Hey, everybody! ^^ YAY I'M BACK!
First of all, I wanna say that I am so VERY sorry for making you wait so long for the next chapter, but I had gotten ill pretty badly, then exams took every free minute and when holidays had started I was absolutely occupied with any kind of preparations (Christmas, New Year, . . . etc.) Oh my gosh, I think I've never been that busy during holiday every before. O.o
I'm begging you to forgive me. ú.ù But maybe you take this chapter and the next one, which should be finished soon as New Year's present. ^^ I hope I did meet your expectations . . . at least a little.
Meg L.H: thanks for your review, I'm glad you liked the last chapter and those "famous last words" will have a meaning in the further developement of the relationship between Yoshitsune and Azarni. And I'll never stop writing as long as there is at least one person reading and reviewing it. ^^
Well, let's get back to Phoenix and Spitfire! Enjoy reading! X3
Chapter sixteen: Let''s roll!
One afternoon when Spitfire was still at work Phoenix spotted a closed door of which she hadn't been aware of before. It was hidden by the Flame King's massive wardrobe, so it was difficult to spot it from the doorway. He even had covered it with a picture. The picture was the only one in the apartment so Phoenix should have noticed it earlier, but she had never payed that much attention to the furniture of this apartment. Why is that door hidden in such an complex way?, she wondered and careful let her fingertips run over the dried color of the picture. It was drawn with acrylic color and it showed a black piano standing in an empty room with a great windows. The sunlight was shining through the windows and they let the black lacquer of the piano glow.
"What a great piece of work", she whispered in awe, but then she got reminded of the door behind the painting again. Slowly she put her hand down on the doorknob. The metal felt cold beneath the palm of her hand. I guess, the door is locked when he already put that much effort into hiding it, but surprisingly the doorknob gave in after Phoenix used a little force and the door opened up. Phoenix' hold her breath out of surprise and she felt her body trembling with every heartbeat.
A cool breeze was floating out of that hidden room, then it blew back into the room and it tickled on Phoenix' skin. Almost like the room wants me to enter . . .
(Do you know the movie 'Spirited away'? Just imagine it the same way as Chihiro was "pulled" into that tunel in the beginning.)
Carefully Phoenix peeked into the room. It was empty . . . there were no carpet lying on the floor like in the big living-room, no curtains concealed the two windows. One was opened which was the reason for the cool breeze earlier. Rays of sunlight were shining through the windows and made the black lacquer of an old piano glow. It stood in the middle of the room and seemed to be longing for someone to play it.
"Wow . . .", Phoenix whispered. "Just like on the picture."
The room calmed her nerves almost instantly as she took the first step forward. Her bare feet carefully touched the polished parquet while her eyes were completely focused on the instrument standing in the middle of the room. Phoenix creeped further into the room and respectfully approached the piano. It seemed like it was sleeping and she didn't want to wake it up. But she couldn't hold herself back from touching the shining black laquer. Her fingertips stroked across the wood covered by deep black color. Again a cold breeze tickled her skin and a little smile appeared on her lips.
"You gotta be very lonely, hm?" Her fingertips came to rest on the white- and black-colored keyboard. She used a little force and a single, clear tone was floating through the empty room. "He took good care of it", Phoenix mumbled to herself. She let her fingers wander over the keyboard and more and more tones were flying through the air, they filled up the emptiness of the hidden room and suddenly Phoenix understood why the were no furniture in this room because if they were there wouldn't be any room for the countless melodies which could be played on the piano. Maybe Spitfire hadn't done this on purpose, but it didn't matter if he had done it on purpose or not; all that Phoenix needed to know was that Spitfire knew that this room wouldn't need anything else than this piano to be perfect. Suddenly the door of the apartment opened up and Spitfire's voice got mixed in with the simple melody of the piano.
"I'm back!"
Phoenix realized what she was doing and that she had had invaded his privacy without asking – Spitfire wouldn't have hidden the piano that way if it was nothing special. Panic made her heart beating faster and as fast as she could she left the room, closed the door and hurried back into the living room where she had been sitting before.
