Chapter 518 - Auri - The Phoenix Peaks II (Patreon)

Sasha was fast. It didn’t take long until we were over blessed dry land again, and no longer over the killer water.

The Peaks were interesting. A whole range of mountains, with a few of them glowing with active lava. My totally expert eyes from seeing the Tears of Vulcan up close and personal suggested that most of the mountains were volcanic, but most of them were dormant.

I hoped I got to see one go boom while I was here!

Errr…

In a totally safe and not ruining anyone else’s day way, of course.

Gouts of purple flames from one mountain clashed with the orange flames from a second. I couldn’t see the phoenixes in question yet, but their impact was unmistakable.

Some mountains were rocky, some were fresh and green, and others were coated in burnt trees and a thick haze. Interesting! My claws tightened in anticipation.

I was about to meet more phoenixes!! What were they like? Were they nice? Were more of them like Ra, or like Petri?

Oh holy mango juice. If they were all like Petri I was out of here.

“As I’ve mentioned before, each phoenix has their own peak.” Sasha explained. “You can move to another mountain if you’d like. You don’t need a reason. Perhaps the view is nicer, or it’s about to erupt. The golden eagle likes to hunt a herd of deer, and will try to muscle out any phoenix who gets in his way. The crane is feuding with the albatross, and relentlessly chases her off her peak whenever she settles down and claims a place.”

“Some are just wet drips.” Petri said.

No.

Really.

I am so surprised.

That was awfully rich, coming from him. I half-expected he was one of the wet wipes who went around bullying everyone.

“There are a number of traditions and customs around the practice.” Ra said. “Suffice to say, there is both a grace period after moving away from a mountain, and more peaks than there are phoenixes. You should never find yourself without a home.”

The mountain range took on new meaning.

From countless peaks, there suddenly weren’t nearly enough.

That was it?

That was all the phoenixes in existence?

More people went through my bakery on a given day than there were mountains here, and that was a single bakery in a single city. Yes, it was the best bakery in a major capital, but…

There were just so few of us.

Ra started to explain some of the cultures and traditions, but I was lost in thought, trying to count how many mountains there were.

Petri shot forward, the flames on his body surging as he got about three miles ahead of us. He threw his beak back and let out a triumphant shriek.

“Home!” He shouted.

How - OH!

Sasha passed some invisible line a moment later, and both of our fires flared up as well.

The Phoenix Peaks felt incredible. Like I’d been a banked fire my whole life, and now the vents were open to let air in. Like I’d been a dimmed fire, and a fresh log was thrown on. Like a bunch of wet logs had been replaced by perfectly dried ones, I felt like a million rubies.

“Whoa!” I put words to my feelings. “This is great!”

Petri chose that exact moment to fire off a half-dozen fireballs into the sky, punctuating my statement. The three of us started to dive down towards the Peaks.

“Bye! Auri, I’ll see you around!” He said, speeding off into the distance.

Ugh. If I could never see him again that’d be great.

A blue flame caught my eye and I peered down, hoping to catch my first glimpse at another phoenix!

A penguin phoenix was standing at the very edge of the shore, looking forlornly at the waves lapping the shore. The waves receded, and he waddled forward a bit, then the wave crashed back in as he darted back, flapping his flippers as gouts of steam erupted where water met fire.

To go swimming would be a death sentence.

Ooof. I knew each phoenix reflected another bird, but I’d never imagined what would happen if one of us became a water bird.

Wait. WAIT! Wasn’t there a special type of fire that burned underwater? Yes, yes there was! I’d seen it at the School! In the Museum of All Things that Burned! I should tell the penguin about it! Maybe he knew already, maybe it would help!

Sasha clearly noticed who I was looking at. Somehow. Even though I was on his - who was I kidding, the owl was almost level 4000, of course he could know what was going on his back.

I noticed he had slowed down a bunch, and I hopped off his back, spread my wings, and flew under my own power.

