The Phoenix and her Flame

Chapter 3

The girls drag me around the hospital for the rest of the day after all the excitement is over.
They are looking for the Phoenix, all debating what he will look like, how he will be built, and what he will be like in every category.
"I bet his eyes are blue!"
"No, green!"
"I bet his jawline will be perfect!"
"And his abs!"
And on, and on, and on.
I mostly just ignore them, their words blurring out as I get lost in La-La Land.
We basically wander around the hospital, peeking into every room so that the girls can inspect the person inside.
So really, we are looking for any hot guy in the hospital at the moment, just so that we can stare at him and decide if he is Phoenix-material or not.
I am really bored, having already been through all these rooms earlier.
The people who recognize me usually smile or laugh, and some even wave at me.
I mostly just smile sheepishly and wave back, embarrassed at my earlier state of drugged insanity.
Suddenly Tiffany stops, making the rest of us stop too, as she's in front of us all.
"Omigawd guys, what if he already has a mate?!"
Mailee rolls her eyes and answers back, "Tiffany, how could he have a mate if there are no other Phoenixes?"
"Hey man, if there aren't any other Phoenix's, then it could be anyone, remember?" Tiffany sasses
sarcastically.
You see, mates usually find each other roughly around our age, and while they can be the same species, they usually aren't, except for the Great Spirits, like the Griffon or Dragon, who almost always find a same-species mate.
All except the Phoenix, of course, of which species there is only one.
We continue through the different hospital wings like this for a while, until we finally reached the roof.
The door is unlocked for any birds in admittance who need some air, so we go up without trouble.
We wander over to the edge of the building, all eventually sitting down or leaning against the railing at the edge and looking out over the city skyline.
It is ever so lightly snowing, with fluffy flakes falling from the overcast sky.
The girls are still going on and on about the Phoenix, so I decide that I need to go for a walk.
"Guys, I'm gonna go..." I say, drifting off at the end once I realize that no one us really listening.
So I slowly back up, open the door quietly, and slip away.
•••
It feels so good to get out of the stuffy hospital. I went and found my doctor and pulled the "I Feel Queasy I Need Fresh Air to Calm Down", so he let me go for a walk outside, provided I be back in an hour.
"Have a nice walk!" He had called as I had walked out the doors.
It stopped snowing after a little while, so the streets are covered in a light blanket of snow.
I decided to turn onto a path into the big forest behind the hospital.
Lots of people use it, especially in animal form, so it is a well marked trail.
I am the first one on it since the snow fell though, so I make light tracks in the snow as I make my way to the woods.
I walk for about half an hour completely lost in thought, contemplating all the news I have heard in the past few days.
The Pack was suspended for hurting me.
The bus driver is a hero.
The ball is on Friday.
I am the next Phoenix.
Speaking of which, I can feel this sort of warm glow inside me, kind of like a gentle spark, ever since I left the hospital a while ago.
I guess it's a self defence against the cold or something.
I go through all the pros and cons in my head about being a Phoenix.
Limitless power and extreme privileges sound fun when you hear it, but the more I thought about it, the more it didn't really sound all that great.
I would be thrust into a world of media, jealousy, envy, lies, deceit and unfortunately, fame if people find out that I'm the next Phoenix.
I get lost in thought about this for quite a while. So lost in fact, that I don't even notice that I have wandered off the trail until I walk straight into a tree.
I stumble backwards, holding my face, and look up.
Trees.
That's all I can see, just trees.
I turn around, and my snowy footprints go pretty far back until they disappear behind a tree.
I sigh, knowing it might take a while to get back.
I take two steps before I hear a snap to my left.
"Huh?"
I look over just in time to see a string go flying.
I don't even have time to blink before a net lifts me off the ground, flying into the air at such a high speed that I loose my breath.
I scream once I get air, not knowing what the heck is happening.
The net bounces a couple times, then just continues slowing swing from side to side.
My heart is going so fast, it feels like it's going to beat right out of my chest.
What is this? An animal trap?
No, it couldn't be. It's to large for any type of trapping animal.
It has to be...
A shifter trap.
No!
I almost scream from the pure terror of just the idea of being caught by shifter game hunters.
It's kind of like being trafficked- hunters, who are also usually shifters, catch people in animal form, then sell them illegally to each other to do whatever they want.
Once people go in, they almost never come out.
I struggle against the ropes, trying to think of a way out, when
I hear a sickly laugh behind me.
"Well, what have we here? A pretty little girl out for a stroll?" The male voice laughs menacingly.
I hear two more voices join him, and they all walk out from opposite sides of the net.
My heart almost stops beating completely.
These men will hurt me.
And I have no idea how close-or far- any kind of help is.
I am completely trapped.
