The flight of the Phinex

The Mortal Immortal

Of all immortals of Calinia, Stace, the phinex, knew what it was to die. For a phinex will die many deaths in one long, never ending life time. They are born in flame, a flame that no one knows exactly how was started, but once lit burned eternally. Such as one might imagine a phenix’s life is much like the burning of a candle. It is lit, and will burn, increasingly brighter until the wick runs down to the wax and the fire is slowly extinguished, but in the case of a phinex this flame is then re-kindled and life begins anew. A phinex will live for aporxemently one thousand years, then, returning to the place of it’s birth, it will engulf it’s self in a flame and burn to ash. Only from this ash it will re-arise, new, and more spectacular then before. It’s life is rebegun, and from the fire of which it came, and for all who see it, it is a symbol of life everlasting, and fertility. For Stace, it was more like the shedding of an animal of it’s winter coat and the growth of a lighter one for spring, this in turn to be shed for the still lighter coat of summer. And Stace alone, of all immortals cares for the passing of the seasons, for it was always in the season of heat, summer as it was called by the humans of Rivian, that a phinex must die. The planet’s relative closeness to the sun during this time is crucial to start the flame of new life. Stace had been alive for some nine hundred years and was beginning to grow tiered. She knew that her end grew nearer every day and that she would have to begin her long flight toward her birth place of Tankin. Tankin was a tropical place full of deep green growing things that reached like hands into the silver gray skys, and seemed nearly to touch the heavens themselves. The winds were hot and humid like the air that tumbles threw dank valleys and onto sweating children’s faces. And the people of these tropic had told stories. The legend told of a great bird that would return in a thousand years to it’s nesting place atop the great fire-mountain of Lallalie. And that if one were to capture one, which as one can imagine would be rather difficult, one would gain a number of advantages, among these were: eternal life, fertility, and radiant youth; and one of these great birds of legend was do back in less then a year. The people of Tankin were frantic. Nets, rope, medallions, good luck charms, spell books, pendulums, bows and arrows, hooks, and a number of other useful items went on sale in local markets. Carefully crafted woven baskets filled with gem stones lay as bait, and the jungles were littered with traps. Some were obvious, hanging from trees and placed limply upon the ground, but others were meticulously hidden in the shadows and covered with dry leaves and bark so that even the best of eyes couldn’t spot them. Every thing as in order to welcome Stace home after years of freely soaring the skys. Stace had been traveling home word for many days now and was nearly to the great sea that separated Tankin from the main land-mass of Colinia. She thought longingly of her friends back at Rivian, of Illutiana who, in her youth taunted and teased Stace for having to make such a journey, and of the human-like Demmy, who had bid her, “Don’t go.” In a saddened whisper as she lay a gentle hand on Stace’s long, feathery, neck as if it were for the last time. She thought of Meristide who sagely said that it was simply ‘right’ for her to go, and for the first time she began to regret making these trips over so much land, so often. She reached Tankin in a flourish and touched down on a thick stump of elm to rest. There, in that moment, she felt a pain shoot through her wing, a bite like the teeth of a tiger, yet stronger, relentless, she tryed to flap but a jarring pain raced through her with every attempt at movement. Feeling week she made one last desperate effort before the night fell over her eyes and she lost consciousness.