FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Rikka was pretty pissed, when she woke up from the uppercut that stupid carpenter gave her.

“Stupid bird. Why did you have to fly into the water. Should have just dodged it. Now I have to look for you again."

She knows about the altar of those cursed sun worshipers. Her master told her, so that's probably where the phoenix would go, right? Concentrated sunlight.

She starts whistling a tune as she follows the path through the forest until she sees someone moving, quietly and a bit down hill through the thick vegetation.

She grins “Not smart enough, peasant." Sadly for her, she doesn't dare teleporting towards him in the thick forest. Trees might be a problem, especially in the shady light of the forest.

She raises her hands, and blue mists starts emitting from them and floating down to her feet.

She gets lifted up above the bushes and now only has to avoid low branches, while slowly following the rustling and cracking sounds below.

She laughs “I heard that, kids. I am growing tired of this chase-and-hide game. Just stay, I will take the bird of you and leave you alone."

If he had just hidden himself here, she might never have found them. And she cant just.. destroy the village myself, stupid orders. It would be so much faster and easier. Then the sorceress laughs inwardly and follows the noises for over an hour. This carpenter is fast. Oh well, why not enjoy the hunt for a while. He even tries to get rid of her through a small cave system and it takes her several minutes to find the other exits, even from above.

The sun is slowly going down now and Rikka is getting impatient, when in the twilight suddenly a bright light appears.

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

Then the light disappears and she curses again.

This stupid peasant is starting to really annoy her.

She follows them into the cave shortly after. There are some sounds and the smell of a torch, but its hard to pinpoint. She just summons a globe of blue light, to illuminate the cave for her.

“I will freeze you both, when I find you. For luring me into this horribly filthy place."

Then she sees the flickering light from one of the tunnels, and she quickly follows that.

If she would have payed attention, she might have heard him whisper, but right now, she saw the torch, that fell into a large hole in the wall and down one floor.

The tunnel leads to a larger cave – that's why she still sees the flickering light of the torch until it tumbles into the water and finally expires. She sighs as she looks around. He tricked her.. again, he surely is still upstairs.

She weaves a few runes into the air and around her, the water, ground and walls are quickly covered by a layer of ice. Similar to the phoenix aura, just with ice.

“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."

She steps through the tunnels, aimlessly and quiet now, listening for any sound but... nothing. She had lost them.

Then she stops. The wall right behind her doesn't look like rock at all, but she doesn't pay attention.

“Yes Master. .. What? WHY? They are here, cant be... Yes, master. I don't know if they are still alive. The villagers nearly killed the fire pigeon, I cannot sense her. … She will … I will.. “

She groans “Yes master..."

Then she lets out a scream of rage. “I don't care if he wants you alive. Non of you will leave this place."

There are a few swishing sounds outside. “Find them, get rid of the human and the bird. I don't want to see them outside this cave again."

Then there is a sudden, quiet plop, then silence.

“I think, she teleported away." She says softly.

His legs start feeling cold after a short while, but his leather armor helps to keep his torso warm.

She coos, when his left hand gently strokes her belly every now and then or his chin rubs over hear head, while his right hand tries to avoid the talons.

He tries to open the panel, but it seems stuck. And icy cold. “It wont budge.. Its frozen. We are.. stuck." His breathing increases again. As he tries to cower away from the cold surface as far as possible in the little space they had. Then he concentrates again on her feathers and curling up to keep them warm. Just so he doesn't have to think about the confined space HE CANNOT GET OUT of.

Several times, he catches himself grabbing her feet again. He quickly lets go and wraps his hand around her afterwards. He didn't get a single scratch, but still the reflex returns several times.

“Sorry, again.“ He keeps replying sleepily. Every time she just nibbles his chin for a moment. Until he finally falls asleep.

She would stare at him, but in here she is still blind. For a creature that mostly relies on sharp eyesight, it is really difficult for her. Non of her decent other senses help her either. It is just blackness, locked in a small room in a labyrinth of more blackness. The embrace the human held her in was comforting, warm. It has more to it then simple wish for her to survive. She really starts to like this human. And if he realizes or not, he likes her more then just a random bird he has to save, she is sure about this now.

The little room he had locked them inside was small enough to get a decent temperature, but the rocky ground and wall he is leaning against still drains a lot of warmth from him, in addition to the coolness that radiates from the panel. At least, there are enough holes somewhere, to let fresh air in. As fresh as cave-air can be.