They all gather in front of the net to size up their catch of the day.
One is small and gangly, the second is a huge hulking brute, and the third a calculating yet undeniably good-looking man. But the third though! Damn, why is it all the good looking ones are psychos?
"Ooh, I bet this one will fetch a nice price" says the gangly one.
"Why yes," says the third one slowly, stepping uncomfortably close to me, "I think she will get us a very nice price indeed."
He reaches he hand through the net, going to touch my face.
I suddenly feel less scared for a second, and complete rage takes over.
How dare he try and touch me!
I wait for the perfect second, and just before his hand reaches my face, I bite him. As hard as I possibly can, I bite down on his finger.
"AGH! DAMMIT!" Screams the man, immediately jerking his hand out of the net.
The other two lean over and look at his hand.
The big guy asks "Are you okay?" In a slow, deep voice.
"Agh! I'll be fine!" He says, holding his now bloody finger. I smile inside, even though a voice somewhere tells me that I may pay for that.
"Let's just get this over with and find out what she is!" The third growls, and they all get into a circle around my cage.
I stop breathing.
No, they can't!
They shift into their animals.
Oh shit.
They can.
They are going to force me to shift.
There are many ways to force a person to shift, every one of them nasty and painful, not to mention illegal.
But that doesn't seem slow them down.
They shift into their animals.
The big one is a huge grizzly bear, the gangly one a larger than average lynx, and the third a large grey wolf with amber eyes.
I start panicking.
I have never shifted before, I am the Phoenix, and having had no practice, and these guys obviously having plenty, I do not have a fighting chance of getting out of this alive.
Then they start chanting.
The noise they make is not quite animal, yet not quite human, either.
It starts out soft, then slowly gets louder, the sound floating hauntingly around the trees.
And as it gets louder, so does the pain.
What starts out as a dull buzz in my foot turns into an inferno burning all throughout my body.
It gets worse and worse as the chant gets faster and faster, until I let out an involuntary scream.
It feels like something is trying to rip me open from the inside out, as if my bones are burning to crisps, or there's a running chainsaw in my stomach or something, the teeth ripping away, trying to rip me open.
The chanting suddenly bursts out louder, now as loud and as fast as the men can go.
Another scream works it's way up my throat.
Anything to make it stop! Please!
Then, just as the scream is about to come out, it happens.
I shift.
It's instantaneous, and suddenly I am a huge flame-coloured bird.
The scream comes out, but it changes midway from human to a piercing call, like an eagle's scream, but with more force and power.
It echoes piercingly around the forest, the sound of agony and terror lingering in the air.
I collapse in the net, all the energy in me gone from the horrid transformation, panting raggedly.
The men just stare in awe for a second, then slowly creep forward.
"Something's telling me that our little birdie here is worth more than just a few coins, my boys" the third man says, staring at my brilliantly coloured plumage.
"Now I don't believe in ghosts, but I think we may have just caught ourselves a spirit."
I can pretty much hear the sly smirk on his face as he realizes what I am. He may not know exactly what I am, but I can tell he definitely knows I look special.
I am still panting hard, my breathing deep and uneven, a mix a terror and pain from the shock of having my first shift, and being forced to do it.
I am helpless to stop them as the cut down the ropes holding the net up.
I am so numb that I can hardly feel myself hit the snow covered ground.
I feel the weight of the net removed, and wait for whatever they do next.
I am at a very awkward position on the ground, so I can hardly see anything when I hear a deep growl come through the trees.
The men, who were about to pick me up together because of my rather large size, all snap they're heads up collectively.
They all look at each other, then silently nod to each other.
The third one lifts up something I hadn't noticed before and calls out "Who's there?"
I see a glint of something shiny, and then it hits me- he's holding a knife.
'Of course! Why not! Of course he has a knife!' I think sarcastically to myself. Great.
Delusional crazy is already affecting me from the numbness.
Just great.
All you can hear for a second in the clearing is the slightly ragged breathing coming from me, and otherwise, just complete silence.
The man cautiously takes one step farther, and before anyone can react, a huge grey and white wolf is on top of him, suffocating him with it's paws on his neck.
He goes to stab it, but before he can, the wolf bites his arm, making him drop the knife.
He shouts loudly, then yells to the other two men "Well don't just stand there, do something!" As best he can with a wolf on his throat.
The other two snap out of their surprise and run towards the third to help, shifting because of their own lack of weapons.
The wolf sees, and head butts the man so hard that he is heavily dazed for the moment.
Then it pounces on the lynx, quickly picking it up by the back and shaking it violently.
He then throws it into a tree, where it hits the trunk with an unsettling THUMP and falls to the ground once again in human form, barely moving, but still somehow alive.
