Two small red birds were perched on the branches of a leafless tree. The branch was thick, wider than both of them combined. Between them, there was a stone plate filled with all kinds of bugs, dead and alive. One of the red birds reached forwards with its talon and picked up a centipede, stuffing it into its mouth. With a loud slurp, the squirming insect disappeared down the bird’s beak. It belched before trembling, puffing its feathers out. “I can’t believe Big Sis really left us like that!”

“But, Emile, you were the one who told her to leave,” the other phoenix, Susan, said. “You can’t tell someone to leave and then get angry at them for leaving.”

“Says who? It’s my right to be mad at her!” Emile snorted as he tossed another bug into his beak, craning his neck back to swallow. He clacked his beak after he was done and lowered his head to glare at his sister. “We’re on a new continent; Mom told her to take care of us! How dare she leave like that?”

Susan sighed, her chest deflating as her feathers pressed against her body. “When you tell someone, ‘Go away or I’ll peck your eyes out,’ you’re not really giving them a choice to stay. And she left behind the signaling bead for us to break if we were in danger or got lost.”

“Oh really?” Emile asked, his chest puffing up. “And where’s that bead now, hmm? Exactly.”

“You threw it into a waterfall, dummy,” Susan said, rolling her eyes. “I couldn’t even retrieve it!”

Emile made unintelligible noises as he munched on more bugs. “Whatever. It’s her fault. If something bad happens to us, I’m telling Mom.”

Susan sighed again. “It’s not Tafel’s fault that the pretty peacock rejected you. You didn’t have to take your anger out on her. Everyone faces rejection; it’s a part of life.”

A worm splatted against Susan’s face. Emile flapped his wings and shouted, “I’m not mad at being rejected! I’m mad at Tafel leaving me when I told her to! Look, you stayed behind, didn’t you? I told you to leave too, right? But you didn’t! You stayed. How come Tafel didn’t stay too?”

“Oh, I was going to leave since you were being moody, but Tafel told me to stay behind to watch over you,” Susan said. “And she gave me that bead, which you threw away. This is your fault.”

Emile made a face as he grabbed the edge of the plate with his talon and flipped it off the branch of the tree. There was a crashing noise followed by a loud scream. Emile and Susan froze as they stared at each other. They crept towards the edge of the branch and peered over, pressing their stomachs against the bark to stay low. Beneath them, a group of four-armed people were gathered around a fallen person who had bugs crawling over her face. One of the four-armed people raised his head and met Emile’s gaze. The man let out a strange grunt as he reached towards his waist and pulled out a bow and arrow. In less than a second, the man’s bowstring was pulled all the way back, an arrow nocked and pointed at the two phoenixes.

“Look at what you did!” Susan shouted as she dove to the side, dodging an arrow. She scrambled to her feet and pumped her wings, lifting herself off the branch.

Emile leapt into the air, away from the hunter, and spread his wings. “Less talking, more fleeing!”

***

When Tafel returned to the living room with a tray of cookies, she found Vur and Alora glaring at each other with a single cookie left on the tray between them. They each had a clenched paw raised in front of themselves. With a rapid motion, their claws flashed three times before stopping. Alora’s claws were completely outstretched while two of Vur’s claws remained curled up. “Scissors! I win.”

Alora’s head dropped into her paws. “No! Why!? You did scissors three times in a row! Why would you choose scissors again!?”

Vur didn’t respond as he stuffed the last cookie into his mouth. His eyes lit up as Tafel approached him. She asked, “Wasn’t Alora worried about getting fat? How did she end up competing with you for the cookies?”

“They taste too good to resist,” Alora mumbled. She sighed and raised her head, but she ceased mid-sigh once she saw the tray in Tafel’s arms. “There’s too much temptation. Vur, if I get fat, you have to polymorph me to make me skinnier, got it?”

“Why do I have to do that?” Vur asked, blinking twice.

“Because we’re family, and family sticks together in times of crisis.” Alora nodded and snatched a few of the new cookies before Vur could respond. “And I’ll tell you about the genies. You were curious about the genies, right?”

Tafel picked up a cookie with three Fruits of Knowledge embedded inside of it. She’d definitely catch up to Vur if she ate enough! Her gaze shifted onto Vur, who was stuffing his mouth with half a dozen cookies every few seconds, and she bit her lower lip as she stifled a sigh. “Slow and steady wins the race, right?”

“What race?” Alora asked, crumbs decorating the sides of her mouth.

“Nothing,” Tafel said before taking a bite out of the cookie that was as large as her face. “I want to know about the genies.”

“Once we finish this batch, I’ll take you to them,” Alora said. “It’s nice and bright out, so there should be a lot of them. And it’s the perfect season too. Genies grow on vines like green beans, you see, but instead of green beans, they’re called genie beans.”

“Really?”

“Duh,” Alora said, cookie crumbs flying out of her mouth. “What’d you expect? They’d be born in lamps? Anyways, even if you get lucky and find a genie bean vine, there might not be any genie beans on it. And even if there are genie beans, there might not be a genie inside. It’s as hard as finding a three-leaf clover.”

“Three-leaf clovers are pretty common though?”

Alora rolled her eyes. “Well, when you’re a dragon, it’s really hard to see something so small, alright? Moving on, even if you find a genie inside, they might not be able to grant your wish. Older genies can grant more powerful wishes. Younger genies can barely grant any wishes. And if you find the genie king, you can wish for anything you want! But only stupidly lucky people can find one of those.”

“Vur’s going to find one!” Stella said, her head popping out of Vur’s forehead. “I have a good feeling.”

Alora stared at Stella. “Genie?”

Stella tilted her head. “No. Fairy. Do we look similar?”

“A little,” Alora said with a nod. “You’re both tiny, but genies are men. There aren’t any female genies, so I was surprised when I saw you.” She turned towards Tafel. “And there’s one thing you should know about genies. Not all of them are nice. They’ll fulfill your wish, but you have to be really careful about what you wish for and how you wish for it!”