The bird falls asleep not long after him. She was warm enough to not fully cool out and die, but FAR from comfortable. If she had her normal form, she could easily produce enough warmth herself to slowly regenerate her power. Very slowly. But like this, she is completely depended on the human.

She wakes up before him. Her body slightly stiff from the strange position they slept in, but she doesn't want to move and wake him. He didn't move at all either. The phoenix was still pressed against the spot over his heart inside his tunic with his arms wrapped around her. For one second, she is afraid, that he might have died from under cooling, but quickly realizes, that he still breathes.

Then Kin wakes up too.

“Ow.. Where am I?"

She sends out a tiny squeak, when he tries pulling his arms out of his tunic and drops her.

For a second, the phoenix reaches out with her talons to hold on to something out of reflex, but quickly pulls her feet back in without grabbing, too afraid to hurt the human again. His right hand gets a grab on her tail feathers, which makes her squawk louder and angrily at him. Then his left hand catches her once more and he lets go of her tails.

Her voice sounds dangerously indifferent “You don't touch a phoenix tails, less so holding her by them."

“Sorry. I forgot... “ He sounds embarrassed for dropping her, but calms down when her complaining stops as soon as he lets go of her tail feathers. “I..thought it was a strange dream." He shivers, probably from both – the cold and the realization that it was true. “I was running from a deadly wizard and carrying a bird."

He tries to move again, but the space just is not enough to even get up.

“It is all true, is it? " Then he stops, shocked for a second, before he continues, sounding guilty “I hope I didn't wake you up."

He pushes the cover away, or tries to. It moves slightly, but he still has to put down force and kicks to open it up

She chirps at him, as if nothing happened “No, I was awake. And I am glad you are well." Once he is standing again, she carefully grabs his left arm again to hold on, then flaps her wings, like if she was stretching them. Once she is done, he puts the cover back in place and slowly walks along the wall, following his memory to get to the exit.

He blinks. She is glad he is ok? It actually makes him happy that the tiny bird cares about his well being openly now.

“I hope I didn't hurt you, when I caught you."

She repeats herself with a hint of anger “You never touch a phoenixes tails."

He gulps “I.. am sorry. I just grabbed what I could to catch you out of reflex." He sounds very embarrassed. “I will remember that."

“Can you see anything? I .. cant still." She asks timidly. He notices the pretty tight grip around his wrist.

“I cant either, but I know where to go. It should be only a few minutes and we are out. Then, we have a few hours of walking ahead of us, possibly longer, if we try to go slow with our heads low. In case she is searching for us outside. There is light, see.. wait, there should not be any..."

The light seems to move towards them, and the phoenix sounds panicked in his head. “Ice elemental. Nearly as bad as water elemental in my current state. We .. you.. have to run."

She seems like she wants to fly away but forgot to let go of his arm. Or she was trying to pull him, except.. she doesn't see a thing.

Kin wraps his free arm around her to hold her, then starts walking away from the blue light.. “Calm down. It is no use to try and fly away in here without seeing anything.

The phoenix stays quiet, but her shivering tells him how afraid she is. So he rests her on his arm again, then wraps his other arm around her, while going as fast as he dared through the darkness.

He bumps his right shoulder into walls more then once and tries to stay away from any tunnel that may lead down. If they fall, they will be lost. And most likely drop into one of the icy water basins down there. They would both have no chance to survive after that in here without light.

The icy blue light falls back. It seems to follow them, but very slowly. “left of us, a ramp down to the lower, bigger area of the caves. Just a few more turns..." The air noticably becomes less stale and slightly warmer already.

After what feels like an eternity, they are at the exit and soon after back in the forest and on their way. Its close to noon, according to the sun.

“I think, we lost the thing. Will it chase us more?"

She sounds uncertain. “I don't think it can follow us out here. I don't understand why it was so slow. May be she didn't enchant it to last and it was about to disappear. Whatever the reason, we were very lucky."

“When you get back your strength, do you think you could take it? Check and take it out? I don't want that thing lurking in the cave..."

“I will. Once I am back to my old self, ice elementals wont be a problem for me. Should I stay on your shoulder on the way back? “ He winces as he turns his body sideways to avoid a branch.

“That stupid cut. I think, it opened again." She frowns as he lifts her up to his shoulder.

