1 The Young Phoenix's Rebirth

I don't believe I did anything wrong to deserve an arrow in my left wing. But that won't justify this even if I did. It hurts so badly and I am surprised that I stayed up while flying away from that cruel human. I wonder if I even did anything wrong or if I was maybe a meal ticket, or even a possible gift. It doesn't matter though because I believe that I am soon going to die. Too much blood has been left and I am certainly leaving a trail. If the human doesn't get to me first I'm certain something else will. I make quick work of using my last scraps of energy to propel myself into my old nest in a not too tall of a tree. If it was any higher I probably would not have made it.

After a minute I nestle myself down trying to make myself even the slightest bit comfortable. Maybe it would have been better to just have let them kill me and have a quick end with no suffering. I close my eyes and try to calm my little heart. But then I start to feel weird and my stomach does a flip on itself. I shut my eyes tighter, having a hard time breathing. This must be the end, this is where I die.

Then there is a weird burning sensation my body starts to feel like fire. It isn't necessarily painful but just feels unpleasant.This bizarre feeling continues for a while, but then I have searing pain shoot through my whole body. It is like molten lava, fire hotter than any sun, running through my veins. Then it stops and when I open my eyes the world seems so much bigger. It is like I am looking through larger eyes. I look around and it's so weird my vision is better, clearer, and my hearing heightened. I look down and find a body I don't recognise. This is very peculiar.

I can't seem to figure it out and so I flap my wings and puff my feathers out in frustration causing flame to follow them. I panic. Why am I on fire all of a sudden? It makes no sense! All this makes no sense, I should be dead right now with worms starting to decompose my body, with an animal giving it a free meal, or even that human now an ornament or something. I'm so frustrated that I don't realise I'm fully on fire now and burning both my nest and the tree around me. How do I make this stop? Am I the one making this flame and if that's the case how am I supposed to control it? I have to calm myself down or else I will soon be needing to find a new home. But the flames are making me nervous which just causes them to burn brighter. I hear branches snapping, the crackling and sizzling of pinewood. Then, it's too late. I'm falling and know that my tree and nest are gone and I will be needing a new tree to call home.

As I am falling I make quick attempts at flapping my huge wings but the effort is futile. I hit the ground tucking my new large wings in and rolling down the hill that I came up earlier moments away from death. When I finally stop I get back up using my wings to flip me off my back and back onto my feet, that now include large talons. I look behind to notice I made a trail of burnt grass down the hill. I'm starting to question if this is real or fake and I just dreamt it all up or not.

I start to hop around flailing my wings testing this all out. I realise soon enough though that this could most definitely not be a dream when I feel pain shoot up my leg starting at my ankle. Paring down I see I stepped into a large trap meant for hunters to easily capture and kill larger animals that simple weapons wouldn't work on. I start to panic again, my heart pace skyrocketing, so I start making an attempt at escaping by flailing my wings. I know that if I didn't die before, I definitely will now. That doesn't end up the case though when I feel like liquid of some sort is sliding down my talons and when I look down I see that the metal trap is melting. I'm amazed. Maybe this new skill I somehow acquired is useful after all.

I gain more confidence when the liquid is finally gone and make another attempt at taking off this time succeeding. I make my way into the air slowly picking up speed and soon I'm so fast that everything is a blur. When I was smaller I would have never been able to do this. Now I'm happy with the new me because this might just be better than I thought it would; and that pain I felt doesn't seem so bad for what I got in return. I shoot faster through the clouds leaving a fiery red streak across the sky. The clouds answer in return with a boom of thunder. I let out a cry of victory because I have a feeling I just won and this is just the beginning of my new life.