... Your the wizard from yesterday then?..." She asked, looking up with a weak smile although there was a little hurt in her eyes. Phoenix knew it wasn't just because of the stallion although she was obviously grieving its untimely passing.

"Yeah" Phoenix nodded, looking at his lap guiltily "I'm sorry I lied to you about it... It's just-"

"I understand" Hazel said, putting up her hand to tell him to stop talking about it. "I'm sure you have your reasons." In response, Phoenix just nodded and looked away.

"So... What do you want me to do about your horse?" Phoenix asked, tackling the question with as much care as possible "I can deal with the... arrangements. It's the least I could do"

"Umm... I've always wanted him to be cremated in the field" Hazel whispered, fresh tears dripping from her naturally black lashes.

"OK..." Phoenix nodded, looking away again as he stood up and walked towards the door. "I can do that"

"Before you go," Hazel piped up, stopping him in his tracks with his hand on the handle. "Thank you.... I don't know how you did it but you beat that werewolf like it was nothing! How? I'm pretty sure it must've been an alpha and even the best wizards have a hard time taking them down!"

"After the... uh... funeral, I'll tell you my story" Phoenix promised although he instantly regretted it "You'll understand a bit more then"

"OK" Hazel nodded with a small smile, watching as Phoenix left the room. Once he was outside, Phoenix slapped himself around the head for being so damn stupid before walking towards the stable in which 'Ash' was in. Phoenix couldn't help but feel that he was to blame and he still hadn't told Hazel about her bite or the fact that he was a Dragon Blood. Walking to the stable door, Phoenix sighed as he looked behind him to see fields as far as the eye could see but when he looked the other way, all he could see was the bustling streets of Ampfel town below. It was like two completely different worlds. Shaking his head, Phoenix stepped towards the stable and opened the door before dragging the horse by its rear left leg out of the dark stable which was quite a task. However, when he got it into the evening light, he gasped in shock and took a few cautious steps back at what he saw.