The bear is slow to get to the wolf, but I can still feel the ground shaking with his power.
He roars and raises a gigantic paw, going up on his hind legs to deliver maximum force to his blow.
The wolf moves fast though, and lunges to the side and attacks his exposed stomach quickly.
The bear roars again, this time in pain from the chunk the wolf just took out of him, and tries to crush the wolf by coming down.
But once again, the wolf is to fast for him, and he jumps forward and onto the bear's head, where he pulls with all his strength towards a tree.
The bear follows his head, his legs moving under him to try and catch himself, but he's to slow.
The wolf leaps off the bear's back just as his head collides with the tree, knocking him out cold, and probably giving him a concussion, and he also turns once again back into a human.
Then I hear a yelp, and look over to find the wolf with blood starting to pour from the front of it's left shoulder.
I feel a pain there to, but just shake it off as some seeing and feeling psychological sympathy pain thing.
The third man, somehow still up and standing, holds a bloody knife in his right hand, and a crazed look on his face.
"Down, dog!" He shouts at the wolf, slightly maniacally.
The wolf leans on his uninjured right leg, but still stays ready.
The man lunges, and the wolf goes to dodge once again.
But then, because of his injury, he is slightly slow, and the knife plunges into his left shoulder.
There is a yelp and a crack, and then the man is unconscious on the ground with an instant bruise on his forehead, and wolf stands there in the silence now covering the woods, his crimson blood staining his white fur, and slowly dripping into the snow around him.
He slowly turns, looks directly at me and whimpers slightly, then falls to the ground, in a semi-conscious state.
I lay there for a second, then suddenly scramble up, all fatigue somehow disappearing instantly, and rush to the wolf.
Oh sure, NOW I'm okay.
He slowly turns back to a human, and I stop dead when I see who it is.
It's...
It's Kyrin.
Not only was my life just saved, but it was saved by none other than Kyrin.
The leader of the pack that hates me with a passion.
He lays there, long blonde hair spread out in the snow, with a knife sticking out of the shoulder of his now torn, very bloody black sports jacket. I push all personal thoughts aside, and focus on the problem at hand.
I realize that the knife will have to come out if I'm going to heal the wound.
I don't know how I know that I can heal it, but something tells me I can.
I am still in Phoenix form and am trying to figure out how to change back when I realize, if I shift and Kyrin wakes up, he will recognize me and... That would be very bad.
So, I stay in bird form as I contemplate the best way to get a knife out of a shoulder as a bird.
Kyrin suddenly groans and turns his head.
Alright, I'm going with the old Quick-Like-a-Band-Aid method.
I grip the handle of the knife as best I can with a beak, and prepare to pull it out.
The pressure makes Kyrin tense, and I can see his muscles contract.
Okay, here we go.
One.
Two.
Three!
I give a strong yank to the knife, and it comes flying out, along with a lot of blood. Pain shoots through my own shoulder, and Kyrin cries out, his back arching in pain, then falls back on the snow.
The blood starts gushing out of his shoulder, and I can see pain written on his face, even though he's not even fully conscious, and I can feel a dull roar of pain in my own left shoulder.
What is with this freaking sympathy pain!
'Okay,' I thought, refocusing as more blood poured out, 'now for the more complicated part'.
I let instinct take over since I have never done this before, and can feel myself tearing up.
A few tears slide down my feathers, and I lean over so that they fall on Kyrin's shoulder.
There is a slight sizzling sound, and he yells again.
Then the wound starts to close. It's almost as if like the tears are and eraser, removing the wounds as if washing them away.
Who knew Phoenix tears actually DO heal?
I didn't.
Kyrin relaxes as the last of the wound heals.
Now that everything's okay, I feel slightly better.
Even though I was just about kidnapped, never to be seen again, forced to shift, and rescued by someone I would have never thought would rescue me in a million years, things already seemed at least better than they were ten minutes ago.
Kyrin suddenly stirs and slowly sits up, groaning and rubbing his shoulder.
He looks a little confused for a second, then stares around with wide eyes, then looks at his shoulder as he moves his hand off of it.
"Wha-" I can here the confusion in his voice as he looks at where the stab used to be.
Then, he looks at me with his ice blue eyes.
"Uh, thanks, I think..." he says awkwardly.
I cock my head to side, wondering what he's thanking me for.
As if reading my mind, he answers "You know, for healing me... that was you, right? God this weird. You probably can't even understand me..."
He trails off, looking down and chuckling at himself, probably thinking that he looked ridiculous.
I nod as enthusiastically as a bird can, letting him know yes to both questions.
"Really? Wait, then.." He suddenly sits on his knees, facing me.
"Are you... are you a shifter?"
I take a longer time to answer this one.