She is pretty insecure, flapping a lot up there to stay on without poking her needle sharp talons into his shoulder again, then decides to hop onto his arm, when he stops to take a breath.

“This is easier, even if I'm not perching as high as your shoulder."

They continue through the forest and he picks some more berries to eat for himself, then puts one in her beak again anyway. This time she doesn't complain and just munches it – even if it doesn't help her. As the vegetation turns thicker again, he lies her down on his arm once more. Its easier for him to move like this, as he doesn't have to be as careful and pressing his arm against his chest helps tuning down the pain from his chest wound.

There is no sign of the sorceress. The exit he used was on the other side of the hill, she probably didn't even know or care about that exit.

“Kin, I'm still freezing. How long until we are out of this forest and in the sun. I could.. just fly up there and ..."

He presses her more against his chest above the cut for warmth, which makes her giggle again "you know, that's really sweet of you, but it still wont be enough warmth to recover for me."

"Please don't. I have the perfect place for you. Much better then normal sunlight!"

The realization hits him: He doesn't want to let her go. He wants her to stay, fire or no fire. It doesn't matter. He really likes the bird. His face turns red, blushing. He likes her in more ways, and thinking about it, he likes her more then any of his former partners. He giggles as he thinks about them not even having dinner together, or.. something like that.

She, again stares at his face and he stops as he seems to not be able to look away once more. The amused sound disappears from her voice, making space for curiosity "you... ARE the human that was on the road, right?"She takes another break, while studying him

"You know why there are so few phoenixes? We are far too powerful for the creator to allow us to breed ourselves. " She spreads the wing next to his chest and slaps it against him. "that's what we need you humans for. If a human and phoenix mate, in a windfall, the humans essence may make it through the phoenix body instead of burning to nothing – then she may lay one egg.

Or ... if a human female receives a phoenix, the human actually will be the one to lay the egg."

He was lost in thought again, only barely listening until that.

"I think.. you were... beautiful back there, yes, I was on the street watching you. Wait WHAT? A human laying eggs? That's ridiculous... ", he was starting to sweat – and not because the heat around the firebird becomes stronger again – it doesn't.

"Um.. did you... ever lay an egg yet?"

"Yes, once. A long time ago. Where are we going? " She quickly discards the question and twists her head to look better, as he walks sideways to push through some bushes.

He gulps "To a clearing in the forest, it is a ritual place for us, to honor the sun. It is also in a position to focus the beams from the sun onto one stone altar. Some strange black stone, that seems to be immune to the sun. Whatever we place on it as sacrifice, gets quickly turned to ash, but the stone stays cold all the time, no matter how sunny of a day it is"

That catches her interest "your village... worships the sun? So.. that must have something to do with why the sorceress wanted to burn it down."

He slows down a bit, and reaches for her again with his hand, this time to pet her belly, instead of grabbing her legs.

"Hey! I'm not some pet you may stroke whenever you like." - still on her back with her wings and legs neatly folded against her body, she doesn't try moving away and definitely seems to enjoy it, like she did in the cave.

"We are here... " He says a bit uncomfortably as he gently sets her down on the black stone like one would do with a pigeon, not far away from the strange focused beam of light that shines down from the sun. The clearing is large, over 30 meter in diameter with the altar in the middle. Low grass and grassland flowers blooming with insects everywhere and the occasional bird flying through it.

She waddles forward towards the beam, then cries as he picks her up again – but doesn't bite or scratch him.

"Hey! Let me down..."

He looks at her and she does that scary look-into-his-eyes again.

"You are scared...? "

He nods "Yes, our smith, Akira, once reached into that beam to try and remove something dear to him, that someone else wanted to sacrifice. It... burned off his arm up to the elbow immediately. And I " He takes a deep breath “ I really like you."

She gently pecks his hand "That is sweet of you, but don't worry, it poses no danger to me. "

He gently sets her down again, worried, and she looks at him thoughtfully for a few more moments, before finally waddling back towards the beam, then around it but not into it. The colors of her feathers quickly changed from a dark red to a fiery, bright red, brighter then the shafts of her feathers where before. The Carpenter didn't even think about the possible danger the bird might mean to him so close by, just like he wasn't when standing on the street as the phoenix did its flaming work in the village before he got tossed into his home and she flew into the water stream.