"H-hey, Spitfire, I w-wouldn't have expected you to return so early", she stuttered nervously while swallowing hard and scratching the back of her head. A nervous laugh escaped her lips and she had the feeling that her heart would jump right out of her chest any moment. Spitfire looked at her with a puzzled look on his face, but then simply shrugged and said:
"Well, I asked my boss to give me the afternoon off."
"Oh, okay."
A short silence grew between them till finally a question shot through Phoenix' mind. "Why did you do that? You're always working all day long . . .", she wondered, but the Flame King just looked down at her with an honest smile lighting up his face and making his eyes shining warmly. "I wanted to spend the afternoon with a charming young lady."
Phoenix' eyes widened and pure horror darkened her red orbs. "You're dating Simca?"
Spitfire broke into laughter and pulled Phoenix into a friendly embrace. "No, my little Phoenix, I'm not dating Simca." One of his hands stroked the girl's back who felt really puzzled right now.
"So . . . it's not that Pinky." She couldn't see his face, but she could feel him nodding. "Who do you wanna spend the afternoon with?"
Spitfire tightened the embrace a little and whispered: "I wanted to go a little shopping with you." Phoenix felt her face burning immediately as she realized that he was talking about her as he had said charming, young lady. "M-me?", she stuttered and Spitfire pulled away from her. He placed his hands on the girl's shoulders and looked at her closely. "Is there something wrong with it?"
Phoenix shook her head furiously and yelled at herself quietly for going crazy over something stupid like this. "N-no, not at all." She took a deep breath and looked straight back into Spitfire's eyes. "Where do you wanna take me? Please no more shopping for clothes."
The Flame King grinned broadly and slightly ruffled the dark-red hair of his little flat mate. "Nah, don't worry, no clothes . . . but I won't tell you were we will go, it's a surprise."
Sceptically the girl eyed the older man in front of her which made him chuckle, but he didn't spill a word about the details of his plan.
"Just get your jacket and shoes", he mentioned and Phoenix ran off into the guest room which had been turned into Phoenix' room after the first week she had stayed with the Flame King. She took her jacket and picked up the shoes from the floor. As she passed the door to Spitfire's room she had already forgotten about the hidden piano and that beautiful painting, but the melody of the pure tones which were dancing through the emptiness of that hidden room was still playing and vibrating in her subconcious mind.
A part of her long forgotten past began to breath again, so she didn't recognize the serious and slightly worried look on Spitfire's face when he closed the door of his apartment behind them.
The first snow had fallen during the last night. The city was covered with a white powder everywhere and Phoenix was absolutely fascinated by the creaking sound which the snow made when she stepped on it. She always had to pay attention on where Spitfire was going to not loose him within the crowd of people who were moving towards every direction. They had entered a pedestrian zone when Phoenix caught up with the Flame King again, she grabbed his hand while taking a closer look at all the different people there. But it simply felt the same like back in the salon where Spitfire was working. Nobody looked like her, not even closely; there was no second pair of piercing red orbs, no second strand of flaming-red hair appearing under the border of a cap. Phoenix sighed. I'm different from everyone else.
"Being different is nothing bad, Phoenix." There was a pure and honest voice in her head. She could see the cloudy image of a boy with brown hair in her mind. She could hear him softly laughing. "Being like everyone else is boring." Her heart suddenly started beating faster as she recognized someone standing on the other side of the pedestrian zone who was looking at her. There was a boy standing in the middle of the moving crowd, but he didn't move an inch. He seemed to look straight into her eyes though there were a distance of more than fifty meters between them. A soft breeze moved the dark-brown strand which had covered the right half of the boy's face. Two scars ran parallel across his right eye, two scars which Phoenix had seen so many times, two scars which she had thought she would never be able to touch again.
Spitfire looked down at Phoenix with confusion in his eyes as the girl suddenly stopped and stared off at some point on the other side of the pedestrian zone. Then she suddenly let go of his hand and started running through the crowd.
