Dragon Versus Phoenix

I didn’t notice the effects of the fire until I paid closer attention. It didn’t burn everything. The trees remained untouched, though engulfed by glowing layers of flame. It crackled, but not entirely. There was extreme heat, but it wasn’t burning.

What is this? Everything is in flames. But at the same time… nothing is?

I felt the heat on my skin. It was real. But the more I ran within the wildfire, the more I noticed I wasn’t harmed by it. That gave me reassurance as I headed for the source of rumbling and fighting.

I can smell flowers wherever the flames are. What is this?

Not a single tree burned down. Just the slow drift of embers, snowing on the underbrush like sprinkles of grey glitter. It was fire, but not as the world knew it. It felt controlled. No rage.

Is the fire only burning dead things? Like dead leaves and fallen logs?

Mede’s flames moved like light through water, gentle and golden, with a hint of pink and red. His fire danced over the forest with a purpose, not destruction. I followed it.

Celphi was right. Mede wouldn’t harm the environment.

He didn’t burn the living with his fire. Rotting branches, lifeless leaves, decaying moss, something that looks like a fallen nest, gone in a wave of gold and pink. The trees stood unharmed, their roots undisturbed.

Oh wow. I need to know more about phoenixes. No wonder they’re a beloved mythical creature. I’ve never heard of anyone who feared phoenixes back on Earth. They’ve always been tied to good things. I thought their fire was destructive, I didn’t know they’re gentle.

I nodded to myself, trying to rack my memory from past classes. Suddenly, I was an expert on mythology. Must’ve been the fumes of burnt flowers I couldn’t see. Speaking of smoke, there wasn’t any.

Oh wow. This is a fire that cleanses!

This was Mede’s energy. Kind, healing and powerful.

Impressive. I can only imagine his heart also reflects the same.

*Boom*

Wings flared and talons blazing, Mede struck Celphi like a comet. He was decisive and accurate.

No way…

The world blurred. One moment, I was scanning the forest and skies. The next, Celphi’s massive serpentine body was driven from the sky. He crashed downward with such force that he hit the forest like a meteor, tearing through the canopy, dragging whole trees with him.

“CELPHI!” I screamed, holding back tears as I ran.

My legs burned as I sprinted through the shattered forest, dodging jagged branches and cracked earth.

And I was just thinking Mede was kind…

The momentum of Celphi being thrown dragged on for a while. I ran meters before I caught up with his tattered body. His form shifted back, from creature to human, as he swept part of the forest with him.

I just had to glare at the source. Mede.

How dare you?

In his full phoenix form, he was nothing short of divine. He hovered in the air, wings outstretched, impossibly vast, forty feet or more in length, almost the width of a small football field. Each feather burned with golden fire that shimmered between light and heat.

His feathers were radiant gradients of molten gold, sunlit copper, and deep, luminous crimson red. Some shimmered with faint traces of white-blue and pink at the tips. Each of his feathers on his body and tail flowed, rippling like silk through the air with every beat of his wings.

He wore his tail behind him proudly like a bride parading her sparkly train gown. It was a magnificent banner of living flame. Long, elegant, and hypnotic. As Mede took flight, the tail fans out like a blazing arc, leaving a fiery spiral in the sky that lingered for moments.

His aura was steady, patient and wise. He looked like he was going to swoop in to take me, but he paused when he saw my face. Anger, worry, sadness all contorting together.

How dare you do this to my Celphi?

For the first time, the world smelled of smoke and burning leaves. Devastation surrounded me. All I could see was Celphi, broken beneath twisted wreckage. I climbed fallen debris and leapt over a trunk, nearly twisting my ankle.

‘CELPHI!’ Despite not knowing the extent of his injuries, I threw myself at him and was already crying before I knew it.

’Please don’t die. Please don’t die. Please don’t die.’ I was barely able to pronounce properly as I pressed my face on his chest.

How do you even perform CPR on a mythical creature?

‘I think this is when you announce your undying love for me’, he said weakly, still managing that confident Celphi demeanor.

’Celphi!’ I looked up at his face.

’You can also just kiss me. Another manner to declare your affection for me’, he whispered, not to my ears, but to my lips.

As a healthcare provider, I was supposed to prevent harm, not cause more. But this was me. And bold Celphi. My palms met his face with a crunch.

‘Ouch,’ he muttered, though a smile crept across his lips.

‘You can’t worry me like that. Who will I complain to now about my life.’

I buried my face in his neck, wrapped my arms around him. It took him a moment, but he hugged me back. He must’ve been in pain.

’Let’s stop this already. Stop fighting now. Let’s surrender.’

