Memoria: Feather of Phoenix 『Reincarnated Villainess』

Chapter 19: Ice Bird

I currently shivering in coldness while the breath I exhale become foggy. I hug myself, as I brought fire torch closer to myself.

I barely can see anything in this cold cave, making me dissapointed for not having this trip during afternoon. Thankfully, I wore this cape made of fur earlier, or else I'll freeze to death. But still, this cape wasn't enough, I should have wore glove and scarf too.

"Too late to go back" I told myself as I force my feet to continue walking.

Suddenly, the other end of the cave tunnel shone a faint blue light. My eyes widened upon seeing those light before I start to walk faster.

I don't care if I was frostbitten, I don't care if my breath was uneven because of the coldness, I don't care if my body is shivering terribly, asking for myself to stop moving and search for warmess. As long as I can know what thing is in the other end and satisfy my curiosity, I even dare to swim in this state. An intense ice magic was filling the air and it became stronger the more I walked into the cave.

I know I'm crazy, despite the risk of meeting a high level monster, I still want to see it. Even a peek would be enough. Why? I also don't know, it just that I believe my intuition.

Because the ice magic, my body was absorbing magic faster and more than usual. Slowly, I felt warmer and no longer freezing like before.

The moment I reached the end of the cave, bright light illuminates. It immediately made me close my eyes that are not used with the sudden brightness.

After my eye sight manage to adjusted slowly, I flutter open my eyes as the silhouette I saw in front of me was blur. What is that? Something big in dark blue colour.

When my blurred eyes suddenly became clear, I couldn't believe with what I saw. My eyes widened in excitement, fear and surprise mixed together when my view laid on the beautiful yet probably dangerous bird-like creature before me.

Its' feathers were made of ice crystals, shimmering with blue clearness. Its' beak was like a polished dark blue jade, sharp and shining with pride. What's more mesmerising is its' eyes, like a night full of stars, as if those pair of eyes were made from galaxy. Those eyes that as dark as night was staring deeply into mine icy blue with intimidation and proudness.

"Who dare to invade my place!?"

Suddenly, its' voice, similar like storm, as loud as thunder, rang loudly through my ears, making the small body of mine tremble in shock of the sudden wave of sound.

Immediately, I stumbled to the ground when my body couldn't handle that sudden strong shock. I looked back at it before gulped.

'What am I doing? He could smash me anytime he wanted to' I thought as a gust of panic rushed into my mind, making me think for a few seconds.

That creature didn't do anything, instead it just stared at my poor self as I tried to stand up on the icy floor.

"Who are you?" Asked the creature with a lower but still warning tone of voice.

What should I do? Should I run? Or just try to make peace with it?

It doesn't seem like the usual mindless magical beast, rampaging and destorying all it want. Instead, that creature look wise. Not only it talk perfectly, the way it act was also majestic and proud. I took a deep breath before trying to utter the appropriate words that I manage to find.

"I am just a humble girl who lives nearby. I was curious what could have resides in this mysterious cave, and thus, entering without any permission. I'm sorry for every disturbance I've made" with courage that I manage to find, I tried to speak as genuinely as possible.

I still don't know what's the outcome, but judging from how it talk, there's a bigger probability that it won't kill me. While the possibility of letting me go is quite slim.

"Who are you?" With the same but stricter voice, it ask the same question. Looks like I need to introduce myself. I bow my body a little and perform a curtsy.

"My name is Annelestia Carnation De Diamax, daughter of Duke Diamax"

"A noble..."

"Yes, that is right" I don't change my position and still maintain the curtsy pose to show my respect toward this powerful creature.

"Are you not from Fenice?"

Fenice? That country from the north? Is there anything to do with Fenice?

"I believe no. But I don't know if any of my family's history had related to that country"

It was quiet for a few seconds. But those few seconds feel like a few hours, I could think anything and feel various kind of emotions in this mere short of time.

I could feel most of the ice magic was coming from that bird-like creature. I notice the brightness in this room came from the magic crystals around us. And I also noticed how the current floor below me is a good ice rink for skating. And that thought was quite far from the supposed situation.

"Leave this place. Never come here again if there isn't a need" hearing that statement immediately made me looked at it in surprise. Did it just let me go?

I'm a little hesitated, but still steps back slowly. While walking backward closer to where I came from, I didn't stop looking at that creature. Its' starry eyes also didn't leave me, as if it was watching every movements that I made.

"I-I'll take my leave" the moment I reached the entrance, as fast as wind, I changed my pace and left that place quickly. And because I left my torch behind, it was a hard time walking in the darkness without bumping into rocks.

❈

When I came back home, I didn't sleep. Instead, I went to the library and search for books that contain anything related to the creature. If I remember correctly, it is the Legendary Ice Bird from history book.

People don't know whenever that Ice Bird was real or a mere myth, but it's believed that the legendary ice bird was roaming around the world these whole time. There's so little information about that it.

While flipping the pages in fast pace, my elbow accidentally pushed a pile of books from the table. "Aishh" I grumbled while picking the books that already scattering on the floor.

My movements stopped when I laid my eyes on a book with thick fiery-red cover. The title on the cover written:

'The story collection about Phoenix'