Prolouge: Phoenix's Lament
Kari clutched her father's arm, tears streaming down her young face. Her small arms could only reach high enough to his hand and even then her fingers sometimes slipped. Whenever this would happen she would squeak in alarm and clutch tighter.
She dressed in a gray kimono, gray to symbolize death. In the white phoenix society, which is what kind of demon she was, gray symbolized the color of the dead feathers, which in life were always pure white. Kari was only six years old and right now she was carrying the burden of soon to be queen. The orange demon mark, which streaked from her forehead to the tip of her nose, glowed in the sunset, her emotion showing through it.
A single tear clung to the tip of her tiny nose, her head being bowed. Her young mind could not accept what lay before her; the lumpy form under the white silk, the future it forced upon her.
Mama!
More tears followed this thought and she buried her head in the long robes of her father, King Ra. He clutched her tight, his talon like fingers digging into her shoulder for support.
Not Mama! MAMA!
Kari emitted chirps and squeaks of sadness as her father walked ever closer to the form on the hill, fear now joining sadness. She had never seen a dead body and she defiantly did not want to see this one.
Why my Mama! I need my Mama!!
Her tiny claws dug and ripped through the fabric of her fathers priceless robes. He neither noticed, and later, nor cared; the task before him was too important. Kari wanted to rip through his robes, rip through his skin, rip through the ground, and draw her talons through anything they came upon. She pained too much…too young. Her cries had become small 'meeps' now, her mind slowly accepting the things before her. She even lifted her wet face from the robes and forced herself to look at the body. All around her were the royal guards, family members, and members of the white phoenix demon community. All were covered in gray robes or kimonos, their expressions full of grief. The procession was meant to be slow, each step made by her father to count through each year of her mother's life.
587…
Kari let out a small squeak again then fell silent, knowing how close they were to the end.
595…
She looked directly up to see her father's face. As king, he had to show his strength by not crying. Kari could see the pain in his face though, each line etched deep with grief. Losing one white phoenix these days was cruel…their race was slowly dying out. Losing two in one day was worse…losing the queen pregnant with a child was just evil…
I will avenge you Mama…
Even though her mother's killers had been killed, her vengeance would be sweeter by killing the wife of the man who's hunters had killed her. Kari knew who he was and planned to get him once she was a little older; he was young and the wife was younger.
599…
600…
They stood a foot from her mother's body now, the bulge of her pregnancy lifting the silk slightly. Her father released her hand and took five more steps, symbolizing the amount of months in advance the pregnancy had been. Kari reached out to his hand and her grandmother was suddenly holding it, suddenly beside her. Her face, showing nearly a thousand years aged, stood strong but her eyes glowed with pain.
Two priests detached themselves from the crowd, wearing robes of gold lined with grey. They held curved staffs, the wood shaped like a stretched 'S'. One the top of each was a silver symbol, one of fire, one three squiggles representing air. The staffs held the power of the element and when together held a strength beyond knowledge.
The priest lifted her mother's body and carried her further up the hill until they reached the crest. They laid her on a flat, rectangular stone then stepped to the sides of the stone that were shorter, one on each side. They each then took one step back then began signing the phoenix lament.
Its beauty would bring a mortal to their knees; its power would make any other demon want to tear his heart out. For a phoenix, it told of joy and wonder then slowly went to the sad notes of death.
The priests then both slowly lifted the staffs, still crying the lament, then, as the sun dropped to the level of the hill, slammed them down diagonally into the ground together. A fierce wind blew from the stone at all sides and her mother's body slowly rose, the silk remaining on her. The priests then slapped one hand against the staffs then rotated the heads to face the sun. A fiery tornado dropped from the sky and engulfed her mother and the stone, leaving the priests out. The wind blew harder and the fire became white tinged with gold and blue.
Then, as suddenly, the wind slowly died down, the tornado went back up and dissipated leaving a dead silence.
Where the body once was, a pile of ashes swirled of their own accord even though there was no wind. Then spun and circled the priests and the table, never pausing. Then the priests lifted the staffs from the ground and the ashes rose and flew off into the horizon.
A tear fell from Kari's amber eyes.
Goodbye Mama…