’No. I am doing this for you,’ he said in between heavy breathing.

‘Let me go with him. I mean with you. Let’s all go.’ I pleaded.

‘Very well,’ another voice cut in. I heard as I got removed from Celphi.

‘Oofff!’ Wind was knocked out of me, not from pressure, but from the suddenness of it all.

Mede’s grip was firm but calm as he picked me up. Nothing like Celphi’s yearning touch. Mede held me like fragile luggage. Handled gently but moved with efficiency and speed.

‘NO! CELPHI!’ I screamed as I reached for him.

I won’t go anywhere without him.

The world below vanished in an instant. The shattered forest turned upside down. The blue sky closed in. Celphi’s wounded cries faded as Mede soared higher, carrying me into the sky.

Wet and cold wind whipped past my face. The ground shrank rapidly, turning from a chaotic mess of broken trees and smoke to a distant patchwork of green and small ash.

My heart raced, pounding from concern for Celphi’s welfare, fear of falling and disbelief that I was taken yet again. The height, the speed, the shock of it all was dizzying.

Mede’s talons were keeping me secure from wriggling myself free as he flew in his phoenix form. His sharp claws were hidden as he held me. I almost gasped at how beautiful his fire was, looking from above. But that wasn't the time to admire the beauty of his power.

‘Stop! Stop it immediately! Return me to Celphi!’ I finally managed to say.

‘You don’t want to be around him anytime soon. He is the most dangerous being in this world at this moment. Or in any worlds’.

‘NO! Not true.’

‘CELPHI COME HOLD ME AND DON’T LET ME GO!’

‘You~’ Mede wasn't able to finish his sentence.

Just as suddenly as I was lifted, the sky went black. I forgot how to breathe. I was disoriented. Wind screamed past my ears. I was falling. Nothing beneath my feet but endless blue. Helpless twists of the stomach prevented me from screaming. The world became a blur of flame and wings. A strong grip on my waist caught me in the midst of it all.

Celphi? 

No, it was Mede.

One talon wrapped around me with startling gentleness. The other one had claws out ready to fight. The heat of his body wrapped around mine. Not burning, but blazing and protective.

Of course. None of these men actually wants me to die. ASAP anyways.

Ahead, Celphi’s serpentine form rose. But something was changing. Shadows of wings and strange appendages were forming.

Is he… Is he having a breakthrough?

‘At this current state, you will bring the most harm to Raiona.’ Mede declared. ‘Back off while you can.’

Celphi hung in the air. His new transparent wings stretched wide. Light and mist bled from every scale of his reshaped body. His form was still shifting. He was becoming bigger and longer.

A pair of twisting horns rose from his head, curling gracefully backwards. Four clawed limbs hung along his body. His talons grasped the air like he could control it. Whiskers extended from his snout, twitching with tension, and his mouth glowed from the inside with pale light. Fog surrounded and covered his changing body, just like when I first saw him transform.

His sapphire blue eyes carried the heavy, unspoken promise of something beyond my understanding. Or memory. He was beautiful. Terrifying. Elegant and elemental.

He didn’t speak but the sky responded. Clouds shifted with his breath. Celphi has become something sacred and terrifyingly divine. A dragon.

His form flowed through the sky like a living river. Long, coiled, sinuous. And I couldn’t see the end behind him. His scales shimmered like gems in daylight. Each one fine and luminous, rippling with silver-blue energy. Wisps of mist clung to him, trailing behind his every movement.

So the man I was hugging each night turned out to be a god of sorts. WOW.

Celphi’s final form was nothing short of breathtaking. In conjunction with this, I felt something change within me as well. I felt more powerful. More capable.

‘Back off, Celphi,’ Mede said once more, voice cutting clean through the chaos. Not loud and not angry. Just clear.

How can he speak through his beak, though? Shouldn’t he be chirping or something?

A foolish thought that crossed my mind for a millisecond while I looked between them to assess the whole situation. Still in the safety of Mede’s grasp.

Celphi no longer resembled the serpentine creature I used to take rides on. No traces of the sweet Celphi I could see through the eyes of his final form. As beautifully blue they may be. What hovered above was a force. Myth incarnate, shaped in the body of a god.

Yeah. Mede is easy fried chicken with this one. Maybe me too.

‘Um, I think this is where you hand me over to him, Mede.’ I whispered carefully.

As much as I am terrified of being handed over to an actual full scale Asian dragon of a Celphi, the thought of being torn apart between the two creatures is more scarier.

Celphi roared upon hearing me speak, shaking the clouds.

Mede didn’t falter. He just opened his wings wider, fire burning in quiet rings around him.

‘Back. Off.’