Dragon Witch ✔️

13 - Familiar

My right leg twisted beneath me as I hit the ground. I cried out. As I tried to straighten my leg, my knee screamed in pain. Black spots danced across my vision. I gritted my teeth.

"What happened?" Kyton shouted, rushing to my side. He looked from the fallen ladder to my twisted leg. He gingerly touched my leg, and pain shot down my calf.

Hissing, I shoved him back. The pain in my leg dulled to a steady throbbing. What was I going to do about it? If my parents figured out I got hurt, they would want to take me to a hospital, but Grandma would want to heal me with magic. Cue World War Three. Maybe Kyton could heal it right here, and no one would have to know I got hurt.

"Can you heal it?" I asked.

Kyton shook his head. "I'm a sprite, not a pixie--but I can carry you inside." He slipped his arms under my legs and back. As he stood, he painfully jostled my leg.

That wasn't even the worst of it. He was much too close to me, and his cool magic fogged my thoughts. My mouth watered. If I just twisted a little bit, I could sink my fangs into his-

"Put me down," I shouted.

Obviously surprised, he dropped me. I landed on my tailbone, and I could've sworn something snapped. Great, now my rear hurt as much as my leg.

"Sorry." Kyton started crouching next to me, but I waved him away.

Gritting my teeth, I said, "Go get help."

"I'll be back in a-"

The little phoenix dove off the rafter with an ear-piercing screech. She landed on my bad knee with enough force to make me yelp. Chirping furiously, she raised her wings over her head and glared at Kyton. He pushed up his glasses and chirped back at her.

Why wasn't he talking in English like he had with Starling? Duh, Starling was a bonded familiar. She'd learned English from Grandpa. A wild phoenix like this wouldn't know our language.

The phoenix jumped up and down on my knee, shaking her wings. Electric blue flames leapt from every single one of her feathers. Her claws dug into my knee, and even her minimal weight made the pain worse. Not to mention, catching on fire was the last thing I needed right now.

Kyton reached out his hand, chirping in a confrontational sort of way. The phoenix shrieked and bit his finger so hard it bled. He yanked his hand back.

I tried to shoo her away without getting within biting range. "I was just going to move you to another nest. I swear, I wasn't going to hurt you or anything."

She paused, head cocked. With an unnatural shudder, she dissolved into a pile of ash.

"Prip," Kyton cursed. He sifted through the ashes on my leg to reveal a ruby-red egg half the size of a chicken egg. Muttering under his breath, he tucked it in his pocket. "I'll fix this, I swear." Without another word, he jumped to his feet and ran out of the stable.

What the heck was he planning on fixing, the egg of the crazy phoenix who'd tried to catch me on fire? What about my leg? I brushed off the ashes. The knee of my pants was charcoal black, but my actual knee felt fine. Better than fine--it felt like I'd never fallen on it.

Keeping most of my weight on my left leg, I stood and carefully tested my right leg. It didn't even twinge. How- The phoenix, of course. She'd healed me for some reason. Maybe she wasn't as crazy or angry as I'd thought. As strange as it seemed, she might have felt bad for distracting me and making me fall.

Either way, something told me Kyton knew the answer.

***

I found Kyton in the kitchen, standing by the stove. He had one of the gas burners going, but the metal grill over the burner was missing. Something sat in the middle of the exposed blue flames, cooing happily. Barely larger than a cherry tomato, it looked like a tiny version of an uncooked chicken.