"Phoenix?", he called out, but she didn't seem to hear him or to even recognize him being there anymore. She made her way through the crowd by hustling other people out of her way, obstinately moving forward.
"There's nothing wrong with your hair. It makes you special, Phoenix." There was that voice again inside of her head and she knew who it belonged to. But she couldn't make herself calling out that name. Millions of unshed tears blocked her throat. Falk. The boy saw her moving towards him, he could see the desperate but still so very hopeful look in her eyes. He had been smiling before, but now that smile was fading. She couldn't make herself call out for him.
Phoenix ran into a big man who was wearing a suit and who was looking down at the little girl who was sitting on the dirty ground in front of his eyes. He noticed that she was out of breath, he noticed the desperate look in her eyes, he noticed the glancing tears in her eyes and he took a step away from her to move on towards wherever he wanted to go. As fast as she could Phoenix got back on her feet and looked at the place where the boy had been standing and which was only two meters away now. But he was gone. Her throat was burning with every breath of the cold winter air she took. Gone . . . the tears dried at the edges of her eyes, not a single one made her way down Phoenix' cheeks.
She was so stupid. Falk was dead. He had died two years ago due to a terrible accident. It had only been a hallucination.
Dead birds don't fly.
Phoenix felt a hand on the top of her head. "Is everything okay?", a soft voice asked and it kinda tickled in her ears. She smiled and it felt like the most painful thing she'd ever done.
"Everything's fine."
Spitfire knew that she lied, but he also knew that she wouldn't tell him anything if he'd ask right now. But after a while he kneeled down in front of her and forced her to look at him. He placed one hand on her cold cheek and said with a very serious expression on his face:
"There's no sense in smiling if you don't feel like doing so."
Then he stood up again and offered the surprised girl his hand, she grabbed it and they continued walking, away from the spot where the brown-haired boy had been standing and away from the rooftop where a falcon was sitting and sceptically eyeing the back of Spitfire's head.
"Crying is a way to get rid of hatred, desperation and sorrow, Phoenix. Did you know that?"
It was a little shop with a green neon-sign over the entrance-door. The great place in front of the shop was occupied with kids who were trying out jumps and other tricks on their ATs.
"Here we are", Spitfire mentioned and kinda felt a little uneasy because Phoenix was staring at the glowing green sign with dull eyes. After a while he sighed and kneeled down next to Phenix once again. "It's an offer which you don't have to accept . . . I won't throw you out or something like that, if you decline it. I just want you to know that if you wanna learn how to ride ATs I'd feel glad to be your teacher."
Phoenix looked away thoughtfully. She watched the kids at the place with a fountain in the middle of it. There was a boy with short black hair who was racing towards the fountain, but just before he was in verge of colliding with the stone-border he jumped off the ground, turned around in the air, doing a backflip over the glittering water-fountain. After that he safely landed on his feet again and as he rose his arms into the air, his friends who had stayed on the other site on the fountain started to scream in excitement. The boy also let an excited "YEAH!" escape his lips. He skated back to his friends and another boy with a dark-blue cap showed his friends how he had flown over the fountain with his hands. Phoenix' eyes got caught by the eyes of the boy which were shining and sparkling like clear-blue ice on a cold winter morning that was reflecting the golden shining of the sunlight. His smile, his laughter and his joy were so honest that it broke Phoenix' heart. She envied him.
A sad smile was formed on her lips as she turned her face back to Spitfire. "Those Air-Trecks can't lift the heavy chains on my wings and they can't lift me up in the sky again like I've been flying before . . . but maybe they can help me to get my smile back", she whispered and took a step towards the entrance-door. A little bell jingled when it was opened and it ringed again when the door was closed behind Spitfire who felt deeply relieved without exactly knowing why.
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The falcon decided to stay with the Phoenix down on earth as long as it would take for the phoenix' broken wing to heal. The wing healed again, but the falcon realized too late that the phoenix' real pain wasn't because of his broken wing but because of his broken heart.
