There once was a wise, impatient phoenix. He lived in Sky Pheonixia, (Phoenix Skyvillage) the great skies of the land. Golden-feathered phoenixes lived free lives in wing-made huts sometimes constructed on lush Skyoaks. The late afternoon sun shone happily above the Skyvillage, and everyone thought it would be a great and lucky day, from start to end.

The phoenix did not have a name. His mother had been presumed dead, and his father disappeared during the revival of the terrifying Dark Ashgle, a phoenix born with too much ash and hatred. But this day presents him one bright thing in his life: our phoenix is about to be named in the cover of this delightful sunshine. In Phoenix legend, when one has reached their adulthood, only then will they have an official name. The name would cost phoenixflame energy to create it, and the name you are given is the title you will hold either in the future or present.

Whoosh!

CRASH!

“Owwww,” the purple-gold phoenix moaned. “Do you HAVE to live somewhere so full of trees? And why are they growing on a cloud?!”

“Go on.”

“Whaaat?” the purple phoenix groaned and swung back her half gold, half orange-yellow hair. She turned to face the clean, gold picture of the impatient phoenix.

“Hurry up, I have an appointment after this, phoenix.” he snapped.

“My name is Mriathiana, fledgling. It means legend and nature, and I am holding this title now. Respect.” she hissed and flipped open a notebook taken from her layers of mystical feathers.

“I am not a fledgling,” the phoenix replied, but instinctively he nodded to let Mriathiana talk.

“Okay, listen up. I have checked the Names Left Book and apparently, only the names Birdhead and The are left over.”

The phoenix considered this for a moment. Of course, he thought, Birdhead is surely a more sensible name. He ruffled his wings and yawned.

“I will go for Birdhead, please.”

“Okay. If that is the case, I will need two hundred phoenixflames to create the name.” Mriathiana hastily made a note on the notebook.

“Two hundred?!” the phoenix roared. His beak opened in such shock that if someone climbed it, they would have reached the Moon.

“WHY? Why is it SO expensive?!”

“AHEM. Birdhead means the God/Goddess, or King/Queen of all birds, depending on what you believe in. As you can tell it is a very powerful and valuable name.”

“So, then… How much does The cost?”

“A billion phoenixflames.”

“WHAT? A so simple name for THAT much?!”

“The can mean anything. It could be the most superior object or living organism in the world.”

“FIINE, Birdhead, then. Now… the pheonixflames.”

The phoenix held two wings in front of him, one below the other, both facing eachother. A small golden light began to flow between them. Slowly, a visible sphere appeared in the bridge.

“That is one,” Mriathiana said.

Orange streams of light dashed across the sky from the glowing orb.

“Two hundred.” Mriathiana nodded, and she reached out a wing to hold the golden sphere. She crushed it with the strength of her wingtips, creating golden streaks around the phoenix, from that specific moment, known as Birdhead.

Rumble…Crack.

“What?” Birdhead flapped his wings to hover over the edge of the cloud. He peered down. “What in the name of Pheonixia – is happening?”

Mriathiana joined him, flapping her sleek wings and shaking her gold-orange hair behind her purple back. Her eyes widened and she lost her balance for a second. “Impossible.”

A dark shape rose. The small phoenix gasped and grabbed at his father, pulling his scarlet feathers back.

“Daddy, where are you going?”

“Shoosh, hon.”

The father pushed his son aside.

“I am going to save you, birdy. And the world, too.”

“But…why? Why does the world need saving?”

“Birdy…do you know that shadow and light are two sides of the same coin and that one cannot exist without the other? The Ashgle is rising…and I must stop it.”

“Ashgle? I don’t know what you mean, daddy.”

“Shoosh, son. I will be back before you know it.”

And with beats of his powerful wings, the father flew away, as the son glimpsed the last sights of him, unaware of the future that lay in his wings.

“Aaaugh!” Birdhead moaned and cast thoughts away.

A dark shape rose.

Birdhead hurriedly landed back on the cloud.

The Ashgle is rising…

Unaware of his unusual behaviour, Mriathiana sighed and looked down

at the rising Dark Ashgle. “We are doomed…to death, I presume.”

“No. You are NOT! Not you either, BirdHEAD!”