He was staring at her intently, waiting to see the fiery beauty from yesterday again. Kin doesn't understand why, but since he saw the giant flaming bird over the village, he wanted to know more about it. And when getting to know her on their grand escape from the sorceress, he got more and more interested. In more then just a friendly way. He was with two women of their village, but non lasted more then a few weeks. He just wasn't made for a long term relationship.

And with non of them, he felt as connected as he feels with that tiny bird of prey right now.

Just imagining her at her full glory, standing on the altar, looking at him....

When he turns around again, the little bird has vanished and he takes a few steps back while shielding his face.

On the stone sits the bird from the village. At least twice his height, fiery colored feathers with white on their tips and with several long tails peeking out from behind the rock. The long, thin feathers on her head grew much longer too, making her look even larger. Kin Woodsmith also is sure that her talons – still similar to the little birds from earlier – were large enough to easily wrap themselves around his torso now. She is surrounded by a light flaming aura, no, more like a ball filled with wafting flames instead of normal flames that just flicker upwards like the ones from campfire would. The grass around the altar is nothing more then black stumps, waiting for the wind to turn them into ash and carry them away.

She was beautiful, magnificent – and dangerous – and still, she only sits there on the black stone, in the middle of the bright beam and watches him quietly. The fiery aura around her makes the air make funny moves – just like he noticed when he was standing right in front of her.

"I am trying to .. turn down the heat as much as possible. Please be careful. The aura will grow es I regain my strength."

He takes a step forward, but the heat is still singing his eyebrows, once he is an arms length away from her. He looks up sadly at her "I guess.. no more belly rubs, unless i want my hand to turn into charcoal, hu? And.. what about the sorceress? Wont she know you are back now?"

She stays quiet and just stares at him, then blinks only once before closing her eyes.

Should she do it? Try it again? That's why she came down, before that Kerrin caught her, right? And she most likely wont find a better human then him. And then there is Rikka. As long as the dark strings are not pulled taut, she could....

She has decided, probably before this moment without realizing it. Even though she did not watch him for several weeks, as she has sworn she would do before choosing another human.

The heat is growing worse and worse again, as if someone tossed in far too much firewood into the campfire, some of the blades of grass around catching fire, but quickly being snuffed out as the increasing heat incinerates anything that might burn and most of them turning to ash right away. A Butterfly gets caught and instantly disappears in a puff of black and white ash and smoke. The leaves on the trees – several meters away – start to wither under the heat. He feels it too, retreating quickly as the heat turns to an unbearable level. He falls and tries to crawl backwards as his hands feel the grass beneath them wither and turn to ash and the cut on his belly making it painfully clear, that it was still there. His whole skin feels like it is burning with no way of escaping it.

Then all of a sudden, he doesn't feel the burning anymore – until his cloths turn black and burst into flame, the tunic incinerating instantly, the leather armor taking only slightly longer and causing him quiet some pain. He tries rolling on the ground that is littered with ash by now, but it doesn't stop until nothing is left, which only takes a moment due to the heat. He investigates his skin closely. Its red, as if he put his hand into hot tea or stayed too close to a campfire for too long, but not really burned. The cut on his chest turned into a red line, less then a scar and seems to shrink? And... he blinks and gets up, all his cloths gone too now.

He looks up, unbelieving, only his feet feeling hot from the ground, but everything else... a comforting warmness, not more.

"What.. is happening? " He asks, as he is caught in a ridiculous dance from one feet to the other to avoid the hot ground as much as possible.

Her voice didn't change at all except for a very serious undertone, like a preacher in a church or something like that, as she answers "Kin Woodsmith. I, Zaiya the phoenix, have looked into your soul and judged you for who you are. I have chosen to allow you to bond with me. I am yours to command. Instead of burning you, my aura will help your body heal wounds and keep your warm. If you decide to not accept this offer or end our bond, you can say so at any time." She takes a deep breath, then continues with less ceremonial seriousness "But please be sure to be further away if you do, because fire does not care. "

He looks up at her, reaching his hand out to test the heat towards her and for more belly rubs "Zaiya, that's a beautiful name. That.."Then carpenter suddenly is reminded of the heated ground, as she focused on the ritual more then on containing her warmth and he quickly jumps up on the stone – which is still cold, luckily.

"Wait what do you mean? I don't want to have...hooks in your soul."

