FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

It is a sunny day during early spring. Most of the green stays around the small village of Juniper during winter seasons, since they rarely had snow or even cold temperatures here. It is late in the morning and the sun is about half way to its highest point. A caravan of travelers rolls past the entrance, which isn't much more then an open space between the waist high brick wall, that was set up around the hamlet. More to set up a higher perimeter to plant lanterns around the village, rather then protection. There were very few large, wild animals around. And no predators at all. Banditry wasn't worthwhile along the road to the south unless you wanted to rob the caravans. But since it was the only road that connected the capital of the kingdom of Aiyana with the 'city on the dam' in the middle of the four central kingdoms of Taha, many guarded caravans made it hard to pick out single targets.

Juniper started as a worker camp to build and later maintain the large structure that supplies Serenity City with water. There are many such small villages to make sure the water supply for the city to the south is secure and the aqueduct is well maintained. For their service, the villages are exempt from taxes and could even ask for support, if needed. They usually are happy to be left alone, since only people, that didn't like the big city and wanted non of the troubles that come with taxes, drunkards and burglars joined the workers that moved north to build up the camps.

They could set up their homes any way they like after settling down, without the need of officials to accept their plans. That led to a pretty spaced village with a lot of room for additional space for food storage huts or bricks for the aqueduct and other spare parts they could need in their daily life.

The mass of people in the kingdom worships “the creator”, who doubles as the sun itself. But only when the villagers found a black, altar like stone in a clearing in the middle of a small forest near them, they started to seriously worship, though. During the day, the sunbeams get concentrated on one spot on the black rock, that never seems to change temperature.

They still are just villagers, but they certainly believe in the sun god and sacrifice small things on the altar regularly. Means... put them into the beam to let the gifts burn to ash. More then the city people, but still far away from priests or fanatics. It is just a part of their lives, but doesn't dictate them.

The villagers consist mostly of farmers and artisans, but even the few guards they have, are happy to help with other tasks, especially when the harvest time comes.

Kin Woodsmith is one of the smaller humans around town and not on the strong side either. As an artisan, he always wears his leather jerkin under the simple, gray cloth tunic and pants most villagers wore. The temperature around usually doesn't even get uncomfortably cold during the winter. No snow or ice either, so the light linen cloths are good enough.

His orange-brown hair goes about half way to his shoulders and he keeps his beard trimmed nicely, else the tickling sensation distracts him greatly at work, or so he tells everyone. His hands are his strength, small and nimble, made for delicate work. He does repair the occasional door or helps build and repair all kinds of furniture, but where he really shines, are the little gadgets, that make the village life easier.

Kitchen tools, where you would just turn a wheel at the side, and it would spin inside a pot, mixing ingredients or a larger ones to help with the harvesting of the fields.

Since wood is not the most durable material, the gadgets needed a lot of repairs. The work there earned him his last name, Woodsmith.

For the parts of the gadgets, that needed a more durable material, he works closely with Akira, the village smith. A giant of a man, who lost his left arm in an accident not too long ago. The smith rarely leaves his home around the forge without his hammer, longer then Kin was high and probably heavier then him too. He lovingly calls it "San", Mountain. Akira makes sure, there are no hair on his head, not even eyebrows – he would loose them anyway to the heat in his forge. He is also one of the few people without the normal cloths, who only ever wears his heavy apron, constantly treated with special oils to hold out against the heat of the flames. It still turned black mostly.

Right now, Kin holds both hands together in a ball as he walks out of his home and towards the edge of the hamlet. Most people smile at him and shake their heads, knowing only too well, what he is doing.

Once at the edge of the village, he opens his hands. The little songbird looks around, a bit disoriented at first, then at him, then around some more before it finally flies off towards one of the fruit trees behind him in the shadow of the aqueduct above.

“Hey! That's the wrong direction.. oh whatever. You take care now, glad your wing is fine again!”

The aqueduct itself looks like a long plate of stone, supported by two pillars every now and then. It looks sturdy enough to lead a small river to the south. The water up there is slightly higher then knee deep and held in by a broad walkway higher then the water level on both sides. These are also used for the workers to keep watch over any possible damages that might appear on the building.

The street is busy (as a fifty soul village can be), with a few people working on repairing the wooden and straw houses, children playing beside the road between the few simple booths, not much more then wooden tables. They were set up to offer Supplies and other useful products to the weary travelers, that come through, since there is no place to sleep for them here. They are honest people, living their lives in their self-made homes from materials the land around them offers, not the fancy, stone houses of the capital.

A small, broad woman carrying some vegetables into the village and is about to disappears in one of the shacks. At her door, she raises her hand and stares up at the sun.

Does it come closer? It certainly looks like it.

"Look up! Is the sun getting bigger?"

More voices join her. And soon, the curious shouts turn to ones of terror.

"The sun is falling! Its going down on us!"