Birdhead yelped as a blue snake-like creature appeared by his side. She adjusted her white wings and patted him with a rainbow-feathered tail. “Heeey kid. My name is Zelda, an occamy. Nice to scare you. I did NOT expect you to have a companion. Well, technically, I DID predict that. So, hey, I am a prophet, or what I like, prophetional. Makes me sound professional. Geddit? Okay. Well, let us start from the beginning, or will you like to introduce yourself? No?”

Birdhead hit her with his wing to stop her from talking. “My name is Birdhead, and I would like you to talk ten times slower. And why are you here?”

“To save the world, bud. For you to.”

The Ashgle is rising…and I must stop it.

“Um. Does that mean disappearing forever?” Birdhead turned curiously at Mriathiana.

She was staring up at the sky. Her head tilted from side to side, like a little sparrow observing a bowl of seeds.

“Help,” she muttered, and with one swift movement she was off.

“What was that?” Birdhead wondered aloud.

“Cheers,” Zelda said happily.

A gigantic bird landed so suddenly by Birdhead’s side that he shrieked loud enough for Zelda to thwack him in the face.

“Be nice, bird.”

Its feathers were a mixture of pink and blue. He had two strong claws at the front, two muscular horse legs at the back. His powerful wings spread out wider than the largest cloud in Sky Phoenixia.

Zelda grinned and patted Birdhead again.

“That’s Beaky, or Beakfall. Don’t try and be freaked out by his presence. Deep down, he has a heart of gold.”

Beakfall snorted. “Are we going?”

Zelda leapt joyfully onto his back and winked.

“Wait, where are you guys going? You just came here and told me, hey kid, stop Ashgle. What am I supposed to do?” Birdhead cried out in alarm.

“Awwww, it’s not like you can stop Ashgle without a teeeeeam.” Zelda teased.

“What do you mean?” Birdhead started, but a gust of wind knocked him down and he hit his head against a Skyoak.

Beakfall lifted off with Zelda clinging onto his neck.

“In the name of Pheonixia!”

Birdhead groaned and chased after them, taking a glimpse of Ashgle below.

A distant voice came forth, as Birdhead caught up with the two. “WAIT! PLEASE!”

Birdhead and Beakfall came to a halt, turning around to see Mriathiana, hurriedly flapping her wings. “I-I want to help, too.”

Zelda frowned. “Really?”

Mriathiana sighed and lifted her wing to reveal a golden necklace around her neck. With one swift movement she took it off, the gold chain disappearing in thin air. Slowly, her purple feathers turned a light shade of gold, and a curious magenta-pink diamond formed on her forehead. Her hair grew longer, with orange tips of feathers at the end.

“Really?” Beakfall repeated. “Reeeeeeeeally?”

“Whaddaya mean? It was a simple hex to change me.” Mriathiana snorted. “And my name is Myrtlelana.”

“SIMPLE hex?” Beakfall roared, shocked. “That hex is basically LOSING YOUR LIFE! You are very lucky you chose to use a necklace to conceal that spell. If it were one of your organs, you would be DEAD.”

Zelda yawned. “Okay, enough with deadly chit-chat. Of course you can come, Myrtlelana. The more the better.”

Huh, Birdhead thought. You only just met her for what, one second. How can you trust her?

She is a PROPHET, another voice yelled in his head.

“We’re going to Flutterpeach Village. Then to Phoenix Flames’Gate. Let’s hope we get there before anyone else does, which I don’t think anybody will go anyway. Lucky! We’ll complete three trials, and ta-da! The Fire of Courage presented by the Lord of the Dragons. Using that, we can stop Ashgle and his horrible plans! I’ve got this whole thing planned out, and man, it’s going greeeat! I love being prophetional!” Zelda exclaimed, smiling warmly at Birdhead.

Birdhead tried to smile back, but he felt uncomfortable inside smiling to a weird flying snake who he had only met for two minutes. Myrtlelana grinned and the four continued to fly.

Soon, a giant tree of pink blossoms came into sight. Its roots remained in the land and the tallest branch towered over the peaceful clouds. If you looked hard enough, you could see miniscule wooden huts, and if you looked even harder, the tiniest flutterpeaches flapping their little leaves around the tree. As the quartet flew closer and closer, Birdhead begun to wonder more about the other great places of his world. He wondered whether Ashgle was powerful enough to destroy them.