That just confirms it for her. She had made the right decision. Not just for a possible egg, but for a human that might not abuse his power over her and somehow, her beak manages to look like a smile, and she bows her head down so she could gently nibble at his hair while her body blocks the concentrated beam of light that usually shines on the middle of the altar where he is standing now.

"This is the second way a phoenix doesn't burn a human. It is similar to what I told you before, but instead of hooks, it is like silken threads, soft and comforting, wrapped around your soul. Tugging them is like a gentle caress one can loose herself in. They are yours to pull, if you so choose. But as with the sorcerer ritual, I can choose to simply do as you ask instead."

"I don't know how." he reaches up to caress her head and neck, feeling the long feathers – they actually felt like feathers -, and whispers "but i don't need to nor want to know how to use them."

Zaiya shudders and coos softy, as he touches the feathers on her head. Kin continues "And that is why a female human doesn't get hurt when.. um.. they.." He blushes again and closes his mouth.

The firebird nods patiently "Exactly. And the egg will not activate until it touches air, else, the human would burn from the inside. In theory, a phoenix egg can survive an infinitely without hatching, unless it is fully exposed to air, then it hatches within a very short amount of time. It is very dangerous for the human."

The phoenix sits down, but doesn't stop grooming him. She just makes sure, she is blocking the beam completely.

"Take this bond as part of my thanks for protecting me this whole time and freeing me from the horrible curse. With our bond complete, her strings are gone for good. She would have to completely redo the ritual after our bond is gone."

His hand finally made it down to her wings, as he pets along them, then under them. She relaxes them slightly when he does. It is a huge contrast, the feathers on her body being very soft like downs, while the ones on the wings are tough and strong.

She enjoys his administrations very much. Yes, he was a good choice. Every moment confirms that more.

The first trees around the clearing catch fire, but he doesn't notice, completely enthralled by the beauty of flame in front of him.

"How long will this bond last?" He stares at her, curious. The heated air around her playing with the light, making her look like every feather moves in the wind – or is it the wind? He cant tell.

Her voice gets a hint of sadness as she answers his question "It will last until you cancel it or one of us dies."

He grows quiet for a moment, then slightly cheerily continues "So, I can protect you from the sorceress by simply staying alive?" Her head moves back with a laugh to look at him again.

She rubs her head against his cheek “Yes. And I will protect you. “ A quick, stinging pain in his cheek, then just comfortable warmth with the blackish purple, frozen meat healing rapidly, just like the cut on his chest

"And that also means, I can help you now to lay eggs? "

She smiles "one egg. Every bond only permits a single egg. "

He blinks "every... bond? Even the... other one?"

She nods patiently but her voice cant hide a hint of sadness in it "yes. I only know of one such event. Sorcerers usually aren't interested in creating more phoenixes – they only want the power we offer for their spells or the prestige and they cannot hold on to more then one curse at a time. The egg would be black as the night, much cooler, but the corrupted being that hatches is born of pain, anguish and hatred. It only knows to spread these, with fire, talon or anything else it can use. "

He wraps his arms around her neck and pulls her down, to comfort her. "I'm sorry for asking." He holds her for a little longer, but her cheerful mood returns near instantly. She smiles, nips at his ear, then wrestles her head free and pushes him sideways from the altar before letting herself fall backwards down from the stone and onto her back as she was earlier on his arm. Just bigger. And all flamey now. She wiggles away from the rock and looks up at him.

"Be careful to not get near the beam, it will not distinguish between someone blessed by my kind or not."

He looks at the beam, then the bird wiggling on the ground and gulps a little nervous "you want to... ?" But she just stares at him now, unmoving, unblinking and for him: totally unnerving for a very long minute, before she speaks again.

"I have seen the idea in your mind from the moment it crossed you, when you started to realize who your little falcon was." She smiles again, waving her wings to beckon him closer, swirling up the ashes on the ground

He carefully does, tiptoeing over the far too warm ground, soon hopping until he lands on her belly as he tries to escape the heat that is burning his feet.

"Ow...uh.. sorry."

"Don't worry, master.", she replies, giggling in his head once more.

"Dontcallmethat!" He lightly tugs at the feathers on her belly, then brushes over them thoughtfully. "They are so soft there, while the ones on your wings are much tougher and bigger. "

He suddenly stops exploring her body and looks at her awkwardly.

She only nods, then folds her wings up around them. – they and the flames that surround her now at full strength as she ceases to restrain her aura, hide their love making from any spying eyes that may watch.