The people run in panic and try to hide in their houses. Very few remain to see that the sun is actually a ball of flame the size of a large horse with a bird inside, diving down into the streets. The sheer presence and heat radiating from it is enough to disintegrate everything close to it,

and setting fire to anything on the road. It seems to stay exactly in the middle of the road and is drawing a dark line like the night pushes forward in the evening when the sun slowly sinks below the horizon, One of the very few people still on the street is one of the village carpenters, Kin Woodsmith. He stares at the incoming firebird with his gray-blue eyes, unmoving like a mouse staring at the cat when every escape route is blocked.

Kin Woodsmith is watching the flaming bird with fascination in the middle of the road and unmoving. He might imagine things, but there is a sadness to the bird that doesn't make sense to him. Akira drops his hammer as he sees whats going on. His forge is one of the few buildings made of stone open only to the backyard, so the ash and smell wont pester the villagers on the main road. He sprints towards Kin.

The carpenter doesn't notice, watching as the delicate and beautiful form of the bird inside the globe, in flames but not burning, it's wings aren't fully opened, as if it tries pulling them in and its eyes are closed, except for a few small moments, when he can see the green spots open on its head.

Kin smiles when he notices 3 long feathers on its head, slightly moving whenever it beats its wings.

“That's cute.” He doesn't realize how unreal the situation is. As the street and houses beside it are touched by the fire of the bird, he simply stares at it as if hypnotized. He watches the glowing red line move forward towards him in slow motion. The red line, that leaves nothing but dark ground and ash behind. Kin tilts his head, curious, when he notices the bird staring at him now and he is even less inclined to run away. But it seems the bird is trying to jerk away, then slowly returns to its former path twice before the line gets closer to him. The carpenter can feel the temperature increase already, but he is still bound by the form and gaze of the creature that follows the street towards him.

Within seconds, the market stands the bird passes burst into flame, as is the group of visitors at the entrance of the village, right below the creature, who are not fast enough to hide away from the main street. Their colorful cloths lighting up in a bright flame for just a moment, then turn to ash with their bodies following quickly after. They don't have time for anything but a hint of surprise on their faces. The other people, not directly below the deadly ball of flame had a little more time to escape, most run away from the main street with smoking cloths but at least, their lives in tact. Those hiding in their houses nearby aren't too lucky either, as nearly every home adjacent to the road is burning at several spots where easily flammable materials are hanging. The creature does its deadly work silently, no screech or cry, nothing.

Kin is standing right at the bend of the road, where the street turns south into the area mostly used to store the bricks and supplies for the aqueduct above, and finally the south gate, that exits into the road to the capital. The bird pulls up with seemingly great effort before the dark line would move over him and flies into a large curve above the bend. Kin yelps as Akira's giant hand wraps around his torso and rips him out of his mesmerizing thoughts, then roughly flings him through the door into his home following him in.

“Mate, wake up! Ya can't just stand there, waiting to 'e grilled.”

The ball of flame finishes its curve and dives down towards the road leading to the southern gate, parallel to the aqueduct. Until then, the artisans on top of the aqueduct had to watch in horror, unable to do anything. They were about to renew the side of the canal above the road next to the carpenters house and created a makeshift wall inside the river, so they could have a dry part to work. Two of the workers seem to have an idea. The first woman waits at the edge of the aqueduct, watching the bird carefully from up there – another one, a bit stronger with a larger hammer is waiting for a sign to break their makeshift wall. The bird doesn't pay any attention to the giant building high above it and flies down near the ground again – just through the street ready to lay down fire to anything close by.

The hammer comes down with the force to crush bricks to dust, destroying the makeshift wall that guided the water with a single hit. Suddenly, a good part of the water running down the aqueduct breaks out of the opening and forms a waterfall to rain down like monsoon rain along the road.

The bird literally flies against the wall of water and lets out an ear piercing screech of pain and terror. The amount of steam that instantly explodes is impossible. Only the cries can be heard over the hissing and the splashing water on the road.

Kin breaks through the legs of his table, as he gets tossed into his home roughly. He groans as he climbs back to his feet. “Akira? What just happened?”

The sound of falling water up the road is overwhelming. He nearly discards the thumping sound of something dropping on his roof of the house. But when a little dark something falls past his kitchen window, he gets curious. The torrent of water continues to fall on the road, soaking everything around – then like a river, it sweeps down the street past his house and to the southern city gate taking everything loose with it.

Kin steps out of the house, followed by Akira, who looks around immediately.

The carpenter moves slowly through the knee deep river to not loose his footing, still not seeming to have grasped the dire situation the hamlet is in. He is about to turn towards the window, but sees something desperately splashing in the water and quickly bends down to pick up a bird that is about to be swept away and drown – no bigger then a falcon.

"That must have been it. The poor thing, fell into the water."

He grips the birds legs with his right hand when he notices the sharp, pointy talons and literally immobilizing it, then rests it on his left arm as if it is a baby.