“Birdhead, look.” Zelda pointed to a flutterpeach reading a long scroll of illegible handwriting, sitting on the third-highest platform visible, located on the giant, pink tree. “He is the flutterpeach Elder, Leafi. Lee-fie. Normally he will keep watch of the village and watch for intruders. But as you can see, since Ashgle is back, he is busy with sorting things out and trying to recruit other flutterpeaches to protect their home. We can go there and ask him where Peachu is. Old friend. She has got some wits to help us.”

Gliding carefully along with Beakfall and Myrtlelana, they reached the edge of the platform, greeted by a grumpy Elder.

“HEY! What NOW?!”

“Excuuuse me, ahem,” Zelda, poking her head to the left of Beakfall’s neck. “You SHOULD remember me, aaaaah.”

“I have no memory when dealing with seriousness, Zelda,” Leafi snorted.

“Oooh, he’s meeean,” Myrtlelana whispered from the back.

Beakfall yawned noisily, and Leafi turned to look at him, surprised.

“Who are you…uh…?” Leafi asked cautiously.

“I am Beakfall, you are looking at, and seriously, some mythicimals (Which in their world, meant ‘people’ or citizens) need to be smarter these days.”

Leafi backed away in fright, and Zelda sighed, hopping of the sleek back of Beakfall. “Don’t be intimidated, that’s just how he is… with a pure heart of gold.”

“I’m Myrtlelana,” Myrtlelana said quietly, trying to break up the commotion.

“I’m Birdhead,” Birdhead added. “Uhh, and no need to argue either, hm?”

Zelda rolled her eyes. “Ya know where Peachu is?”

Leafi continued to stare up at the intimidating figure of Beakfall, “Er, last I saw, er, library, er. Myrtle trees on top of the hut, er, the level below. Er-hem.”

Beakfall made a face and picked Zelda up. Birdhead patted the Elder’s head, leaving him wide-eyed as they flew down to the library. Myrtlelana did a backflip in the air as the four swerved to the right to see the little hut with myrtle trees stretching neatly over it.

“You guys wait, I’ll talk to Peachu.” Zelda leapt off Beakfall as he landed on a thick branch. She slithered towards the library hut’s door, which was

shaped like a little circle, too small for any creature except a flutterpeach to enter. The hut was a little like a Hobbit hole, except its shape was a large, wooden sphere extended at the back. Also, it was constructed on the branch

of an overgrown pink blossom (Which many mythicimals would think was a cherry blossom, but it was not) tree. A little flat roof lay at the top, which was mostly covered by the expanding, white myrtle trees.

Zelda knocked on the door, in which at the same time, she shrunk with her occamy powers turn half her size, about how small an average flutterpeach was. “Hello?” a voice came from inside.

“Hey, I am here to see Peachu.” Zelda replied. “Is she in there?”

There was a quiet shuffling noise as the flutterpeach inside tried to find Peachu. “Peachu, there’s someone outside there to see you.”

“Ah, Zelda. About time.”

Peachu used her leaves to glide softly the round door. Slowly, the door creaked open. “Hi Zelda, what is it?”

“Peachu! Good to see you. Haven’t you noticed the recent rumble?”

“Oh that? I thought it was just a treequake.”

“It was Ashgle.”

“WHAAT? NO, YOU MUST BE KIDDING ME.”

Myrtlelana squawked in surprise and almost fell of the branch.

“I’m sorry, Peachu. It wasn’t ME who caused it anywaay you can help us whack boom him down. “Zelda said calmly. “Agree?”

Peachu rubbed her eyes and sighed. “I don’t think I can help.”

“You can.” Birdhead, Myrtlelana and Beakfall said simultaneously.

The little flutterpeach considered this for a moment. “Okay.”

Unnoticed in the distance, on a floating cloud, was a spying Ashdragon. She had menacing yellow eyes and blue and black scales. Watching the five mythicimals go, she lifted off and headed her own way, towards the Ash kingdom, the mountains of the dark. Her sense of direction was guided by the glorious sun, yet her master despised the light.

Finally, she reached the entrance of her master’s mountain. The Ashdragon walked in, heading down into the depths to find the throne room.

The staircases were dark and slippery because of the constant ash dripping down from the mountain walls. Most of the time, she would fly down the stairs for speed, but this day, she felt nervous meeting her master because she feared the five she had spied on would find out.

She walked in nervously. “Hello, Melody. What news?”

The soft, hoarse voice of her master echoed throughout the room. The Dark Ashgle, feathers black, luminiscent eyes of malice and claws of hatred.

“Master, I-” Melody hesitated. She thought of the possibilities.

