The tears of a Phoenix

Chapter 2. Sollairion pov

He saw her upon her golden mount rushing across the battlefield and he dove for her once more. She was the reason they were here. And he would be the one to take her. As she crashed from her horse shattering the arrow and blood flying all around her he posed mid air. What was she doing? She pulled what's left of the arrow from her hand ripping it even more apart as she rose to her feet. Now covered in mud, dirt and blood. He couldn't tell how much of the blood was hers. Standing before him now she didn't look like a princess. Her hair that had come loose from her ponytail now covered in mud and blood. Her clothes drenched by rain, mud and blood for others as well as her own. He spoke her name somehow needing the conformation that she was the one he was looking for. As her burning eyes met his he knew even before she spoke. "The one and only, bird face." He snorts. She was surely the one. "Give yourself to us now and we shall spare your people." She tilted her head sideways with a grin on her face, mocking and judging him. "I think not." She raised her bloody hand toward the sky and lightning struck across the sky once more. The pain was so powerful that he couldn't even scream as the lightning struck through him. He crashed into the dirt losing the grip on his magic. Back in human form he gasped. Dirt and mud filled his mouth as he moved to breath in air. He lifted his body of the ground and spat out mud and blood. Footsteps approached and his vision went in and out of focus as she stood before him now. Her bloodied hand drew a blade as she knelt over him. "I win." He could make out green eyes as she lifted the blade to his throat. Then those green eyes grew wide and she screamed dropping the blade.

Confused he blinked as the world slowly came back into focus. The princess lay before him groaning in pain trying to rid herself of an arrow that had pierced into her back. "Hurry up and get the girl so we can leave!" He heard his friend shout. Raucy stumbled toward him. His leg had been greatly injured. He held a bow in his hands. "Shift Sollairion!" Sollairion nodded at his friend as he summoned his magic and shifted into a phoenix again. This time though a phoenix with red and golden feathers, not flames. He reached down to grab the princess in his talons but the girl had other plans. She rolled over breaking the arrow in her back yet also driving it deeper into her. Yet she didn't scream. She got to her feet and ran back into the chaos of the battlefield. "By all the fire in the world." He cursed. This bitch wouldn't make this easy for him. He dove into the chaos with a war cry. He tore a soldier apart and scratched open his horse and left it there bleeding on the ground. Arrows pierced his wings as he cried out in pain. He kept flying no time to waste on those men. The girl was all that mattered. Above him lightning stuck again and he heard two of his comrades cry out. He rose in the air looking for his fallen comrades. His eyes fell upon her as ice and wind swirled around her. Before her lay two of his comrades, bleeding and beaten. Her hand shot forward releasing her magic upon them. Their dying screams echoed in his head as he screamed as well. he dove for her filled with rage. The plan was to take her alive but Sollairion wanted to see her bleed. She turned toward him and lifted her good hand twisting it at the same time his wings twisted in an unnatural position. He cried out in pain as he crashed into to ground and slides to a stop before the princess. Her red eyes stared into his. Dark and empty.

Had he not seen it himself he would never have believed it. This girl had reached into the gift of a god and something had taken possession of her. She twisted her hand again. He screamed as his leg broke and he looked at her with pleading eyes. Yet the girl only grinned at him. Fear crept through him. Was this how he would die? The battle raged on around them. How did nobody notice this? How did nobody see they had much greater problems now. If the princess was possessed by a demon it was all over. The princess approached him her eyes never leave his. She kneeled before him. "Sollairion... Prince of flames." Her voice was still the same but something about it was off. "This is where you will die, princes of flames." She placed a hand on his head and pain courses through him. He felt his body breaking apart. From the inside and outside. Something pushed inward and something pushed outward crushing him in between. He wanted it to all to end. He cried out begging her to kill him. To make it all stop. Pain was all he knew. Pain and those red eyes.

He must have imagined it but something changed in those red eyes just for a moment. There had been a glimmer of light, a bright green. The eye colour of Princess Isaletta. A blast shook the ground and blew him away from the girl's grip. Her magic released him and he struggled onto his feet hissing at the pain. His leg was broken in two different places he knew from the way it lay beside him. He flapped his wings rising into the air hovering above the girl. She had been hit by the blast as well. Strange, the blast had come from her. She lay on her back panting. Then her body shook and she rolled sideways as she started coughing up blood. Her body trembled and she screamed. It was a nerve wracking sound. She hugged herself as she kept screaming in pain. Her screams only broken by her coughing up more blood. Sollairion didn't know how long he watched that scene but at some point she stopped coughing up blood. She rose to her feet trembling and he prepared to attack and kill her as she turned toward him. He dove with a battle cry but stopped and hovered before her as her saw her face expression. The girl looked pale, drained of all colour. Blood dripped from her mouth colouring her clothes as well. Her eyes were filled with tears and also green. Her eyes were green. Human eyes not a demon, a human girl stood before him. Her eyes met his and he saw her pain and defeat in them. Then she collapsed on the ground. He hovered for a moment longer questioning whether or not he should still kill her. Then decided to take her instead. He took her carefully in he's good talon as he rose into the sky. He flew north as he roared their retreat signal. Some of his comrades repeated his cry and they fled the battlefield. Shouts of victory came from the men beneath. Little did they know this wasn't a victory at all.