"Now you better don't try to bite me... ill just get you out of the city, so you can recover and catch more mice, ok? "

The bird struggles for a moment, then just stares at him with much too intelligent eyes, as he stares back, it feels like the bird is looking straight into his soul with the intense, unnerving gaze, eyes sparkling like emeralds.

"you... know... you have really scary eyes, right?" - he shivers, but doesn't let go, even bows down to shield the poor thing from more water, as he has to walk through the stream to get to the street towards the village exit.

He stops in his tracks, when he finally realizes the destruction, that has happened. "oh, sun, oh creator. What ..."

Most of the houses close to the main road are smoldering ruins. Luckily, the village was build with lots of space, so very few houses behind the first row caught fire, and the people are already fighting the fires with water. Like moths to the light, the people are streaming towards the waterfall to fill their buckets to prevent the fires from spreading and save what can still be saved. The bird lies totally still, eyes closed. Kin lets go of its legs to scratch his head, then wipe away water from his eyes, before grabbing the legs again absentmindedly. He takes a deep breath and is about to turn around, when a huge hand grabs his shoulder "Hey mate, got ya right on time, ha? Were standing there like mouse, staring at the cat and waiting to 'e eaten.“ The bird struggles once and looks around again.

"What ya got there? Where did ya find THAT little fella again?"

Kin seems to have a curse on him, finding all kinds of injured animals around town and usually carries them out afterwards. The most well known event was when a Raccoon, locket in a hole by a piece of tree trunk, that dropped from a pile of firewood next to his house. And that LITERALLY fell on a cats tail, trapping the poor thing too. Combined with the songbird it isn't THAT much really, but ever since he freed the cat and raccoon, he got kind of a reputation.

"I think it was the shadow that fell down in front of the kitchen window. Ill bring it back inside so I can help putting out the fires, i still got the cage from that songbird. "

At that, the bird starts struggling more again.

"Hey calm down, its just for a little time, until the situation here is under control, ok?"

Akira shakes his head and grins "ya know, those things cant understand ya, right? " He pokes Kins forehead with a finger, that feels like it was the arm of someone.

The bird stops struggling and pants, probably scared now.

"Darn Akira, you are scaring the poor thing."

The giant only laughs and shakes his head, then looks around the area once more and stomps off to get a bucket. Or probably a barrel.

Thanks to the intense but short duration of the heat, not a lot of fires were actually burning. The biggest problem were easily inflammable materials with enough sustenance for the fire to actually set the house they are attached to on fire. The fires that ARE there, seem pretty much under control now.

Kin still brings the bird inside and locks it into the cage. It cries its protest, but doesn't bite or scratch him, as he locks the cage securely and grabs two buckets himself to help outside.

It only takes a few minutes to make sure the fires are put out and wont start again. The few people with burns are being treated by Sophia, their herbalist. Sadly, there is nothing anyone can do for the caravan. They just were in the wrong spot at the wrong time.

Akira stomps over to him, not smiling, but still not unhappy. The villagers had been lucky.

"Ya know what mate? You take care of ya little fella, we got this. "

Kin goes back inside, giggling as the bird tries desperately to open the lock with its beak.

"Hey, I told you it wont be long. Let me just check if you hurt yourself, then we can go outside. Ill let you go at the forest, ok? You can rest on a tree or wherever you like then."

The bird stares at him, and he feels .. unable to move for a moment, then it steps back in the cage and he blinks, confused. The carpenter reaches in carefully, to see the reaction, but the bird doesn't seem to move, not even a defensive position. It just stares at his hands. "That's strange. I would have expected you to get ready to attack or flee... HA! You probably know I am just going to help you, are you? Akira was WRONG!" The bird chirps at him.

He reaches in slowly, still very careful for any sign of a possible attack, then, in one swift motion, he grabs the birds legs again, which causes another chirp – this time of surprise and a short flap of its wings. But its too late, Kin has its legs and they rarely use their beaks to attack in a situation like that, or so he thinks.

He puts the bird on the table on its back and gently pries both wings open to see if they are injured while keeping the dangerous legs secured.

When satisfied, he lifts the bird back on his left forearm. "Seems well, all ready to go!"

When he leaves the house, the stream of water died down somewhat and the area is filling with the people that are done with the fires – all searching for the bird of destruction with kitchen knifes, pitchforks and other tools. Very few of them pay attention to him except one woman.

"Hey, whats that bird?" It is the Bakers wife, getting close to her 30th summer with brown hair and eyes that shine with cheerfulness, even now.

Kin stops "Hm? Oh, hey Carly, it must be a falcon or so, it got caught in the water too and dropped between mine and Erza's house. Ill get it out to the forest and let it go to recover. Akira thinks the situation is under control and sent me out. I was lucky, the water came down right in front of my home. Erza might have some repairs to do, others much more." Erza being his neighbor, one of the few dedicated town guards they had here.