The sky had abandoned him and there was no way back.
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"Okay, now use a little bit more force."
She did as he had told her and almost immediately the wheel were turning and Phoenix slowly rolled forward. Then she stopped and hold her breath for a short moment till she was sure that she had used the breaks right. Phoenix looked at Spitfire who was sitting on a bench nearby taking a bottle of mineral water out of the backpack they had brought with them.
"Now come over here", the Flame King ordered while waving with the bottle of water and grinning amused. It really was already great fun to teach Phoenix how to ride ATs because she was very eager to learn as much as she could about riding. There even appeared little wrinkles on her forehead as she focused her whole concentration on rolling forwards. For her it was mostly like a holy mission which was exactly the reason why Spitfire enjoyed their training-sessions so much. She took the riding very serious; it wasn't just a hobby to her.
"Does your knee still hurt?", he asked as Phoenix took place on the bench next to him while handing over the bottle of water. The girl gulped down the water hastily, but she managed to shake her head while drinking which made the Flame King smiling. "That's good to hear."
Phoenix stopped drinking and returned the bottle to Spitfire who looked at the once full bottle which was now almost empty.
"I'm absolutely fine", stated Phoenix, then she stood up again and slowly rolled over to her practice place again. They had decided to train next to an abandoned playground. There was a giant chess-field engraved into the ground and Phoenix moved from a black area to a white one and back again. Then she started rolling across the white areas in diagonal lines across the whole playing field. After every line she stopped and turned into another direction. Actually she was doing a pretty good job and Spitfire even was afraid to say something which could disturb her concentration. Phoenix was staring straight at the ground and was so very focused on moving forward that she didn't recognize a pink-haired girl approaching them. She stopped again, turned around and rolled back to the point where she had started from.
"Nice turn."
Phoenix almost lost her balance as suddenly a well-known voice sounded next to her ear, but she managed not to fall flat on the ground. "Thanks", she responded with a cold voice, but Simca didn't seem to be affected by the younger girl's mood at all. The annoying smile simply stayed on her face as if it was glued on it. Phoenix sighed.
"What do you want, Pinky?"
"I was interested how a little shopping-maniac would be doing on rolls without any hanging clothes to grab on."
The two girls were smiling at each other and to an outstanding person it would seem like to best friends talking to each other, but to Spitfire it seemed more like an upcoming thunder storm. So, before they could kill each other by staring each other to death, the Flame King interfered and greeted Simca with a simple "Hi". At least it was enough to prevent a bloody catastrophe from happening.
"Hey, Spitfire, how is it going?" He knew that innocent smile too well to fall for it. Meeting Simca was never a coincidence. She had seen the tattoo on Phoenix' back, she knew that the girl wasn't a normal kid at all . . . all the Flame King could hope for was that Nue hadn't told her any details about Sleeping Hollow. He could see that flickering greed in her deep, gray eyes. She is no average teenage girl.
Simca's plan of collecting the eight Kings was no secret and Spitfire would bet his last shirt that she already saw a new queen rising within the red-haired girl standing on the giant chess-field. The only thing that was irritating was the feeling that Phoenix had no anticipation to become Queen.
"Oh, it's working out quite nicely . . . as you can see, she's already picking up some speed." The Flame King had to try very hard not to let his fear of an upcoming argument about talent in riding and other stuff, shown. He succeeded in not letting a nervous laugh escape his lips and he was very proud of the fact that he stayed calm – on the outside. But he could almost feel Phoenix' piercing look burning a hole into his neck when he tried separating the two girls from each other by stepping between them.
"Have you heard anything from Yoshitsune? I think he was about to get a personal tuner the last time we met." Simca laughed and Spitire thanked God that he had succeeded in distracting her from judging Phoenix' riding-skills.
"Oh, yeah . . . he's got a personal tuner for about one week now, I think. Benkei mentioned that she's a pretty tough girl."
"Well, it would be no fun for the Rumble King if he hadn't had a game to win. Even if his enemy should be his most important supporter." Spitfire shrugged and felt that the grin on his face became more natural and therefore easier to keep it on his face. Simca chuckled slightly and nodded in agreement.