Should I say yes? What if he finds out who I am? What if-
"Wait a sec, of course you are, you're the Phoenix! Jeez, that was a really stupid question. Sorry man, I'm not thinking too straight right now" he laughs at himself again, and for some reason, my heart skips a beat when I hear his laugh. Like, what the heck? I don't like Kyrin!
And why did he say... oh wait, that's right... he thinks I'm a guy.
Well this is awkward.
"So I guess the rumours really are true then...you really are back" he says, standing up and brushing the snow off.
"By the way, do you know where we are? My animal side kind of just answered your scream while I was on a walk, and, well... I have no idea where I am now" he says sheepishly. I attempt to smile, but it comes out as a really freaky bird face.
I forgot- one of the perks of being a great spirit is that all animals will answer a call no matter what species they are.
So I guess Kyrin was the only one in range or something.
I turn around and hop towards my tracks that I left when I came here.
"Oh, thanks." he smiles and starts walking towards the tracks when he sees me not moving.
"Uh, so are you gonna shift and walk, or..." he trails off, lifting an eyebrow in an inquisitory way.
I shake my head, deciding to make the best of being stuck shifted for a while, and attempt to fly.
Realizing that I have no practice whatsoever, I let instinct do the work. Thousands of years of practice have made my Phoenix spirit a pretty good flyer apparently, because in two seconds flat I am flying over the treetops, looking down on the trail.
Oh, and the feeling of flying! It's amazing! The wind on your face and the view and the feeling of freedom and OMIGAWD ITS AMAZING!
I almost fly away before I remember Kyrin.
I look back down and see that the trail I made is pretty topsy-turvy.
I also notice that I can see every single detail of the footprints I made.
Okay, now I seriously wish I had this eyesight normally.
Following the trail would take pretty long, but going straight, I can see that we weren't actually that far off the original trail.
I can also clearly see the spot with the trap, the three bodies still laying there, Kyrin's blood dying everything red, and the flipping cut-down rope trap that started all this crap.
I can already tell that I am going to have nightmares about this for a long time by the shiver of fear that runs down my spine when I look at the rope. I can almost feel the pain of the transformation again.
Oh god, this'll be a fun week of nightmares.
I fly back down and call to Kyrin, who started to follow the footprints.
I glide over to a branch in the direction of the shortcut, and attempt to wiggle my head in that general direction.
"What are you doi- oh wait, shortcut?" he asks, smiling at what apparently looks like some form of the chicken dance (pun intended).
I nod, and fly a little farther.
He starts to follow, so I just sit there and wait for him to get closer.
I must look bored or something, because he turns into his wolf and starts into that slow run that wolves do, you know what I'm talking about?
He's a lot faster now, and I find that if I fly slow enough, he can keep up without me having to stop.
We reach the trail in no time, and he shifts back.
You can already hear the cars on the road from where we are.
"So, I guess I'll see you around then?" Kyrin smiles, and I nod. I take off, thinking of where I can go to shift back. That was kind of an awkward parting but hey, what were we supposed to do? Hug and say "Later bruh"? Aw hell nah.
I don't really want to go back to the trail to shift alone, becaus while I felt safe with Kyrin's wolf there, I would probably never step foot in there alone again.
I don't know why I felt so much safer just because Kyrin was there, but for some reason I could not fathom, I did.
AGH! WHAT IS FREAKING WRONG WITH ME?!
I fly low, finding the closest big thing I can find, which happen to be some garbage bin thingies, and land behind them.
I don't really know how to shift back, so I once again let instinct drive my brain car, and I was soon standing tall as a human girl again.
I feel kind of blind because of my human vision, which I now know is worthless, and stumble out from behind the bin, getting used to walking again.
I really don't know whether to laugh hysterically, cry hysterically, or scream hysterically, but any way I think I may go into hysterics about what just happened.
Instead of doing it behind a bunch of trash bins though, I make my way back into the hospital, stopping on my way at a pay phone to tip the cops off about 'big game poachers in the woods'.
I go inside, then up to my room, with nobody questioning me, calmly take off my jacket, hang it on the door hooks, and calmly walk to the side of my bed.
There, I sit down, pick up my pillow ever so lightly, press it gently to my face, take a deep breathe, and scream at the top of my lungs into it, as long and as hard as I can.
I let out my emotions
Fear
Anger
Terror
Pain
Hysterical laughter
All of these come out in that one shriek.
Just as I put the pillow down, my doctor walks in and smiles when he sees that I'm back.
"So Akaelya, did you have a good walk?" He asks kindly.
No, not really, but like I'll tell him that.
"Why yes, I did" I smile back, and he leaves shutting the door with almost no sound.
Well, so much for having a nice walk to calm me down.