She grins "Well, a lot of work for the Woodsmith the next weeks, hu? Akira is smart, its better you aren't around the next hour.." Her voice got grim at the last words, something that rarely happens.

The woman talking to him eyes the bird suspiciously. It turns its head to stare at her now, struggling for a second.

She takes a step back "That bird.. is creepy... you sure its just some hunting bird and not the reaper or so? You should get it out of town fast, before it eats someone soul. Wouldn't want it to see what happens to its red cousin anyway, once we find it. "

Kin shivers "That thing has it coming, though, for burning down our town.... ", he turns and walks down the street towards the western town gate. He is shaking his head at the destruction the first fly through left behind.

More people stream towards where the fire bird must have crashed, some bumping into him, but no one was talking to him again. The bird struggles again, then just stares at him as before, unmoving.

"Stop... looking at me like that. Its really scary. If I let you go right here, you might just get trampled before you can fly away, just hold tight a bit longer, little one, ok? And... don't hurt me, when I let you go, please. Once your wings are dry, you free to go wherever you want. You were lucky that you didn't break something. From what I've read and seen, broken wings take ages to heal and sometimes the bird cant use them anymore at all."

In contrary to the big city, everyone in the hamlet can read and write. Akira makes sure that everyone at least gets some basic education. Not really needed, but it makes a lot of things easier. Like reading books about interseting topics. Or injured animals one might find.

It doesn't look like any bird of prey he has ever seen or read about, though. Its feathers a dark red color, bright near white tips and with the shaft glowing with a hot red as if blood was flowing through them.

"You are pretty young, are you? Feathers just new and not finished yet, else there wouldn't be blood in them. “

It also has 3 tail like appendages coming out from under its tail feathers, all ornamented with feathers on the sides. The beak, curved like an eagles beak, gray but again with a tint of red on it.

And on the head, there were a three thin and long feathers going up. When it kept its body, neck and head aligned, they might neatly fit against its body. It reminds him on the flaming bird in more ways then one, but the main attributes: Fire, destruction and size simply don't fit.

It keeps staring at him, as if studying the carpenter and sends shivers down his spine – but somehow it is hard for him to keep his gaze away for more then a moment or two, as if hypnotized.

"Stop... doing that, please?" The bird ignores his plea, but it stops struggling, completely, even as he removes his right hand to wipe his head again without thinking. Just resting there and letting him carry it into the grassy plains around town. He quickly reaches down to immobilize the sharp talons again, as he realizes he had taken his hand off.

As soon as he steps out of the town gate, he sees a black robed figure not too far in the middle of the path as if waiting for him. He can see a middle aged woman as she removes the hood of her robe, her long, black hair immediately getting picked up by the wind. The robe is without any ornaments and goes down all the way to the ground. The edges aren't dirty, even though, they must constantly be dragged through the dirt. It also must be very inconvenient, she probably stumbles over them a lot too.

Her face has a soft, sympathetic form, but her cruel smile, lips curled up slightly and her eyes staring daggers at him speak a different language.

"Hello!" She greets him much too cheerful " I am Rikka, you have something that belongs to me. "

Now the bird starts struggling again, much harder then before and even lets out some cries.

"That is interesting, you are smaller... and my power over you is ... gone. But the tethers are still there, so... their power really depend on your power. That's.. "she starts laughing, a hard, almost sinister laugh "ironic. The more powerful you are, the less power you actually have and the stronger my control over you will be..."

Kin cries out, as one of the talons scratches his chest – cutting clear through the light leather doublet and the shirt he was wearing. "ow.. What.. are you doing, woman... ? You are scaring the falcon." He turns the bird away from Rikka, which doesn't stop it from struggling to get free.

Rikka grins at him "Falcon, hu? You aren't the brightest melon on the field, are you... farmer? I guess? "

"Carpenter, actually, why are you standing around on some wilderness path and insult strangers? Don't you have... better things to do? "

"Oh, i do... like burn down that little rats nest over there and removing the pests that live within."

She raises her hand, slowly, her fingertips start glowing in an icy and cold blue color, brighter and brighter. He is mesmerized by the strange color around her fingers, like air given color, whirling around them. The air becoming more dense, the closer they come to his face. The bird rips him out of his state as it starts crying out again and the struggling becomes even more desperate, but Kin's hand is firm around its legs now, holding the talons away from his bleeding torso.

"Stay still!" he says in a commanding tune and strangely enough, the bird stops struggling – but keeps crying out at him.

“She is attacking you” - something in his mind says, and he realizes, that the blue light around the incoming finger is not just for show.

He lets go of the birds feet a second before Rikka's hand could touch his cheek. Frost immediately forms on his skin as the finger gets closer and turns it to a deep purple around the spot she is about to touch.

She notices him turning back fully towards her, and not flinching away as she expected – but she does not anticipate his fist flying towards her chin – the one that held the bird.