Afterwards both just stay together with him on her belly, completely relaxed and enjoying the other company. But it doesn't take very long until curiosity lets him turn his head at her.

"This means, you are staying here? With me?"

She nods sadly. "with you. I.. don't think, I will be welcome here, though."

"I'm sure we can fix that, once I explain everything! But you will still burn down the village by just... being there. And.. I cant wear any cloths while being near you."

His eyes go wide “The village! We are gone for over a day now, we have to check..."

He tries to push himself up on her belly, but after resting a little, his body finally reminds him of the escape yesterday and the cold night. “I need 5 minutes or so. Its.. nice.. to bath in your warmth after that night."

He rubs through the feathers on her belly again

"you ... are doing it again. Caressing me like your pet. Master." - She surely loves teasing him.

He pokes his finger against her belly, which completely disappears in her fluff "and you...you are enjoying it again!"

More amusement in her voice "May be.", she giggles.

He crawls forward, then spreads out on her. "We rest a few minutes, then we go back to the village?"

She only nods before he continues talking, eyes closed and his head resting in her downs.

"If it is that easy to remove the Sorceress curse, why didnt you just do so in the cave?"

She rubs her beak over his back, slowly realizing, that she grew fond of her new human far earlier then she thought.

"I didnt have the power to do it back there. And." She takes a deep breath "I was confused, that you would risk your life for me. And I didnt know if i could... wanted... to trust you with that. It is a huge step. A phoenix gives up their freedom for decades if they bond with a human. And the only one that can stop the bond, is the human. The sorceress ritual is similar in that. Only by weakening me first and loose her grip on me, i am able to overwrite her control by giving that to someone else. "

He nods slowly, before resting his head on her belly again. "Thank you for your trust. I .. wount abuse the power. I dont even know what I should do with it or how i could use it. I dont know any magic."

She looks up into the sky and smiles. "May be, you can learn it. I would gladly help. My power is yours."

He must have fallen asleep on her body. Exhaustion and the comforting warmth gave him no chance to resist, even with the memory of the damage the village sustained finally pushing into his thoughts again. The sun is about to make way for the night, when voices break through the forest. Villagers, according to their shouting, they were looking for him – and they sound worried.

Of course, they didn't find the doombird that brought the fire to their village, but Carly surely told them about the bird with the creepy look in its eyes. She always was a smart one, probably thinking he got mind controlled or something. Or may be, they just saw the fire in the forest against the incoming night sky.

She stayed awake and continue to groom his head, while Kin still was lying on the firebird's belly – her body the only save place around here for him, beside the stone with the beam of heat.

"HEY! WOODSMITH! Ya there? Please don't tell us the farking 'ird got ya! We seen the explosion of light here. SAY SUMTHIN! Now!"

"Kin! Where are you! We are.." the voice stops "HERE HE IS! HE REALY HIS HERE! COME, COME!"

Kin sits up, panic nearly suppressing any rational thought and he says the first thing that comes to mind: "play dead!" - She giggles once more in his mind, not bothered at all, then her head rests on the ground while she stares up into the sky and focuses on restraining her aura. The trees around the clearing are all well burned on the side, but luckily they are in good health, and the fires didn't spread.

The Carpenter gets off the birds belly, standing on her tail feathers while avoiding her tails. He is still naked when waves at them.

"Oh.. my god! What happened?" Three villagers now stand at the entrance to the clearing – not daring to step on the burned ground before them.

Kin greets them again with both his hands before blushing and covering himself with them. "I chased the bird here – it wanted to get to the altar! But I att...."

He gets interrupted by her voice in his mind "You are standing on my tail feathers..."

"uh sorry... " but the ground right beside her were still far too hot, so he reflexively jumps back onto her belly.

She gives a slight cough, her wings and tails twitching, then she lies still again. "I.. need to breath too, you know.".

He sighs and slides to the side, only to hear her again playfully complaining "My wing!" he pats her belly and whispers "stop complaining now" – she really was enjoying this.

"I.. chased it down and killed it!

They were gasping "with ya bare hands? Naked? Through yesterday until now?"

He shakes his head "Don't be ridiculous, no, you dum'wits. The birds aura just incinerated all my equipment! But not before i stuck my sword into it!"

He reflexively raises his hands to his ears, from the sudden VERY loud laughter in his head. "That you did, my hero, stuck your sword into me!"

