Chaos Bender

Snake eyes

"It was nice of you to worry about us but we can take care of ourselves you know." Alex said in a matter of fact tone. We were following Noctis once again out the forest. The sky turned from black, full of stars to dark blue with very little stars to be seen. I asked her about Xion, Alex looked to her as if waiting for approval to tell her story, which Xion nodded the ok. It turned out, while Noctis was running, Xion was hiding. She came from a clan of Phoenix's, one of the few that survived today. They called themselves 'The order'. At that point Noctis laughed out loud. "An order of Phoenix's ? Hah, that's rich. In a world with magic and spells, the Order of the Phoenix must protect wizards from dark secrets."

No one found that funny, except for him for some reason.

"Excuse me, Noctis was it ? May I ask you to shut your beak-hole before I weld it together." That would've shut me up. Xion was sweet, yet creepily intimidating. That only seem to egg Noctis on.

"I'm sorry princess. Please tell us more about this order of the Phoenix, maybe write a book while you're at it." Noctis might've enjoyed that joke more than he should've.

This time Xion picked up where Alex left off.

"My people were concerned about our numbers. The population of Phoenix's shrunk smaller and smaller. There's only a few clans of us now."

"Why are Phoenix's endangered in the first place ?" I asked, perhaps it was insensitive at the time, but I didn't think about it till after I asked. She gave me a weak smile anyways.

"Quite implosive, aren't you Cole ? You remind me of one of my sisters. Wizards and humans alike, maybe even familiars, lusted over dreadful curses, one of which is immortality. Phoenix's have a reputation of having immortality, but rebirth and immortality simply aren't the same. I'm not who I was before. But sometimes our word just isn't enough. For centuries humans and wizards have been trying to abuse us of our power.

As a result our numbers started to plummet. At the cost of our life, wizards found a way for them to achieve rebirth. So we ran, and lived in isolation. We took care of our own and lived far from civilization itself. To repopulate, we often had big families. I had twelve sisters, but I only knew of one. Arranged marriages were also a prime tradition. The order chooses a husband for the female Phoenix's once they are born."

"So is that why you left ?" I asked. The story started to interest me.

"That was part of the reason." She took a pause as if remembering something. Judging by the look of her face I guessed it wasn't very good.

"I wish not to talk about it. Anyways I ran from home, and remained in hiding. I changed my name so they wouldn't find me if they were to look. I doubt that they would though. Secrecy has always been their top priority."

"Well you could've at least made up a better name. Nix, as in phoeNIX, I mean come on."

"Says the clever little birdie that made his new name his alternate form." She had a point. I blamed them both. They could've made more creative names than those.

As the sun rose, the sky slowly transitioned from deep blue, to lighter blue, to red in the sunrise. We just made it out the forest. I was tired, walking all that way hunched over from my wings exhausted me. Alex on the other hand walked naturally with hers. How did she do it ?

"Why can't we just fly all the way there ?" I asked.

"Cause then you'll complain that your wings hurt. Plus you'll only slow me down, and I don't like flying slow." Noctis seemed adamant on that, so my hopes of flying ended there.

"Can these things retract or something? I'm gonna end up hunch-backed if this keeps up."

"What's wrong with that ?" Noctis remarked in a smart tone.

"That's not the point! Can it be done !?"

"I would assume so, probably a similar way to our shifting." Xion was way more helpful than Noctis sometimes, even when what she'd say didn't help much. "Thanks Ni- er Xion." Her name was still new to me at the time, though I had Noctis's name down.

There was a sound that came from from the forest. As if someone was walking towards us.

"What is that ?" I asked looking back, everyone else looked as well.

Deep in the forest was a silhouette of a woman, slowly making her way towards us. Something about her made my heart race. I used crow vision to try to see her more closely. No good. I did notice something though, the plants were wilting as she walked. It reminded me of something, but I couldn't put my finger on it.

As she slowly made her way to the light, I noticed how pale her bare feet were. She slowly made her way to the light in her path towards us. Something inside me was screaming to run, but I stayed and watched closely. The light revealed that she had a night gown that went down to her knees. It was ragged and dirty. Her her hands were as filthy as her feet. Something was familiar about her. I knew I met that woman before.

I tried to look up at her face, but it was seemingly engulfed in darkness. The shadows were now right below her neck. I saw that her hair fell roughly below her chin. Her bangs were right below her nose. Her lips formed a creepy smile that revealed fangs, her eyes... Oh god her eyes. At that moment I realized why she was so familiar.

"Guys turn around now ! I think that's a-"

" Noctissss." The woman hissed, I turned around before her face was truly visible.

"Holy crap ! Fly !" Noctis scream such terror it scared me more than the woman. I flexed my wings and pushed the air beneath them towards the ground. I soared high into the air. I continued to flap my wings and the ground got smaller and smaller, but there was something wrong. The woman was gone. Before I could turn around a Crow and a Phoenix zipped past me on both sides. Alex flew up from under me.

"Look out !" She grabbed my hand and thrusted upward, sending us both higher in the air. A low snapping sound rang in my ear. A sound that I feared came from right where I was. I looked back, and just behind me I saw one of the most terrifying sights of my life.

A gaint head was right behind me, more than big enough to swallow me whole. White scales covered the things body, which almost blinded me in the sunlight. It's long bulky body slid across the ground. It was a giant, white, snake. And I was almost its snack.

Alex might've well have dragged me through the air with how much faster she flew than me, how did she learn how to fly so fast ? We soared through the air while the sound of the giant snake seemed to be right on our tails. I could tell I was weighing Alex down, she could've easily flew circles around the giant snake and still got away. Instead she persisted to keep me up to speed. I tried as hard as I could to go faster, but it seemed the harder I tried the more I weighed her down. After almost getting eaten twice I decided to just keep my wings hugging me, that way I was more aerodynamic. That seemed to speed things up. The monster made a loud noise that sounded more like a low, inhuman scream than a hiss. We continued to soar across the valley long after the monster made that noise. I looked back, there was no sign of it in sight.

I felt relieved as I was concerned, Alex was carrying me in the same fashion for a long time. Her wings took longer but harder pushes towards the ground, she was getting tired. Crow, who was leading us suddenly descended to the ground. He shifted before landing and crashed. We landed right where he was, on his knees, bent down and pounding at the Earth. Once I was safe on the ground, Alex laid on her back, breathing heavily.

"Are you ok ?" I asked Alex. She was exhausted, but seemed ok. Noctis on the other hand was having a breakdown. I couldn't understand what was wrong with him. He suddenly stood very still, he was crouched down on the ground in a way that reminded me of the old tornado drill position. Xion was looking all around us, as if not convinced the threat wasn't over.

"That was." Crow said suddenly. By the sound if his voice he was shaking. I looked over to him, he still held the same position. It pained me to see him like that, curled up in pain. I wandered of the snake monster got to him in any way. Little did I know that it did, in a way that no spell or medicine could heal.

"That was Sylvia." He said quietly. I was tempted to kneel down to hear him, but then he yelled to the blue sky,"Silvia ! What have they done to you ?"

There was much I didn't understand about Noctis, but that one moment told me everything I needed. He was suffering, and I wanted to help.