It completely catches her off guard and connects with a sickening crunch against her chin.

The sorceress drops to the ground like a sack of grain, knocked out "cold" in the high grass beside the path. The wind plays its games with the rest of the vegetation around them, completely unimpressed from what just happened.

Kin yelps out loud "ow.. OW... that hurt.. " he flexes his hand, worrying that his hand might be broken – his work hand. Then reaches for his frozen cheek. No pain at all... just a little cold? Or was it that bad as he had seen with some other villager, that was caught in a snowstorm during one of the very rare winters with snow. She returned with purplish blue limbs the next day, she even lost a finger, but claimed, she didn't feel anything until they got warmer.

He flexes the hand a bit more, then remembers what was going on and looks down. The bird, still lying on its back on his lower left arm, legs neatly folded against its body – far away from any spot they could damage.

He reaches down to check on the cut – how could a falcon cut through leather like if it was some shirt was beyond him. The wound wasn't bleeding too badly but still staining his tunic – the armor being pretty tight probably prevents it.

"What... are you? You didn't even try to fly away, when i let go?"

"Why should I do that now? I was telling YOU to run, you silly human." a feminine voice answers in his head.

He immediately looks at the sorceress beside the path, scared of the spells she might throw at him, but she was still out cold. Slightly distracted by the form on the ground, he mumbles "I hope I didn't kill her..."

He begins walking along the path to the forest, where he wanted to go to release the falcon.

"She made that bird kill many people in the town, why would you not kill her?"

"What? I .. don't understand?"

"I said.. she made that firebird attack the town to burn it down."

This time, he stares down at the bird "You are talking, are you?"

The bird wiggles a bit, as if to get to a more comfortable position, much like his neighbors cat likes to do on the fur in front of the fireplace "You aren't as stupid as she said you are." - then she frowns, he isn't sure how he could read her face, but somehow he just knew "She controlled the phoenix and made it her slave.” She takes a short break, the birds face radiates sadness and she closes her eyes. “She made me do that. I was that phoenix."

Kin blinks a couple of times, then nearly drops the bird "you did? “

“.... because she made you do it.. but what happened? "

Sweat starts building on his forehead as he thinks rapidly. If this is the bird that attacked the village, then why is she so tiny, vulnerable and afraid? He gets ripped out of his thoughts and they both freeze for an endless moment, as a voice not too far behind them sings “Hello, Carpenter. No need to worry, my face is fine. Unlike yours.”

He presses the bird against his chest harder and starts running, downhill, away from the path. Away from where Rikka will spot them.

“Oh shit.. she woke up again...” He winces as the wound on his chest finally starts hurting when he moves quickly.

The forest is full of small bushes between the long, oaken tree trunks. A few tiny needle trees often block his way, and he has to go around them.

He wonders about the bird on his arm, though. What if it is in league with the sorceress? But why lie still now? Why let him carry her? Why not finish the work on his chest and be done with him?

It makes no sense.

“Kin.. she is reaching for me again, trying to regain control. She cant right now, I'm too weak for her to see or touch, but in time, it will happen.”

When he got to the bottom of the small hill, he takes a short break to catch his breath and relax his arm a little. “Uh.. sorry for the squishing. I just wanted to get some distance. “ Then he reaches for his cheek – he still cant feel anything there. No pain, but neither his own touch.

The phoenix doesn't mind, she was watching his face all the time, thinking.

That human definitely could be open minded enough to help her. But why he is taking so much trouble to get her away, she doesn't understand. She decides to play along and see how this plays out. Flying away wont help her anyway. Once she regains her power, Rikka would sense her and could easily grasp her 'strings' to puppeteer her once more.

“She will not give up. She cannot control me right now but she will be able to once I regain a fracture of my power. And she will be able to sense my location, once I recovered enough.

If you just let me go, I will fly south and try to lead her away as fast as...”

That confuses her too. She said, if he lets her go. But he simply carries her, not holding or dragging her along. Why didn't she just leave him there and now? Instead of delaying her recapture and probably giving him a few more days without danger, she stays still.

She stops talking as he claps her beak shut with his hand. “Stop talking such nonsense. I know this land, I know where we can hide. From what you are telling me, she will find you at some point, then enslave you again.”

The bird has to agree to that, especially since the binds that the ritual puts on her take a long time to disappear naturally, but these only are an extension to her previous thoughts.

Worst of it is, once the sorceress got her back, she would just start another attack on the village. Most likely. She sighs and nestles more into the space between Kins arm and his chest, slightly worried about the cut in his belly, now, but feeling comfortable.

She can see the redness staining his shirt and her tail feathers, whenever he takes a large step or jumps over a small obstacle.

“Kin, your wound. Its bleeding. You could just leave me be, I can fly away.”

He doesn't even reach to hold her any more since the balancing got decent against his chest and he needs his right arm to navigate through the forest.