“Naturally, one way to be uncontested on your peak is to have an undesirable one that nobody else wants.” Was Sasha’s only comment on the phenomena. “An empty peak has been picked out for you to initially find your wings as you settle down, but naturally, you are more than welcome to move to any one you wish to. As long as a nesting couple isn’t there, you are welcome to contest it.”

“Are any of the active volcanoes empty?” I promptly asked. I wanted flowers, yes, but I’d just gotten [Molten Mythwing], and wanted to work on the class for a bit before my next upgrade.

Ra chuckled.

“Little one, you’re not the only one with a Lava element. You can ask nicely and see if anyone’s willing to share, trade embers, or see if you can kick anyone else off the peak. There aren’t many active volcanoes, and Lava is one of the more popular Fire elements here.”

I looked to my left again, seeing the faint glow of the burning lava. Made sense. If the phoenixes were living their entire lives here, being drawn to Lava was only natural.

Ra threw off a few powerful beams of Radiance into the clouds, his eyes narrowing at something he saw up there.

“Golden crows.” He was practically spitting fire at their name. “Auri, if you don’t mind, I’m going to go teach those upstarts who the true ruler of Fire and Radiance is.”

Not waiting for an answer, he spun and wheeled off into the sky, where a few three-legged crows were circling near a cloud. A cloud with a fresh hole in it.

The eight birds started to light up the sky as Fire, Radiance, Gale, and a few other elements were thrown around, the seven golden crows fleeing before the stronger phoenix - but not without getting their licks in. At the same time, while clearly stronger, Ra wasn’t going for any killing moves.

Hmmm.

It didn’t make sense that he was bad at fighting. Well, it did and it didn’t.

It… almost made more sense to skirmish for levels and position for everyone, than to try and kill them. Levels for everyone! Unless the fight was ‘serious’, a murder of crows picking a small fight with the phoenixes and everyone surviving let everyone improve. Maybe that was why the phoenixes dueled each other for peaks?

No Fenrir here, so I had to be Detective Auri! I’d just cracked the case! I ditched the tiara and changed my hat to Fenrir’s fancy brown one.

Some phoenixes flew up to greet us. A flamingo with bright pink flames flapped up next to us, peering at me curiously.

“So this is the lost hummingbird?” She asked. I puffed my chest out, letting all my feathers burn a little hotter, a little brighter.

“I wasn’t lost.” I primly informed her. “I knew exactly where I was. Really, from my point of view, you were the lost ones!”

Her flames rippled through several shades of pink as she gave me her name. Something complex, involving the sun seen at exactly the right time and place through clouds to create pink, and the Essence of the First Flame.

“I can’t go over this peak, but come visit! That one over there is mine!” She threw a ball of fire onto a mountain with a number of shallow lagoons and lush tropical trees, then winged back in that direction.

“Bye! I think I will!” I called after Magenta. A much easier name!

Wait, with what everyone was saying about peaks, control, and visiting…

“How are you able to fly over everything?” I asked Sasha. “And how do people move around if they’re not allowed to cross certain peaks?”

“I welcome anyone to challenge my right to fly over their mountain.” Sasha’s reply was serene. “As for lower level phoenixes, the lowest part where mountain meets mountain are considered the safe passages between the peaks, where any may travel without fear of interference. There is some argument that one throws away their dignity when doing so, that it is unbecoming of a phoenix to lower their head such, but let us be frank. That is sheer puffery, meant to incentivize the youngest to grow and strive to become stronger. The idea occasionally takes root among those who should know better, but such is life. I don’t doubt that, for a few decades at least, nobody will bar passage to you, out of a desire to get to know you better.”

One part of me wanted to say the phoenixes sounded like a bunch of wet water.

On the other… what did I know? Remus did some things Elaine thought were pretty bad, and it wasn’t like the School was all sparks and bonfires. Every place had its unusual or bad customs, and it was a question of ‘is this really bad, or am I just different?’

Thanks Iona! Your talks were useful!