"What's a tuner, Spitfire?" The Flame King felt a hand gently pulling his right sleeve and and recognized a whispered question reaching his ear. Phoenix seemed to try not to let Simca know what she was aasking. But the pink-haired teen proofed once more that she could be worse than ATs without rolls. "Oh, don't you know that, little shopping-maniac? Even though your living together with a King?" A sugary smile was resting on her lips while Phoenix looked like she was about to strangle the other girl – not caring about any bloody consequences.
"Are you doing that on purpose?", the red-haired girl wanted to know with a monotone voice.
"Of course." The smile grow even wider. Spitfire sighed and turned towards Simca: "You could have at least tried to say no." But she only crossed her arms in front of her chest and mentioned: "She was the one who started it."
Phoenix opened her mouth, but she was silenced by Spitfire's look before she could spit out some curses which she had learned from watching TV. "I'd like to continue the training, Simca", the Flame King said and made her understand that he wanted her to go. She simply shrugged and disappeared; as she was gone Phoenix muttered something which sounded pretty much like "Damn bitch" and Spitfire wondered if he should start controlling what his younger flat mate was watching on TV while he was working in the salon. Maybe I should get her a job . . . then he thought of the possibility that Simca would stop by to tease Phoenix and he strongly shook his head. No, he liked the idea of her watching weird TV-shows while he wasn't around better then her arguing with a certain swallow in public.
"Thinking of something bad again?"
Spitfire looked down at Phoenix who seemed to be honestly worried about him shaking his head that furiously. He almost broke into laughter, but he could hold it back and simply patted the younger girl's head. "You may call it something bad, I guess."
He walked over to the bench where he had been sitting before. Phoenix followed him by slowly rolling over.
"So, what is a tuner?" She looked at the Flame King with big round eyes which were filled with pure curiosity.
"Hm . . . " Spitfire thought about how he could explain the meaning of a tuner without giving her a wrong idea about it. "Tuners are kinda the mechanics in the world of ATs. They are specialized on repairing or even constructing them."
Phoenix nodded calmly, but she didn't seem to completely understand the special meaning of tuners. "Kay . . ."
"They are also the ones who are supporting the Kings of the eight roads because their ATs have special parts in it which are called the Regalia. These parts have to be kinda synchronized in an optima way with the King's biorhythm." As he looked up at Phoenix he saw a great question mark appearing over her head.
"You lost me there . . .", she admitted.
"Doesn't matter . . . uhm, let's start from a different point. Everybody does have a different heartbeat; it's beating with a different rhythm-"
"Oh, I do understand that one." Phoenix' eyes began to shine. "it's the greatest thing on earth to listen to a melodic heartbeat – it is mostly the one of a woman."
Spitfire grinned. "Yeah, maybe that's th reason why there are almost only female tuners."
"Oh, there are?"
The Flame King nodded and continued talking. "But let's move a little further . . . the better rider you are the more effectively you can make use of every part of your ATs. And for the Kings of the different roads it is necessary that their ATs consist of the best parts you can find."
Phoenix nodded and this time she knew what he was talking about. "And the tuners have to take care of the fact that the heartbeat of these Regalia-parts are exactly synchronized with the one of the King?" Spitfire was just about to explain that part, but he stopped with a surprised look in his eyes. "How did you know that?"
Phoenix grinned. "Well, everything has a heartbeat and if two things have to work together they can only succeed when their hearts are beating as one." Spitfire shook his head in disbelief, but then a grin started appearing on his face. This girl really was something special and he kind wondered what it would be like to listen to her heartbeat.
"You're heartbeat is actually a very melodic one, too." Phoenix slightly blushed and was smiling shyly at Spitfire whose eyes had gotten round and big out of confusion. "You-you can hear that?", he asked carefully and the red-haired girl in front of him simply nodded. It seemed to be the most normal thing in the world. But after a short while Phoenix seemed to recognize that Spitfire didn't have the same opinion.