He clenches his teeth. It does hurt from all the movement, but he hopes the tight leather armor holds the wound together enough to not loose too much blood. Its just a scratch anyway, but he needs to be careful with infections, later.

“Kin...”

He interrupts her with his fingers on her chest “Stop it, bird! I said I would help you, and I will. “ Then his voice grows softer “Especially, now that I know who you are.”

She grows quiet after that for a moment, before gently saying “Thank you.”

That thank you comes straight from her heard and her curiosity grows with every decision he makes. He seems kind, helpful. He doesn't abandon her, even though he knows it could cost his life for whatever strange reason he might have. She is starting to like this human.

He keeps going, wincing from his chest wound. Even if they are in league, giving the bird back to the sorceress will just accelerate a possible new attack. No – that definitely cant be true. She still just rests on his arm, as he asked her to. So many other things she could do, no matter if friend or foe.

As long as she trusts him like this, he wont stop trying his best to keep her away from Rikka.

The forest is getting pretty dense now, but thanks to his knowledge of the area, he could navigate it quickly. Definitely more quickly then some snobby woman, but no matter how fast he moves, her taunting shouts don't stop at all. If anything, they get closer.

“How can she be so fast...? Especially with those clothes. “

The bird is surprised, how well he still holds her, she wasn't in danger of getting dropped a single time so far. Not even when his left arm swings forward from a jump and looses the connection to his chest. Beside a few twigs, that snapped against her where he didn't lift her in time, she felt completely safe.

“She probably levitates. It isn't as fast as running, but it may still be as fast as you are moving in the forest.”

“Oh, that's a good info. There is a cave system nearby. It might be difficult without light, but I'm pretty confident, that I can navigate it. Even if she tries to follow with light, we should be faster.

“Kin, I need at least a day of sunlight, before I can return to my normal form. Without that, I cant do anything. I'm just a little bird.”

He smiles down at her, thinking back to the magnificent creature in the village. She definitely doesn't work with the sorceress. No matter how much the last tiny bit of doubt nags at him, something tells him, that the bird is truthful with him.

“Then I will make sure, this cute, little bird stays safe until we can get you enough sun to heal you and find a way to prevent that woman from taking you back.”

He winces, his darn chest is burning like fire, from the constant moving.

She closes her eyes to think again for a moment. This human is fond of her, even though she was forced to attack him and his village. And wants to help, even though he is hurting because of her. It doesn't make sense, but she feels flattered and even more curious about him now. He surely will help with an egg later. If she can muster the strength and willpower to give another human a chance.

“I need some herbs. Can you look for bright yellow blossoms, on dark, thorny stems? There should be plenty around.”

Now she moves a bit, then flies to his shoulder. So she COULD really leave, if she decided to.

He starts with “Don't fly too high! She will see.. oh. Ok. One of the first things Sophia taught me, when I started living with Akira. As a kid, you have tons of bruises. So, instead of having the children run to her for every little cut, she teaches everyone the common helpful plants around. That is the most important one. I don't remember the name, though.”

The bird often has to use her wings now to balance, since she is far less used to sitting on a moving twig then normal birds would be, but she manages. With her superior eyesight, it doesn't take long for her to spot the plant he said, while he still focuses on getting through the forest as fast as possible.

“Left, behind that tree right.. it should be right there...”

He sighs, relieved as one of the plants appears at a small, sunny spot beside a tree. He quickly takes several of the blossoms into his mouth and chews them, while he continues to run.

“What are you doing?”

He keeps chewing since he cant talk without his mouth, unlike her.

After several minutes of chewing, he slows down and spits the strange paste on his hand.

“This slows bleeding, slightly reduces pain and prevents infections. “

He leans against a tree, and winces as he bends backwards, to open the cut in his armor.

The carpenter doesn't dare to remove the armor, due to it still probably holding the wound more closed then it would be without it, so he smears the yellow paste into the cut in the armor.

He groans as he pushes it in deeper, to actually get to the wound itself.

The bird sounds guilty and she nibbles his ear “I'm sorry. I am so sorry. I was scared, when she started casting her spell.”

His breathing slows down after a few moments, and he reaches up to brush over her chest. “I understand. I probably would be scared too, if someone wanted to mind control me. Could you please move a bit to my shoulder? Thank you.”

He smears some more on the space where she just was, a few deep scratches and puncture wounds already there. He raises his finger when she tries to speak up again. “Its fine. But it would be more comfortable if you came down again. “

She hops on his offered left arm, carefully to grab the arm without scratching it, then lets him grab her with his right hand, to lie her down on the old spot. She quickly folds her wings, and once on his arm, pulls in her feet while the talons cling together to form a circle and reduce the danger of scratches on his arm.

“I heard that, kids. I am growing tired of this chase-and-hide game. Just stay, I'll take the bird off you and leave you alone.”

The birds voice sounds grim “Of course, it will take a few weeks until I'm back at the strength to actually be useful to her again.”

