Someone to trust (Books of the beginning fanfic)

Chapter 32-A little accident

We were put in a small holding cell where we finally got uncuffed. "Why are we even here," I barked.

"You are suspects for intentionally provoking the Phoenix's attack.  And maybe even smuggling him into the city yourselves," the soldier explained in a monotone voice as she took of Michael's restraints.

"But that's not fair. You have no evidence for that whatsoever," Kate uttered, clearly as annoyed as I was.

"That mark on you is more than enough evidence for me, missie."

"Mark? What are you talking about?"

"Don't play dumb." Without explaining himself he locked the cell door and walked off.

"What did he mean by that?" Micheal questioned. Kate shrugged, unable to give an answer.

"Hold on a second..." Wilamena mumbled and stepped towards Kate. To all of our surprise, Wilamena started to unbutton Kate's shirt.

"Hey! What are you doing?"

"Checking if you have it."

"Have what?" Kate asked. Wilamena had now unbuttoned the upper two so you could see just past my sister's collarbones.

Then she jumped back and squeaked in a high pitched voice, "It's there! You have it!"

"Same as Kate, have what?" I spat out.

"A loyalty mark! Look for yourselves."

"Wow, that wasn't there this morning," Michael stated. I walked over to see what was so interesting. In between her collarbones was something that looked like a tattoo. It was as good as black with a few glimpses of red and gold. It seemed to represent fire.

"Kate, I didn't know you had a tattoo," I joked.

"Neither did I," she mumbled, a little in shock.

Michael turned to Wilamena. "What did you call that?"

"A loyalty mark.  There's a group of magical creatures that we call the loyals. That is because they are in fact really loyal."

"Duh, I think we could have thought of that ourselves," I responded.

"When they are loyal to someone they mark them. Not as a way of claiming them like other animals do but to make a promise that they will stand beside you and even go as far as to die for you."

"That's a big promise," Michael stated.  "What even happened down there to make him so sure that he wanted to do that?"

"Not much actually," Kate answered Micheal's question. "I fed him the mango I managed to find to make him calm down and he did. But he was still hungry, probably even starving so I brought him more and he started to trust that I wouldn't hurt him. Then he wanted me to pet him and started nuzzling his beak to my chest, I felt a slight burn, I guess that's how I got this."

Wilamena nodded and explained even further. "Phoenixes do make their mark through slightly burning the ink that comes from their beak if they have positive emotions towards you. Other animals do it differently. Through bitting or scratching or some other form. Each species has a slightly different approach that makes their mark have certain recognizable traits. Like how every Pheonix leaves a fire as a mark but each mark's unique to the creature so you will never find two marks from different creatures that look identical."

"That's nice, but still I didn't do anything special. Why would he give me a loyalty mark?" 

"Phoenixes are smart, they know when people are being genuine and when not. And although you were scared, the first mango you gave was because you wanted to save our lives. But the rest you did because you genuinely cared. You showed kindness and compassion. That's all a phoenix needs to set a mark."