If I don’t tell him, she thought. The five will not bother me. And maybe I could escape and help them. After all, I don’t really like Ashgle and how he sometimes treats me. If I do, the five could find out, and my life might be worse.

She made her decision.

It changed her life forever. “They weren’t doing much, that’s all I can say. They met up with an old friend in Flutterpeach. They said something about watermelons, so I don’t think they’re the ones trying to destroy you. Unless they are stupidly attempting to squash you with them, obviously.”

Ashgle nodded, his eyes staring coldly down at Melody. “Aaaah. You are dismissed then.”

“Thank you.”

Melody quickly rushed out. Her scales faded green and her horns blue. Clawing the steps and hoping for freedom, she swept out of the mountain

before any Ashdragon could notice she was there. “It is dangerous to go

alone.” Melody could hear her dead mother’s voice ringing in her ears as she flew towards the direction of Flutterpeach Village. I must find them.

“Off we gooooo-woo!” Zelda whooped and hopped onto Beakfall.

The quintet quickly lifted into the air, following Beakfall’s powerful flaps.

Melody made it just in time to see them leave. “HEY!” she yelled, trying to catch their attention.

“What now?” Beakfall turned to see a green dragon with a blue underbelly

waving wildly at them.

“I’m sorry to interfere, but can I help you destroy Ashgle?” Melody asked.

“How did you know we were doing that?” Birdhead said.

“I, uh, overheard you guys.”

“I’m fine,” Zelda proposed. “If you want to know why I think she’ll be great in our team, mind your own prophetional business.”

“Yeah, sure.” Myrtlelana added, shrugging.

“And maybe a team name, too, for fun.” Peachu said. “Team Wings?”

“Or the Mythicals?” Birdhead suggested.

“Yeah, why not.” Myrtlelana said. “Does Melody agree?”

“Well, I’m not the leader.”

Zelda’s a prophet thought Melody. That explains why she trusts me.

The Mythicals continued their journey north as the sun began to sink beneath the towering mountains on their left. The breeze was calm and soft.

Vast forests of cherry blossoms and oaks spread across the land, with little treehouses attached to the tallest trees.

“They were once the home to dragons,” Beakfall explained. “Before that stupid Ashgle took over, obviously.”

“What did he do?” Peachu said, aghast.

“He turned them to his slaves, Ashdragons. Most of them are under a spell. I remember that if one was to betray him, it would instantly reveal it, by transforming them back to who they were before. You’d be lucky to escape after you betray him, especially if you’re right in front of him.”

“Like me,” Melody put in.

“Huh?” Birdhead and Myrtlelana yelped.

“Yeah, I was a spy. I turned him down by lying.” Melody rolled her eyes.

“Is that what you mean by ‘Ashdragon’, though?” Birdhead pointed to a hovering black dragon, about fifteen metres away from them. It was the same as Melody’s appearance before she betrayed the Dark Ashgle, but larger and more muscular.

Its eyes slowly settled on them.

“Uh oh, Birdhead, you said that too loud,” Zelda said casually.

“CHAAAAAAARGE!”

The Mythicals went off in a flash.

“YAAAAAAAAAR!” Melody yelled. “I AM FULFILLING MY DESTINY!”

In an instant, as light and shadow clashed, the Ashdragon was tumbling down to the ground. Beakfall went after him like a thunderbolt. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” Zelda screamed.

Beakfall caught the dragon at the last second, and then settled him on the ground.

“Are you CRAZY?” Zelda shrieked.

“Remember, he is in slavery. If we killed all the Ashdragons, then the dragons would be led to extinction.”

“Oh.”

The other four landed down beside them. “Well, there’s the gate, right?” Beakfall sighed, pointing up.

“The Phoenix Flames’Gate.” Zelda added. “Home to the Lord of the Dragons.”

Birdhead looked up. A towering set of vines and flowers shaped in an arc grew from the lush ground. Little fireflies could be seen surrounding the Gate, with their glowing lights shining brightly, as the sun began to set lower and lower. Stone walls were built in a large circle, like a colosseum, connecting to the Gate.

“Beau-ti-ful.” Melody sighed. “The Dragon Lord isn’t an Ashdragon, though, right?”

“Ha, I’d like to see Ashgle try turn him into one.” Peachu mocked.

The Mythicals took a step.

And they entered the blessed light of the Dragon Lord’s home.

Posted 20/10/23