He stares down at the bird. “I will not let her have you.”.

He freezes for a moment as she stares into his eyes again. She is curious what other thoughts are there. “You want to protect your village, but I can see, that you also want to protect me. Why?”

He sighs, but decides to answer truthfully “First: no one deserves to be forced to kill others. And if you wanted to kill the village, you could have started with me several times now. Considering what your talons can do with such ease. Second: I never leave an animal to suffer, when I can do something about it, especially onethat talks! And third.“ There he takes a small break to breath “I think, you were beautiful when I saw you over the village. I never have seen or heard about a bird like you, and it was a si.. I want to see that again.“ That gives her more material to think about for a little while.

“We should be able to get rid of her here. Its a smaller cave. Too small to get lost, but it has a few exits. We are still aiming for the large system in the end.”

He ducks into the small entrance, only about chest high and goes through it on three limbs.

He grins, as he realizes, that he became pretty good at balancing the little bird on his left arm.

The phoenix quickly looses her orientation after the first few turns in the darkness of the cave.

She gets nervous again, but keeps quiet and only minutes later, they crawl out of the exit.

Kin doesn't slow down as he walks around bushes, small needle trees and avoids the worst uneven ground or spots with heavy, knee high vegetation.

She closes her eyes, pondering if she should tell him more already. The phoenix quickly decides and opens her eyes again, looking up at his face again.

“You.. asked before, what happened to me. What led to today's events. I think, I owe you that.” She sounds a bit quiet and he slows down slightly. The carpenter isn't sure WHY he was so curious about her, but he felt, like he wants to know as much as possible. Maybe he just wants to know more about the beautiful creature he was so mesmerized while she nearly put him on fire.

"I came down here to look for someone, and I didn't want to give up just because of bad weather. A few days after I started to consider giving up, she.. captured me on a rainy day – there was not much sun for quiet a while and i was weakened – she knew what she wanted me to do for her and made sure i would. Painfully sure, not for her of course and then nursed me back to strength. " She shivers at the memory.

"Then.. in your village, the water is our natural enemy, it drained all my power reserves and brought me to the brink of death. That's why I am... what I am now. I need to... feed now, to regain my strength. " - his worried – SCARED look – made her stop for a moment.

"Everybody needs to eat, right? You... aren't eating peoples souls or so, are you? "

Her voice sounds very amused as she answers "No, not at all. A phoenix eats sunlight and heat. The problem is: as I regain strength, my body temperature will rise again – to the point where it was when I entered town. We can restrain it slightly, but being close by will still set anything flammable on fire. Any more restraint might tune it down a little more, but it is incredible difficult and exhausting for us to keep it up or rather.. down."

"Then.. how does she control a... phoenix? Make you do things only from distance? How to command you? "

The amusement doesn't leave her voice "Yes, exactly that – or... - another trait that the ritual gives to the one that bound us: The sorcerer is immune to our heat – it never gets more then a slightly uncomfortable warmth for them, no matter how much we would want that person to burn. That.. doesn't count for anything around the sorcerer, though. More than one of those burned to death from their cloths, house or the forest where they dared to command a phoenix they subdued to land near them."

He sighs “That doesn't sound good. How does it work, though?”

"If a sorcerer binds a phoenix, it is like ... hooks on strings struck into the phoenix soul, we can try to resist the sorcerers tugs on those strings, but it causes excruciating pain – not physical pain or damage, mind you – and in the end, we are nothing more but puppets, dancing to the strings. To avoid the pain, it never takes long to simply follow the orders we are given. Luckily, phoenixes are very rare – and sorcerers that know how to bind us even rarer. The worst part is the last thing she said earlier. The strength of those tethers are fed by our own power. The more powerful we are, the less power we actually have. And sorcerers aren't interested in freshly hatched chicks." She closes her eyes.

"Your people... by draining my power and nearly killing me, they actually saved me and your town. But as my power is recovering, so will her power over me. At least until the moment when you knocked her out. Imagine it like strings, she had them in hand but dropped her ends when I got hit by the water. The.. strings are still there, she just doesn't have a hold on them. She just has to grab the strings again. She might have when we met her, but you knocked her out before she could grab them. Since I'm so weak, she cant sense me and thus, cant see the strings until she is very close. Thank you. In a few weeks, all the sorceress's strings will have dissolved naturally and she would have to do the full ritual again – after catching me.”

He stares at the bird openmouthed for her whole explanation, nearly running against a tree. His eyes are as wide as possible as he tries to grasp what he just heard.

"That.. is a lot to take in" – he starts walking faster again. "How .. old are you? I mean..it sounds like you know a lot..."

Now she laughs out loud in his head "Aren't you humans NOT supposed to ask a lady about her age? Oh.. your face.. it tries to match my plumage. That's SO cute." She giggles some more, before continuing "I am 1187 Summers old. And before you ask, phoenixes are like the light, like heat – we don't die from age. "

“So... we keep you away from her for a few weeks? Away and small?”