"Is there something wro-" She stopped in the middle of the question and started to suspiciously eyeing their surrounding. Spitfire also realized that the number of the people walking by had increased drastically . . . and the people came back after passing the abandoned playground once. Then he caught sight of a member of his own team which was part of the great organism of Genesis and understood that all those people were rider who tried to get known something of the skills of their newest member. (They considered Phoenix as member of their team – of Genesis, in general – even though she had never spoken any words of accepting the offered membership.)
Well, Phoenix didn't seem to see through the situation that fast.
"I think we are being watched", she whispered without turning her view off the passing people. The dead-serious look on her face made Spitfire chuckle. Phoenix looked at him and pure confusion took control of her dark-red orbs. "I'm serious, Spitfire", she told him and almost seemed to be offended by his reaction and slightly worried.
"I know", the Flame King answered still chuckling, "but they're members of Genesis . . . so, you don't have to be scared of them."
"I'm not scared!" Now he was sure that she was offended, but she wasn't seriously mad at him. "I'm simply careful and just because they're members of Genesis it doesn't mean that they're harmless; just look at Simca – and she is the leader of this team."
Suddenly one of the riders – who became more and more every minute – finally took some courage and walked over to Phoenix and Spitfire and greeted them shyly.
"H-hey, Simca told me that you were training out here . . . and I wanted to ask if I might join you", he explained hastily. He was a young man, with shoulder-length, brown hair and a bag hanging down from his left hand. Spitire was very sure that he had carried his ATs within that bag.
"Simca told you?" Phoenix gave him a piercing look which made him slightly shiver, but Spitfire managed to prevent another misunderstanding from happening by grabbing onto Phoenix' orange-colored shirt. He pulled her back a little and then turned towards the brown-haired rider. "Sure . . . no problem, maybe you can help the young lady here to pick up some speed." The young man seemed to be very happy about this offer and grinned broadly at Phoenix who was still staring at him like some kind of high-ranked criminal who wanted to kidnap her.
"I'm Masato . . . nice to meet you, young lady." He reached out his hand, but said young lady didn't make any attempt to copy the gesture. "So, Simca told you to come? Are you good friends with Simca?", she wanted to know instead with a suspicious voice and narrowed eyes. "Uhm . . ." Masato gulped; he didn't know how to react because he was kinda scared that Phoenix would hate him for the rest of his life if he'd say he was good friends with Simca. At least he could be sure that the rumors which were going around since the last meeting that the new girl wasn't Simca's greatest fan, were true.
"Uhm . . . I don't hate her, but I think she's a bit too pink . . . sometimes."
Phoenix' eyes began to shine, she grabbed Masato's hand and started shaking it enthusiastically while Masato wondered if he should have stayed in bed this mornig.
"Let's get back to training", the red-haired girl announced and rolled over to the giant chess-field while Masato took place next to Spitfire on the bench to put on his ATs. "Better not mention Simca in any way if you wanna get along with her", Spitfire whispered with an encouraging smile on his face. Masato returned the smile and nodded as a sign of understanding. Then he stood up and followed Phoenix onto the chess-field.
Encouraged by Masato's success the other riders also approached the playground and the giant chess-field. It didn't take long for them to figure out who could teach Phoenix the most about holding one's balance, picking up speed, controlling the movements, doing simple tricks . . . etc. She learned how
Spitfire was sitting on the bench and almost couldn't believe what was going on right in front of his eyes. But actually he was pretty happy about it because of that smile which seemed to be glued on Phoenix' face and the shining glance in her eyes.
Phoenix had no idea why she was smiling all the time, she didn't know why her heart was pounding so fast and she really wondered why the hell she felt so very comfortable while being surrounded by all these people. Everybody just seemed to be so very excited about riding that she wanted to experience this feeling, too – as soon as possible. She wanted to become a part of this happy honestly smiling group.
