The Stegosorcerers

Chapter 8

     It had been several hours since Gus said goodbye. He'd been walking on a trail, thinking of what he should do. In all honesty, Gus was lost. He, much like other stegos, had always wanted to be a Stegosorcerer and he'd been one of the lucky ones to succeed. But now, he was lost.
     He didn't know what to do. Gus was thinking about where to go when he saw something colorful out of the corner of his eye. He looked over and saw a clump of dull orange, yellow, and red. Gus approached it. As he got closer, he realized it was alive.
     "Hey, buddy!" Gus greeted. The creature weakly crowed. Gus got closer to it. That was when he realized it was a phoenix! Or, wait, was it a fauxnix? Gus couldn't tell. "What's wrong?" Gus asked it.
     The bird crowed again and looked him. Gus approached it and realized what was wrong. It was cold. Phoenixes and fauxnixes both projected heat. This one was absorbing heat. It made the air around it cold.
     "Sorry, buddy! I don't know what to do. I don't think I can help!" Gus apologized. The bird looked at him and seemed to understand. Suddenly, the bird started cawing at Gus. More specifically, Gus' backpack. "Oh, that? The only thing in there is my stegostaff, but that was made with fauxnix feathers, so it only spews out sparks," Gus explained. "I can take it out and show you," Gus continued as he took it out.
     Suddenly, the bird lunged forward and swallowed the stegostaff in one gulp. Gus stared at it in shock, and was only more surprised when the bird started glowing. The bird then spit out a pile of ash and looked at Gus.
     "What, do you want me to collect it?" Gus asked jokingly. The bird cawed happily. "Oh, shit. You do want me to collect it then?" The bird nodded.
     Gus sighed and pulled his flask out from his backpack. He poured the whiskey out and carefully scooped the ash in. As he was tightening the cap, the bird picked Gus up and flew off. "The hell?!" Gus screamed.
                                          • • •
    Appendix stared out the window, thinking about Gus. She missed him. Over the past few days, she'd really began to think of him as a brother. She sighed and decided to take a walk.
     She'd been walking for a few minutes when she saw something bright orange in the sky. She looked up and saw a bird. The bird was holding something that was also orange, but it was more dull. Appendix squinted and realized it was Gus.
     "GUS!!" She screamed.
                                          • • •
     Gus heard his name and looked down. There stood Appendix. As he looked at her, the bird began to descend. Soon enough, they touched the ground. Feathers and Mister Hache had come running out after hearing Appendix scream.
     The two stared in shock.
      "Hello," Gus said awkwardly.
      "Gus, what happened?" Feathers asked. Gus sighed and began explaining.
     "Okay, so I was walking when I saw something orange. I walked over to it and realized it was a bird and the bird wanted to see my stegostaff, so I showed it to him. He swallowed it in one gulp, then spit out ashes and brought me here."
     "Do you happen to have the ashes?" Feathers asked. Gus nodded and pulled out the flask. Feathers looked into it and gasped.
     "Gus, this is incredible!" she said. Gus looked at her in confusion. "The bird you helped was a fauxnix. When a fauxnix spits out ash, it works as phoenix ask. And when a phoenix spits out ash, it works like fauxnix ash. The two species are closely related, which is why that happens.
     Gus, you have faux-phoenix ash!" She looked at him excitedly.