“What’s this?” Sasha said. “Oh no no no, we can’t have that. [Dark Flame].”

The name was simple, but sometimes the simple names had great power. Not everything could be top-tier like [I am the Brrretiest].

He flicked a single black-burning feather deep into a particularly dense valley, then nodded once in satisfaction.

“On occasion, some more undesirable creatures can be found. I’m unsure how civilized the lands you came from are, but there’s a creature called Vorlers.”

I rolled my eyes, then realized who I was rolling them to.

Oops.

“I’m familiar with Vorlers. Burned a few of them myself!”

Sasha nodded.

“Good. While you are custodian of a peak, you are its [Hearth Tender]. Its [Fire Keeper]. Be a good [Lady] of the peak. Manage it as you see fit, but manage it. Don’t let problems fester.”

A few more phoenixes came to say hi. A toucan had a beak almost as colorful as my body, and we spent some time comparing colors. A raven swung by, but he seemed more interested in talking with Sasha, both of them using Pyronox. A quetzalcoatl - a phoenix, not the actual bird - came by. Her fangs looked deadly, I wondered what poison they could have. Was there such a thing as fire-poison? One of the peaks that I thought was a volcano from the burning afterglow against the clouds was actually an enormous roc, contently dozing.

Their wingspan would be measured in miles if they took flight. I didn’t have [Identify] - maybe an oops - but its size alone suggested I shouldn’t fly overhead.

“Here you are!” Sasha said as we approached yet another mountain. “Not too close to the center, not thrown to the edges, this peak hasn’t been claimed in quite some time. I hope you settle in and enjoy. I’ll come around in a few days to see if you’re having any problems, but some of your neighbors and the more curious among us might come by before then.”

My lessons with the phoenixes hadn’t just started now, we’d been discussing things for months. One discussion had been around courtship rituals and the like.

The long and short of it was numbers. There were only so many of us, and it was extremely looked down upon to ‘rob the nest’ so to speak. If I wanted to do anything - not that I did, I had no interest in the topic at all - there was an extremely small pool of ‘acceptable’ phoenixes. If I didn’t like anyone in that pool? Well, tough luck to me - and tough luck to them. I’d be eggless forever.

It helped explain why there were so few of us, and why the rules around protecting mated couples were so fierce. Woe be any creature who tried to rob one of their nests.

Similarly, we were THE BEST, but not in a great way. Every part of a phoenix was valuable. From our tears and feathers, to simply being near us, to capturing us to use as lighting, heat, or anything else a dragon could imagine, our existence conveyed levels galore and class quality almost beyond compare.

Hmmm… what was a good hat for a phoenix that granted things to wear? Detective Auri was still on the case.

I studied the mountain that was now ‘mine’.

It… didn’t look too special. In a lot of ways, it was like the little patch of land the Eventide Eclipse had claimed in Exterreri. A bare top of hard granite, good tree coverage, mostly pine, and a good meadow.

Pine was fun! It was a little harder to ignite than most wood, thanks to its high resin levels, but that also made it burn slower, and it had a nice smell! It didn’t make a lot of ash, which was great for cleanup!

I flew down to the meadow, and was suddenly hit with a wave of… I didn’t have a good word for the emotion. Adulthood maybe? It was a strong sense of ‘oh Elaine, what do I do now?’

Or… was it ‘By the Embers of the First Flame’ now?

I had a mountain. It was mine. I was expected to do phoenix-y things with it.

What did phoenixes do all day?

I flew to a nice big tree that overlooked the meadow, perched in a nice branch with a good view, and started thinking.

I had no idea what phoenixes did all day. Burn things? Tend to their peak?

… Thank goodness for Bridget, my teacher and caretaker at the School of Sorcery and Spellcraft. She’d helped me get the idea of becoming a [Baker], and I had no idea what I’d do with myself on a daily basis without it and my friends providing structure.

… I had no idea what to do with myself. I was supposed to be the [Lady] of this area, maybe I should fly around the mountain and look for problems?

