Curse of the Phoenix

Ch.60 -Complications

Iara~

Once I opened my eyes I was blinded by sunlight. I raised a hand to cover my eyes, and then I spied the brown of dried blood. I yelped and immediately became fully aware of my surroundings as I rolled to the side and shakily got to my feet.

The only blood I saw was on my hand, and as far as I could tell, I wasn't injured. I didn't see anything the blood could have come from, and I didn't see any sort of trail, so I wiped it off on some moss. So far, it seemed very humid, even foggy. No wait...that was smoke.

The smoke hindered my visibility, but barely. I had nothing on me except for my clothes. Even my....amulet.

My hand went to my neck to confirm my suspicion. It was gone. Without it I was helpless. If I died I wouldn't be able to come back.

Not having my amulet was a setback, but I just had to be careful. Yeah...if I was careful and I found the others I would be completely fine. If I found them we could look for the amulet together, and then kill the phoenix. They'd have my back.

I looked around some more, and I saw someone.

Marumen was up in a tree. Sleeping. He was in the fork of a branch, arms over one and legs over another, and he seemed to be slipping. I ran over to the tree and looked up at him.

"Marumen!" I said. He jumped a little and then hugged the tree.

"How the heck did I get up here?!" He squeaked.

"I have no clue."

"Help."

"Oh come on don't be a baby, it's like twenty feet, you could just jump down."

"No I couldn't come on pleaaase!"

"How can I help you? I don't know how you got up there!"

"Catch me?" He asked. I walked under him and sighed, holding out my arms.

"Fine. Come on." He hesitated before letting go. Instead of catching him, his weight pulled me down along with my arms. So I got a mouthful of shirt while my arms lost circulation. He got up and helped me as well.

"Marumen what have you been eating?"

"Umm...bread, tea, normal stuff.."

"Shutup you know that's not what I meant!"

"I know but it's fun to annoy you." I signed and then lightly cuffed his head.

"I hate you." I said jokingly.

"I love you too."

"Now come on, we have to find the others and our amulets."

He literally looked at his chest before realizing his amulet was gone.

"Oh. Dang."

"Really?" I asked.

"What?"

"Is that your only reaction?"

"Well just don't die and you'll be fine."

"Don't die. Best advice ever." I said sarcastically to him.

"Hey, it's true though." He did have a point. I looked around a bit.

"So where to first? We have to find the others, obviously."

"I could climb to the top of a tree and see where we are."

"Are you kidding me? You were just ten feet off the ground and freaking out, do you really want to make that a hundred feet?"