Tyranny: Onwards

Chapter 144- Down

Phoenix recovers though Aegis continues to pester him and force him like a strict father to relax. It is enormously difficult for me to lift my eyes from the ground, stringy blood flashes in and out with my heavy grey guilt. 

"Are we going to rejoin with the others or go based on the map, though I dropped the rock?" my voice is tender and hesitant, strained with the constant worry one wrong note could snap the thin fabric Rin seems now to sit on.

"No use going through all the extra trouble to catch up now," Aegis explains a reasonable point.

"We should start walking now, actually we should go with haste since we are the ones with the wizard's staff. The others had already concluded to walk nonstop until they arrived so we must be behind a fair bit considering this is also the long way." Phoenix decides as the moon has now started to fade and sink away.

The walk has a hasty pace as we begin brushing through the forest and its foliage of deep hues. Rin walks a good length behind us all and no one dares get on her about it either, she could snap at any point, the tension is extremely tight like a precarious stone just waiting for a wind to knock it over the ledge into the abyss of insanity and anger. Perhaps at that point, the clouds would shake and the mountains would grow, or volcanoes would sob their tears of lava.

I watch Phoenix coddle and coo over Bagels so tiny and seemingly insignificant in his palm and wonder where his Phoneix has gone, and what animals the others might be in touch with or how it works.

"Aegis," he holds back and sticks loyally at my side.

"Yes?"

"Where's the Phoneix? Why doesn't he just call it?" I inquire.

"Because the Phoenix is an ancient creature, more powerful than any Luzumi by far, it deserves the highest respect, it is certainly not simply a tool to use whenever you need it. The two of them have an incredibly rare connection, the chances of finding a vulnerable young Phoneix and having the chance to raise one is unheard of. A bond like that is where you learn a respect for one another and know everything about one another too. it's purely sacred and precious." he answers with a malleable and melting tone of comfort somehow.

"I heard you all have bonds with some sort of animal, how does that happen?" being inquisitive is better for me than to keep acknowledging Rin's hateful eyes stabbing me in the back.

"True, but not all of us, just most. I was born far up in the North and in that time three Caribou gathered around me, as a child I remember playing with them all the time, my best friends really," I don't think I have ever heard him speak like this before, "Then the humans came and destroyed our home there, I never saw a Northern Mountain Caribou since and we move all the way down here. Dagwood bonded with the Swift Fox, having been born around their habitat and they were magnetized to him. Blaze was actually born on the Seas shore and whales began shooting canons of water into the sky when he was but a toddler he would ride upon their back and they would gently glide along with him." A smile comes with the recollection of pure and innocent memories, the way he speaks of it all portrays them as precious and beautiful, reminding me of how many wish to go back in time and become an innocent and unknowing child.

I don't have the luxury of such, looking back and smiling at myself as a child; but, it actually cheers me up to imagine his descriptions and touches a fingerprint of hope in my mind, glowing like neon.

"That sounds amazing," I whisper, relishing the thoughts.

"Yeah," he mutters, stuck in that place of happiness for a few minutes before his expression changes to one of anger, frustration, sadness, and startlement. From this, I cannot help but make some conclusion that Humans must have taken all that beauty from them and destroyed these perfect lives.

"Did...did something happen to that too?" I ask and he seems more hesitant now, back to the plain and strict Aegis from before with a face harder to read than ancient pictures on rock. "You don't need to answer, I don't mean to pry," I remind him and he sighs lightly.

"Yeah, lots happened there too. I moved from up North down to the edge of the Sea where we knew there was a fair group of Luzumi living to warn them of the coming dangers and to prepare." he ends curtly.

"Couldn't you have easily defeated us Humans?" suddenly I acknowledge how much more powerful they are.

"Depends on how you look at it. To us, there was no chance, but if you greedy blood thirsty Humans had our abilities, you would say yes. No offense intended." I nod in understanding.

"But, why didn't you use your abilities?" feeling foolish I ask.

"This is exactly why Humans would have said they could have certainly won. We didn't because of our respect for the Earth and knew war would have a harsher toll on everything than if we sectioned off pieces to keep safe. This is also partly the explanation for the lack of snow where we thrive. If we had fought and tried to win, firstly the war would have gone on far longer, second, the ecosystems of plants and all animals there would have taken tremendous ruin and chaos that could prove deadly, blocking blows with the Earth is...I can't even imagine or consider such selfishness. Now don't feel bad though, you didn't have the opportunity to know the things we do." Aegis elaborates calmly and I go silent in thought. I want to, I need to learn this, I need to dive in a seek such wisdom and knowledge. But not if I must go down a wrong path to get it.