Chapter 8 - Ember When I open my eyes, I see that everyone’s still asleep. Kai is drooling, and I smirk before going out to catch some breakfast. I fly out over the horizon. The sunrise is splashed with purple and pink, like air was painted across the sky. Suddenly, I get the strangest feeling that someone is watching me. I whip around, but nobody’s there. I frown and turn back around. My eyes zero in on a coyote, and I realize I can practice some of my aerial tricks. Aella has been teaching me how to spin and dive, and how to work against my opponent. But sometimes I’ve been wondering why we need to learn how to fight… I fly up as high as my wings let me, then tip backwards and free fall towards the ground. I press my wings to my sides to help me go faster. I start to spin, and my feathers catch on fire, but it doesn’t bother me. When I’m about 20 feet above the ground, I open my wings in a whoosh of flame, and BOOM! Pre-barbecued coyote. I snatch it up in my claws and start to fly back. It’s kind of heavy, and it takes me a little bit to carry it up to the cave. And when I get to the ledge, I fly straight into a phoenix. I jump back immediately. I can’t tell who it is, but I know I’ve burned them. I close my eyes and cringe backwards, waiting for the screams to start. But when I don’t hear a yelp of surprise or pain, I open my eyes to see Kai, staring at me in concern. Then he starts dragging the Coyote inside the cave, heaving and pulling. I stare at him. “How are you not burnt?” I ask him in surprise. “I don’t know!” He shrugs. “You didn’t have to fly into me though.” He retorts crossly. I scoff. Like I tried to!! You were the one standing in the smack middle of the entrance! “Your hunting tricks are cool.” He says. So that’s who was watching me. “Thanks.” I say. I walk over to him and push him over experimentally. He yelps in surprise, but no blackened feathers appear. Steam is rolling off where I touched him, but he doesn’t seem to be hurting. “What was that for?!” He cries out indignantly. “Is that hot?” I ask him. “Not really?” Kai replies, scooting away from me and looking very confused. I realize that this phoenix, a Sea Feather, is fire-resistant! The books didn’t say that! Then again, Tundra and Aella rewrote all our books so we didn’t learn about the “Prophecy”. “You can’t burn,” I realize. I keep my face straight on the outside, but on the inside I’m squealing. An actual phoenix who I can’t burn! I shoot up into the air, doing a few of my best backflips. I even let my flames come loose in a shower of sparks, knowing that Kai will be perfectly safe. If he can’t be hurt, that means I’m not entirely dangerous!!! “Woo hoooo!” I let my wings fall to my sides and I plummet down, down, down, into the ravine. I hear Kai’s yell of alarm all the way down here, and I laugh. I let my wings out as soon as I can see the bottom, and I fly up again. I hover about 20 feet above Kai, and he looks concerned for my sanity. That’s valid. “Don’t do that,” Kai says as I swoop down to the ledge. “What?” I question. What is he talking about? “Don’t fly like that. I thought you were gonna die,” He mumbles. I smirk. “Oh, so you were worried for me?” I tease. “What- I mean- no! It’s not like that- I-” he splutters. I nudge him playfully, loving that he doesn’t burn. At all. None. “Just teasing, chill,” I say and laugh. “We should get Lumi and Rowan up.” I finish. “They are such heavy sleepers.” Kai nods in agreement. We walk deeper into the cave and see the two phoenixes snoring in unison, almost like they’re performing a show. I put my wing up to my beak to stifle a laugh. I touch my wing to his, creating steam. “Let’s steam them awake!” I whisper excitedly. Kai nods, already spreading his wings in the direction of Rowan. I press my wing against his, making a blast of steam roll straight towards Rowan’s face. He opens his eyes in surprise, flailing wildly and screaming. We both laugh, and fall silent when we see Lumi still hasn’t woken up, even after the steam.
CONT.: “PST!” I whisper loudly. Kai meets my eyes. “Watch this.” I concentrate on turning my heat off, and feel the cool wind rush over me. Then I tiptoe over to Lumi and start tickling her madly. She shrieks and thrashes. “STOP-” she tries to say then starts giggling madly. Suddenly she stops moving. I recoil. Before I can ask if she’s okay, a huge snowball comes out of nowhere and chucks me into a snowbank, completely burying me. I hear Kai and Rowan gasp in alarm at the same time, while Lumi is laughing hysterically. I groan in defeat, though there’s a small smile on my face. I keep quiet to see what happens. I hear Kai whisper to Rowan, “Did she kill her?” A grin grows on my face, and I smother it quickly. I abruptly stop breathing, and there’s no response. There’s the distinct padding of claws, then I feel the snow being moved around near me. Suddenly, a claw pokes me on the beak. I squawk in surprise. Then the snow parts and I’m staring into the sun. I hiss at the sudden brightness. Then Kai moves in front of the sun. “She’s alive, guys!” He calls to the others. I hear a sigh of relief and a quiet “Dang it!” from Lumi. “Hey, I heard that!” I call out to her. Kai reaches out a wing to pull me up. I hesitate before I remember that he’s fire resistant. I latch on to his feathers as he pulls me up. Lumi looks at our intertwined wings in confusion. “How…?” She asks. “Oh yeah!” I reply. “Kai is fire-resistant!” Lumi brightens. “That’s awesome, Em!” I smile. Normally only Aella and Tundra call me Em - and my face drops. Oh no. “Lumi,” I say. She takes in my facial expression. “Hmm?” She asks. “What’s wrong?” “When I left, and you came after me, where did Tundra go?” I ask. Lumi’s face falls. “Oh sh-” I give her a hard look. “ooooot,” She finishes. I groan. “He’s gonna kill usss.” Kai and Rowan are watching the exchange with concerned expressions, which one again, is valid. “Who’s Tundra?” Rowan asks. “And why would he kill you?” Kai demands. “Well, he wouldn’t exactly kill us, but…” I look to Lumi for help. “Tundra is another Snow Feather,” Lumi starts. “He’s my father and Ember’s adoptive father, and he brought us out here. When he figures out where we are and what we’ve been doing… He’ll be really mad.” Suddenly I hear a voice from behind us. “And that I am.” Lumi and I whip around to see the one and only Tundra standing at the entrance of the cave.