He grumbles for giving her an opening like that before focusing on the villagers again.

"Before you ask, the heat cant harm me es badly as you or the plants.. But .. those birds explode after a while, when they die."

Again she interrupted him with more laughter, he was worried, that they actually see her chest move from it "...that happened already thanks to your stabbing, death AND explosion!"

He facepalms, which confuses the villagers even more, but still tries to go through with his rouse.

"How is the village? Is everyone alright? Akira? I am sorry I wasn't there to help more, that I took so long..."

Akira blinks "Ney, mate. We are fine. A lot of houses are damaged. Sophia lost her house and all her dried herbs. All of the caravan is.. gone. A lot of houses will need work to rebuild the burned parts. But beside burns, non of us got serious injuries. We were lucky, as if the bird didnt realy want to hurt anybody. 'revin got his foot stuck at the front of his house, right at the road and said, the thing pulled up slightly when it got close to him, then flew 'ack down afterwards. The crazy guy thought, the 'ird wanted to save him." He shakes his head.

Kin hears her voice full of sadness in his head "I did, I avoided you too, flying up to turn much earlier then I should have. But the sorceress kept a close watch. She didnt realy pull, but she made it clear, that she would, if I didnt turn back on the path she gave me imediately.

The carpenter smiles "Thats good news, REALY good news. Now guys, go back – ill be there in a bit, ok?"

They stare at him wide eyed before he shouts at them "I'll be fine! I'll be back in time for dinner! And if you see the black robed woman, get her! She was behind the attack!"

"Ney, you are coming wit us, mate. We've 'een looking for ya since yesterday! Get moving, 'efore the thing 'lows up. Ya can have a cloak of us or sumthing, but get movin! NOW! And what woman? Meh did not see any woman..."

When they still didn't move, the bird decides to help her new human and stops restraining her aura. A songbird, brightly green colored flies into the burned area and poofs into flames then ash before it hits the ground only a few steps in front of the villagers while flames start dancing from the burned branches once more.

Some of villagers start backing off, as their cloths start smoking and they pat the possible fires out as they retreat.

“Just GO! Ill be fine!"

The villagers have to raise their arms to protect them some from the heat and quickly turn to run back.

"Ill kill ya, if ya get yaself killed here, just remem'er that!"

They quickly disappear from the clearing while he looks around them for a save place to stand on instead of her wing.

He finally gives up "how.. do I get off you now? Without burning my feet?"

"We can wait a little more, while I keep my aura down. Sit, rest and just enjoy the beautiful evening. Now that you know your home is safe."

He carefully avoids her legs again and climbs onto her belly once more from her wing. "I don't want to break any feathers there. And your belly is more comfortable."

Instead of answering, she starts grooming his hair again.

They take a little more time and until the sun is gone, only casting a red glow across the dark sky, like glowing embers squashed and spread across the dark blue. Kin finally steps on the ground again, which by now, cooled down to an uncomfortable warm temperature, instead of a BBQ grill.

The bird rolls to her feet and stares at him intently, curious – and may be a little scared.

What will he do, will he stay that way or turn on her like..Bartholomeus...

He turns around and looks at her "How long.. did you practice controlling your aura? I mean.. in those 1100 Years..."

She tilts her head, unsure what he is getting at "I .. didn't really need to do that at all. We phoenixes rarely come down to the ground. Our only reason to come down is to find a human that might help us with an egg and for laying that, we usually stay high up mountains, if possible above the clouds to avoid rain. There is no... "

"HA! Practice makes perfect. You just have to practice then!"

"Your village.. but if I loose my concentration, there will be great damage to at least the area I am at." He bumps her beak, which is still strange but exhilarating for him – poke through flames that should burn you but they are just a comfortable warmth.

"Or we look for a cave around here for you, but then that black robed woman might find you again."

Her voice turns to the amused, cheerful undertone once more "Yes, but her control over me has been replaced, and even her ritual curse cannot overwrite the new one. You think you can talk to your friends? If not.. we just fly away." Her voice becomes a bit quieter “Or me, if you want, and I can stay somewhere close by."

He thinks for a moment "But how would I call you? Don't say something about those strings! "

She claps her beak, as if she was about to speak and then decides not to.

"Or.. we find more of those black rocks and build a small house with them, may be a bit outside the city? You could be the city guardian..."

She smiles again and lies down "If you wish, I would be happy to."