She feels uneasy about being so vulnerable for weeks and thinks about telling him more, but she decides to hold back the rest. He is still a human. Their only worth is to help her with procreation. Or are they?

She keeps staring up at his face and how he works to just carry her away from the life as a tool.

He stays quiet for a while when she doesn't answer, thinking about what she just said. It just makes her more interesting to him. And he really likes her playful nature and humor as well as how she seems to trust him now. She could simply fly away at any time and she can not know how well he knows the cave, or even if the cave really is secure as he thinks it is.

“We are here, finally. Let me get a torch...”

She doesn't move a muscle beside her head, when he lies her down on the ground for a moment to get the torch burning.

“Oh, there you are. Not too smart to make light when the sun is about to disappear!”

He curses and quickly picks up the bird, then the torch before disappearing in the cave.

“Could you.. hold the torch a little closer to me, please? You see.. without sun or heat, I probably wont survive the night.” The coldness and acceptance in her voice shocks him.

He actually dares poking her with the torch, strangely the heat and light seems to be pulled towards the bird, not even burning his linen cloth only a finger away from the torch. He also sees how fast the torch suddenly burns, like a fire that gets extra oxygen. He pulls the torch away again “Hey! We need that.. or can you see in the dark?”

She answers meekly “No, not at all.”

He seems to know exactly where he is going. The cave has a lot of exits, especially higher up in the hills. All of them playing with the air flow in the cave system, so he is very confident, that the smell of the torch wont give them away.

“We had to search for one of the kids for over a day, a few months ago, when he got lost. Little Harry was so scared, he never went back to the caves after that. I also know a little chamber, that is barely large enough for one person, where we can stay until tomorrow. Hopefully she will have given up by then.”

“I.. Thank you, I..” She complains silently, as he puts one of the berries into her beak

“At least something for you to eat. “

She giggles “Silly human. These provide no nourishment to me. But thank you nonetheless.”

He just curses again “Right, you just said so. You can eat the rest of the torch, once we are there. The faster the better. But first, we have to get there.”

The bird wiggles nervously, when she realizes, that without him, she wont ever get out of this endless labyrinth. She never was further in a cave then a few steps. It scares her, especially without herself being able to bring light into the darkness. But this time, she didn't let the panic get the better of her, and she just stays still.

“We are nearly there. Time for your snack, now. “

He isn't sure, if that's a good idea, but the torch wont last the whole night anyway. So why not give her a push.

“Kin, that is sweet of you, but I thought about it, the stronger I become, the higher the chance, that the other human will find us. “

“Then just take enough to make it through the night?”

“No, I do not know at which point she can sense me again.”

“But you said you would not make it through the night without it...”

She stays quiet then.

Then the singing voice is back “I will freeze you both, when I find you. For luring me into this horribly filthy place.”

Now the carpenter has to think quickly. He tosses the torch down a hole in the wall, which leads to a large cavern below the tunnel, before turning back to the space he had in mind, prying at a small, wooden plate they had painted to match the wall. One of his favorite playgrounds, a few years ago. It brought him quiet some punishment, when the grownups had to search for hours, while he giggled. That also was the reason, why Harry tried to do the same, except, he didn't know that hiding spot and got lost deeper in the cave.

“Good times...” He says as he crawls into the tiny space and pulls the wooden cover back towards the wall, the falcon still balanced on his left, lower arm.

“What times?” She asks, more to distract herself from the fear of the darkness, then actual curiosity.

“I'll tell you later, first.. hold still.”

His linen tunic had stuck to the leather armor from the blood in it and he winces as he pulls it loose.

Then he sticks the bird below it “don't cut me, ok?” After that, he curls up, her head looking out just below his chin. He wraps his arms around his chest – and the bird – to keep them both warm, then stays quiet.

“Ill.. try.” She stays still, not moving a single feather. The warmth was comforting. Not enough to actually help her regenerate, but enough to keep her alive during the night.

She relaxes and nibbles his chin “This.. works. Thank you. Again.”

He smiles in the darkness “Just survive, ok?” He really wants that bird to survive. He shakes his head lightly, rubbing his chin across her head by accident. But why? Usually he lets any animal go once he took them out of the hamlet. Well, those animals didn't talk to him, though. That makes him even more interested in the little hunting bird.

He holds his breath, when he hears steps outside. Strange cracking sounds seem to happen outside too.

“Come out, come out wherever you are. And be careful where you step. It might be... slippery. But no worries, I will help you stay cool.”

The cracking sound is ice.. creeping along the walls around her. If she freezes the cover enough, they might not get out anymore.

Suddenly, claustrophobia is a thing for him and he focuses him on rubbing through the falcons feathers to distract himself.

The phoenix notices his breathing getting more rapid. He was scared now. For the first time. She nibbles his chin again and coos quietly, when he starts petting her in their tiny confined space.