𝐓𝐡𝖊 𝕺𝖙𝖍𝖊𝖗 𝐕𝖆𝖑𝖉𝖊𝐳

𝐏𝐫𝖊𝖋𝖆𝖈𝖊

Leo opened his palm, the flames illuminated his face as he stepped towards the limestone wall in front of him. Seconds later the fire crashed into the stone, revealing an entrance.
As the young man stepped through the entrance, his hand slipping to his tool bet; noone was supposed to be here yet the lights were on. Hands clenching a screwdriver, even though it wouldnt do much if monsters somehow made there way inside, his dark eyes scanned the room.

At his work table sat a girl no older than ten or nine, she was scribbling something that looked like a plan of a camp or something on a piece of something that looked like parchment. 

On the desk next to her parchment lay a  yellow and black leopard-like cat with glowing golden eyes that seemed to look right into Leo's soul, between the cat paws lay a muffin.

Besides the grumpy looking cat, the scene looked quite harmless.

As if sensing him the little girl turned her head causing her rich dark curly hair to bop, and now Leo saw her eyes.

Her eyes were every hue of the forest, rimmed cooly with moss, their lightness reminded him of summertime when the sun-rays warmed each extended leaf. Next to the shade of her hair of the deepest brown, she was alive in the same way birds are, casually wild.

All together she resembled a bird. Those bird like feature.

The screwdriver clattered to the floor.

" Phoenix... " Leo didn't even realize how he got to his desk, all that mattered is that the girl was in his tight grib, raised above the floor, his face buried in her sweet smelling hair.

After, Leo lowered the girl to the floor and crouched to her height. " I sorry Hermana," He rasped, his voice broken by the grief and regret that weighed on his heart as he looked into his sister's eyes. " Where have you been all this time, my little phoenix... "

" It's okay, Leo, " The name she had not been able to utter without pain for years, tasted weird on her tounge. She looked up at him not dropping her gaze, just as she did all those years back when she was a newborn looking up at her giggling eight-year-old brother.

Leo wanted to drop his gaze to wipe a tear away, but couldn't just like he couldn't all those years back when he stood at his sister's shabby crib as she held his index finger in her little pudgy hands, giggling, and drumming " I love you big bro " in the Morse code with her short chubby legs.

The memory struck him hard, it was the last time he saw his little sister...

His little sister the endearing plump infant the size of a good loaf of bread laying in her scruffy cot with her short curly hair, her bright eyes that looked like a bunch of water color mixed together, and her adorable smooth as boiled candy lips forming a small " o " showing her already full-grown tiny milk teeth that helped her make her lovable coos like a little bird she was. 

He thought so, now she stood before him all those years later.

His little sister now almost up to his shoulder, with her dark overly curly, her sweet dimples on her slightly round cheeks, her bright eyes... her athletic build, so like their mother... 

Yet this was his sister, who was not dead like his mother. Who he had abandoned. Whoose image creeped into his nightmares to feed him guilt. 

For a second Leo again saw the baby he last saw and had almost completely forgotten about over the years, only remembering in hard times to punish himself knowing that his little phoniex was dead because of him... because he forgot about her all those years ago.

But now she stood here, what was she through, how was she even alive...

A million questions ran through his head, and his eyes lost focus wandering to somewhere slightly above his little sister's birthmark. 

" Leo... " The girl gave his ear and the few dark locks a soft tug, with the touch of a smirk on her face which had a sort of childishness that was suited for children around that age of 5.

" Ahh... " Leo gave a half-hearted groan, that slight spasm brought him back to reality and he gently grabbed Phoenix slightly roughly by the shoulders - but his gaze was soft and even a little uncertain. " Phoenix, where have you been all this time. "

Phoenix seemingly carelessly shrugged, softly pushing her brother's hand away, " It's a long story, "

" I love long stories, " Leo flashed his signature elfish grin and plopped down on the floor beside his work table, and patted the spot next to him for his sister.

" Then if you are ready, " She gave him a smile similar to her brother's plopping down beside Leo and curled into her brother's side...