(Edited for dancing, auction-shouts, etc.)
[Shout] Fesra: I will tell a story while we rest.
[Shout] Fesra: It is a fable, one that I was told as a child, but which I have thought on often these past weeks.
[Shout] Fesra: It is the story of how the phoenix got its fire.
[Shout] Fesra: Once upon a time, there was a great Eagle, who was the mightiest hunter in the desert.
[Shout] Fesra: She was sharp of eye, fast of wing, and a terror of talons.
[Shout] Fesra: But in time she grew bored, for nothing in the desert posed a challenge to her.
[Shout] Fesra: She could chase down any hare, kill any animal, but she never found a worthy opponent.
[Shout] Fesra: So she began to hunt even those she would not eat.
[Shout] Fesra: She attacked the prickly cactus, and found it a worthy opponent for a time...
[Shout] Fesra: But soon she learned to break the spines, and the cactus was no more fun.
[Shout] Fesra: She attacked the rock, and dulled her beak against it for many months, and then many years...
[Shout] Fesra: but in time even that wore down beneath her blows and turned to sand.
[Shout] Fesra: Finally, ...
[Shout] Fesra: One day, when she thought she might expire from boredom, she flew over an oasis, and in the water she saw a creature like no other.
[Shout] Fesra: A ball of fire, that burned so brightly she could not look directly at it.
[Shout] Fesra: Keening with pleasure, the eagle folded her wings and dropped down upon the unsuspecting creature. It did not even try to flee.
[Shout] Fesra: But when she hit the water, she found nothing in her claws, the fire was gone.
[Shout] Fesra: Again and again the eagle climbed into the sky, again and again she dove, until she was wet and bedraggled, her feathers in disarray.
[Shout] Fesra: The fire was a clever opponent, it was not where it seemed to be...
[Shout] Fesra: Finally, eagle rested and looked up into the sky.
[Shout] Fesra: There was her opponent! Not in the water, but in the sky above!
[Shout] Fesra: The burning sun was the only enemy worth fighting.
[Shout] Fesra: Renewed, the Eagle shot like an arrow into the sky.
[Shout] Fesra: Up and up she climbed, fighting, struggling to reach the sun.
[Shout] Fesra: The air grew cold, the sky turned dark, but still she climbed.
[Shout] Fesra: Everytime she thought she could go no further, the sting of the light in her eyes goaded her on.
[Shout] Fesra: Finally, after an eternity, the fiercesome bird crashed into the Sun!
[Shout] Fesra: ...and was instantly burned to a crisp.
[Shout] Fesra: She fell from the sky in tatters, her feathers aflame.
[Shout] Belsameth: And Saedron felt the pain of her sister's death.
[Shout] Belsameth: And the Devourer was born from her madness.
[Shout] Fesra: But Krykhalin looked down upon her and saw her bravery, saw how fierce and persistent she was.
Fesra clears her throat.
[Shout] Fesra: And as the eagle faded into ash, Khalikryst breathed fire upon her, and Phoenix was raised from the flame.
[Shout] Fesra: So does the bird, another child of the sun, die each evening in its own flame, and rise each morning renewed.
[Shout] Fesra: And so do our people, though driven through all adversity by the fire in our hearts, rise anew eternally.
[Shout] Fesra: N'koth!