{M}ℝ𝕦𝕟 𝔸𝕨𝕒𝕪 | ✨𝕐𝕖𝕠𝕟𝕘𝕪𝕦 & 𝕊𝕠𝕠𝕜𝕒𝕚✨

Chapter 38

Night had finally come.

A saddened and newly lonely bird flew across the sky. His wings, now turned emerald green by the darkness of the night, silently flapped along with the wind.

The bird's heart felt heavy and a pack of tears threatened to fly away from his eyes. His flock had been torn away from him, murdered and wiped out by the servants of malice. 

His sanctuary, the great tree that had always provided him with fruit and a cozy place to rest, was now tainted with the blood he hadn't been able to stop from spilling once his fear had made him fly away.

Everything that Toto had come to know after Hwajae's departure was gone. There was no place hide now and time was ticking. Eclipse knew about his existence and so did Yeonjun. The place had had run away to was not safe for him any longer. . . He needed to seek someone else.

The once great and majestic red phoenix weaved against the lianas and the greenery that the jungle provided and continued with his silent flight. He was holding a small moonflower in his beak with the intention of communicating with someone of high power. 

After much flying, he finally found the moon-kissed swamp he had been looking for. The dark waters were covered by waterlilies and moss. There were a few rocks jotting out the water, their gray coloration being hidden away by the same cloak of moss that covered the water. 

Toto flew over to one of the jotted rocks and and settled upon it. He folded his wings and slowly leaned down, placing the moonflower onto the water carefully. 

Once the offering was delicately floating in the water, Toto lifted his head towards the clear white moon and began a nightly whistling.

The whistling was more like a melody; a song asking for the graceful moon to kindly share its light and shine over the swamp.

As the grieving bird continued to the chorus, moonlight finally hit the waters of the swam, lighting every shadow up and turning it into a silvery white color.

Even if the swamp was finally shining with the moon's light, Toto continued to whistle. His melody getting louder and louder as he called out for the island's spirit to come and give him a helping hand.

Suddenly, the flower that had been floating in the water began to shine with its own light, the petals grew to great lengths as its form began to twist and turn into the familiar figure of a centaur.

The creature rose from the water and gracefully galloped towards the shore, antlers hanged from his head and his tall frame made him look even more astonishing to look at. Anyone that dared to even gaze at him would think that the event happening was a mere illusion if not a dream.

Moonflowers bloomed on the centaur's antlers as his brown dragon-shaped eyes opened up to look down at the small green parrot who's song was still lingering between the wind.

The centaur nodded at the bird and lowered himself to the ground, his front legs folding so his lower half was comfortably laying down against the soft grass and flowers that grew around him. 

"I'm finally here, am I not?" The centaur held the bird between his hands. "There's no reason to keep your melody going, little Toto."

Toto stopped his singing and looked at the spirit in front of him, he wanted to say so many things, but his lack of vocabulary only let him squeak and cry incoherently.  Toto stopped for a second realizing that the only things he was saying was a blabber of bird noises, and heaved a frustrated sigh.