WAIT! I needed a nest! I had no nest! No lovely arcanite reflecting me from a thousand angles, no hallway of mirrors showing me a million times over. How was I supposed to get any of that?

Oh! Obsidian could be nice! I just needed to find a nice patch, melt it with my flames, then [Lava Manipulation] it into a nice shape.

Was there any obsidian here?

… What was on my mountain anyway? I should do a patrol, just to see what I was working with. What resources I had. Where I could find some nice flowers to drink nectar from, and what insects were tasty.

I took another look around, remembering something else.

It was late summer in Exterreri. Meant it was deep winter here. At this temperature, winter was wonderful. I put another point in favor of the Phoenix Peaks being so close to the coastline, even though there was so much water there.

Then I should make an oven! Or maybe a kiln, depending on the material. Uhhh… was there a difference between the two? They were both decent for baking…

A kiln it was!

Okay!

Explore! Strategize! Make a nest! Make a kiln! Don’t starve! I had a PLAN! I had things to do!

I zipped around the mountain, trying to take notes about what I saw. Trees! Blackberries! Bears!

Wait. Something didn’t make sense. Pine trees and tropical weather? What? My bond let me steal some of Elaine’s knowledge, and that didn’t sound right at all.

I missed her. I wish she was here so I could ask her all these questions.

… ah well, mysteries of the Phoenix Peaks. Carrying on!

Rabbits, owls, raccoons, foxes, dinosaurs of all stripes! Archaeopteryxs, compys, gallimimi, pegomastax and achatina! Badgers and songbirds, fruit trees - with no fruit, booo the season - and a big stream with fish. The sabertooth salmon looked delicious! Ant hills and termites, some troodons and oh! There was a tiny herd of wild horses! I zipped into some natural caves and found bats and axolotls. Clever-me followed some bees around, finding hidden flower patches. A few small ponds had fowl. Hare-brained hares darted out of their holes when I went in to explore. I was just saying hi! A skunk was warding off a curious bear cub, and I had to wonder - did I really want skunks on my mountain?

OOooooh! Clay! It had clay! I needed clay to make a kiln!

Or… was it that I used clay in a kiln?

This ‘survive in the woods alone’ thing sucked. Maybe I’d be returning sooner than I thought…

No! That was Quitter talk! I wasn’t a quitter! I wasn’t going to let the first obstacle drive me away! Everyone else lived like this and made it work! I was going to make it work as well! Who knew, maybe I’d find it fun.

I summoned my [Mage Hands] and got to work.

===============

The moons were up as I finished my work, patting the last of the clay in place.

Perfect! Beautiful! I was the best!

Okay, okay, now I had to fire the clay!

FIRE!

The kiln exploded spectacularly, shards going in every direction.

[*ding!* Whoops, [Phoenix Rebirth] leveled up! Let’s not tell Elaine, okay?]

But… but I wanted to tell Elaine about it…

In the shattered remains of my first big project, I started to cry a little.

It was just so unfair! It was just so hard! I just wanted a little oven to pretend I could bake here! Just a little slice of home away from home! Was that too much to ask for!?

A pair of flames came over the peak in a nearby mountain. From where I was in the meadow, I could see them blazing down the mountain, then back up my mountain.

Oh! Visitors!? I was having visitors!

I looked around the utter disaster of the mess I’d made.

Quick! Clean up before guests came over!

BURN THE EVIDENCE!

[Auri’s Meteor Storm]

A second later, and the only trace of my ill-fated adventure was a smoking crater.

Two phoenixes ran up, one black and white, while the other had feathers of green and blue. An ostrich and a velociraptor. They tilted their heads at me in perfect unison.

“Hi! You must be the hummingbird we’ve heard so much about.” The ostrich said. The raptor snapped at her.

“Of course she’s the hummingbird we’ve heard so much about!” She snarled. “Better question is - want to go to the Dungeon with us?”