▌│█║▌║▌║Chapter 16║▌║▌║█│▌

I didn’t see Conor again until the group stopped for lunch. We stopped for lunch at a grassy knoll just outside of the Fairy Forest. Even though I could see sunlight again outside of the Fairy Forest, I whole heartedly regretted leaving the forest. The top of the knoll overlooked the Fairy Forest and our path to our lake destination. I could see the fog from the lake from the top of the knoll, but my heart sunk when I thought about the long walk we had ahead of us to get there before night fall. A couple of the minotaur brothers dug up some of the grass on the hill, and they built a fire in the dirt spot they created. I sat next to Garen looking at the fire. Sasha sat down next to me which made me a little uncomfortable, but I managed to hide my awkwardness well enough to not be noticed. Sitting across from me, John and Giselle sat together looking at the flames with Conor standing on John’s shoulder with a wide smile on his face. I moved my eyes from them, and I stared into the dancing orange and red flames. There was a certain peacefulness watching the dancing embers. The crackling of the fire, and the smell of the cooking meat made the mood and peacefulness of the scene very serene. I blocked out the conversations people were having around me, and I lost myself in thought and daydreams as I stared into the flames. The rhythmic and wild nature of them fascinated me. It seemed like the flames were almost begging to be free. All of a sudden, while I had my whole attention towards the flames, something began to happen to them. The flames were no longer wild in character. They became controlled, and they almost seemed to form a shape. I think I was the only one to notice the unnatural occurance while everyone else was in conversation. They flame seemed to fight it at first, but it was eventually conformed into the shape. A head of a bird seemed to form in the flames. My eyes grew wider as the form took shape in more detail, and as the bird grew a body and wings, people started to take notice of it. “A Phoenix!” I heard Garen gasp.

I ripped my eyes away from the scene and looked at Garen and asked, “So a Phoenix is made of flames and not an actual bird?”

“It depends…Sometimes it is an actual bird, but if it is a spirit it’s made out of flames. I have never seen a spirit Phoenix before. It looks beautiful…” Piped up Sasha.

I turned my eyes back toward the spirit phoenix, and it was creating a massive wind surge from the flames it was giving off. The food we were cooking over the fire has been burnt to a crisp. Everyone stood in shock as the Phoenix formed it’s full body. When it had formed it’s legs, it spread out it’s wings and dove straight at me. I could feel the heat emanating out of the flaming bird, and just when I thought I was going to get roasted, it vanished.

I opened my eyes from bracing myself for the blow, and the Spirit Phoenix was gone. I looked around for it, as did everyone else, but I saw nothing. There was no evidence that the Phoenix was even there aside from the burnt out fire and burnt food. Out of the silence of the shocked group, a loud hardy laugh could be heard ringing out. Conor was out away from the fire, and he was laughing so hard he was rolling around on the ground. In between laughs, he managed to let out, “Yeh…Should have…Seen yeh faces! HAHAHA!”

Garen’s look of awe from before quickly turned to disgust and disappointment when he heard Conor’s words. Garen’s eyes burned with fury as he exclaimed, “Of course!”

I didn’t really mind the fact that he made the prank itself, but I was mad at the fact that he burned my food in the process. I went over to the food, and I touched them. The burnt food fell into ash as soon as my finger touched it. My heart sank as I watched the food fall to the ground in a pile of ash. Garen stood up from his seat and told everybody, “Well, since the food is gone, let’s start walking again. No sense in staying here for no reason. You can all blame the leprechaun for no lunch!”

That remark was met with a lot of groans, and Sasha out groaned all of them saying, “I’m going to kill that wretched beast!”

As she moved towards Conor, John stepped in front of her saying, “Come on… It’s not thatbad. It could have been way worse. Let’s just get ready and move on.”

This made me admire John even more. I can’t believe that he was able to stand up to Sasha when she was in that scary angry state. I don’t know why exactly he would care enough to defend Conor though. It doesn’t matter to me though. Even though I was looking forward to the meal, I’m used to not eating a lot from my foster care days. I helped the others pack the things back up, and apologized to some while I did so. After we packed everything up, we started the long trek to the lake again. This is going to take forever…

▌│█║▌║▌║To be Continued║▌║▌║█│▌