Even Nue and his teammates paid a visit and soon Phoenix was playing tag with the children who were still wearing their white cloaks and their weird masks. She picked up speed while playing around and she almost instinctively she shifted her weight towards the right direction. She wasn't that focused on riding anymore and suddenly her movements became much more swiftly than before.
"So you decided to teach her?"
"She did it on her own."
Nue eyed Spitfire out of the corner of his eye and snorted which made the Flame King grin.
"What's wrong, Nue? Do you really dislike her that much?"
The Thunder King sighed and took place on the bench next to Spitfire. He leaned his head back, so he was able to look straight at the sky which was of a shining light-blue this day.
"It's not that I can't stand her . . . I simply have a bad feeling about this", he mumbled. An annoyed sigh escaped Spitfire's lips. "Oh, just a few weeks ago you told me that I shouldn't try prevent her from getting involved with the world of ATs-"
"No, I've told you that the Japanese world of ATs isn't a playground for kids."
"She's no little kid . . . and you're still not the one to talk."
Nue heavily sighed. "Whatever."
Anger was boiling up inside of Spitfire and he glared at Nue, but then he reminded himself of the fact that he only knew half of Phoenix' past. He had no idea that her heart was the one of a bird which didn't desire anything more than getting closer to the sky even if it was only for one little moment. He sighed again and followed his friends movement by looking straight at the sky.
"Nobody can say where the wind will take us next and we'll never get to know it if we don't let him take us with him."
A smile was formed on Nue's lips and he took a closer look at Phoenix who just tried to escape from Mizuki, a girl of the Thunder King's team with piercing blue eyes. He saw the little girl's smile and remembered how she hadn't been smiling even one for the past three days because her parents had gotten into divorce. Somehow that Phoenix-kid had managed to get the smile back on Mizuki's face – just like a fire which was warming the air around it.
"You think that she's the wind we've been waiting for?", Nue asked with an absent-minded look on his face, but Spitfire shook his head.
"No, that's not what I think, but I'm pretty sure that she is the breeze which will warm up our frozen wings. We've just spent too much time with waiting for the Sky King by now, that we've almost forgot how to breath freely."
Nue turned his head towards the Flame King with a puzzled look in his eyes, but the older man just grinned broadly at the the younger boy.
"It is said that having fun once in a while shall be pretty healthy."
The Thunder King snorted, but a little, honest smile was already appearing on his lips. "Yeah, maybe you are ri-" The smile only lasted till a snowball hit him straight on his head. The riders of Genesis had started a snowball-fight, but now everyone was frozen and straight looking at Nue. Well, almost everyone was looking at him, except of Phoenix and Mizuki. Phoenix was irritated looking at her hand like she was missing something which had been there just a few moments ago (like a snowball, that had been thrown at a certain Thunder King due to an uncontrolled movement when she had almost lost her balance on the snow). Mizuki was sitting on the ground and she almost couldn't breath because she was laughing too hard.
"Seems more like an uncontrolled tornado . . .", Nue mumbled with a pissed off look on his face while snow was melting in his hair and little pieces of ice were running down his face.
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As time went by the phoenix began to forget about the bird's heart beating in his chest. He began to get used to the heavy chains which were pinning his wings to the earth and he began to forget about the falcon who never stopped watching over him. The phoenix began to turn into a human child . . . but only till he felt the wind stroking the feathers of his wings again.
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That's it for this chapter ^^ I hope you liked it. If you didn't: feel free to tell me because I can only get better if you tell me what you disliked. X3
If there are any questions feel free to ask me and if you would like me to add something in the upcoming chapters of this fanfiction, tell me! ^^
But I also have to make an announcement - or something like that: *clearing throat*
The next chapter will be the last one of "Footprints in the Sand", but Phoenix' story is far from being finished, don't worry. ^^ I'll start writing another fanfiction, a continuation of FitS. I'm not sure about the title yet, but i'm sure you'll see it, when it's getting uploaded. There will be a leap in time of about two or three years and Phoenix will finally meet Ikki and his gang. ^^
Well, see you at the next chapter! ^^
Bye FreakyPumpkin