Dragon Versus Phoenix

I didn’t notice the effects of the fire until I paid close attention. It didn’t burn. Not everything. Only some things. The trees remained untouched as they were engulfed by glowing layers of flame. It crackled, but not entirely. There is heat, 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 too real. But the more I continued running within the wildfire, the more I noticed that I wasn't harmed by it. I continued to head for the source of rumbling and fighting, with this reassurance.

I can still smell flowers wherever the flames are. But I can’t see any. Though, to be fair, I do not know which of these plants are actually in bloom or not.

I realised not a single tree was burning down. Just the slow drift of embers, snowing down on the underbrush like sprinkles of grey glitter. It was fire, but not as the world knew it. No hunger. No rage.

Is his 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 the flames.

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

He did not 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 fears phoenixes back on Earth. It always has been a good thing associated with them.

I nod to myself as I try to rack my memory from past classes about this. I suddenly became an expert on mythology. It must’ve been the fumes of burnt flowers I couldn’t see. Speaking of smokes, there were none.

Oh wow. This is a fire that cleanses.

This is Mede’s energy. Kind. Healing. Powerful.

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

The air cracked. Silence too loud for comfort. Then impact.

*boom*

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

No way…

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

“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 his being thrown dragged on for a while. I had run a few meters until I was able to catch up with his tattered body. I saw his form change, from his creature form to his human form, 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 sacred. He hovered in the air, wings outstretched, impossibly vast, like 40 feet or more in length. Almost the width of a small football field. Each feather burned with a 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 in motion. As Mede took flight, the tail fans out like a blazing arc, leaving a fiery spiral in the sky that lingers for moments.

His aura was steady, patient and wise. He looked like he was going to swoop in to take me, but he paused after he saw the contortion of anger, worry and sadness on my face.

How dare you do this to my Celphi?

For the first time, the world smelled of smoke and burning leaves. Devastation surrounded me, and all I could see was Celphi, broken and crumpled beneath the twisted wreckage of fallen ancient trees. I had to climb fallen debris to get to him, leapt over a fallen trunk, nearly twisted my ankle, but forced myself on.

‘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, but still having the confident Celphi demeanor.

’Celphi!’ I looked up at him and was met by 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 promote prevention and promotion of health. Not to inflict more harm. However it’s me we are talking about. And bold Celphi. One can label the contact of my palms to his face as ‘crunchy’.

’Ouch.’ He said while a smile crept on his face.

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

I leaned my face on his neck and wrapped my arms around him. It took a while for his arms to return the favor, but he did hug me back eventually. He must’ve been very hurt.

’Let’s stop this already. Let me go with him. I mean with you. Let’s all go. Stop fighting now. Let’s surrender.’

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

’Very well’, I heard before I got removed from Celphi.

‘Oofff’, wind was knocked off of me, not from pressure, but from the suddenness of it all.

Mede's grip was firm but calm as he picked me up like I was a feather. Nothing like Celphi’s. I was something precious to be protected in Celphi’s arms. With Mede, I felt like fragile luggage. Treated gently but flung around with efficiency and urgnecy.

‘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. Blue skies are getting closer and closer. Celphi's wounded screams faded as Mede soared upward, lifting me into the sky.

The wind whipped past my face, cold and wild. 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 am yet again taken. The height, the speed, the shock of it all, it 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 covering the forest 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 weightless. Falling. Nothing beneath my feet but endless blue. My body remembered before my mind did. Helpless twists of the stomach.

I didn’t even have time to scream before the world became a blur of flame and wings. Then a strong grip on my waist.

Celphi? No, it was Mede.

His talons wrapped around me with startling gentleness, claws out and ready to fight, curved like steel, but his hold was careful, controlled. The heat of his body wrapped around mine. Not burning, but blazing. Protective.

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

Ahead of us, I saw what seemed to be Celphi’s serpentine creature version. But with a shadow of wings and appendages growing on him.

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 there in the air, his new transparent wings stretched wide, light bleeding from every scale, every crack in his reshaped body. His form was still shifting. He was becoming bigger and longer.

A pair of twisting antler-like horns rose from his head, curling gracefully backwards, humming with power. His mane, a flowing celestial mane, drifted in weightless strands along his neck and spine, glowing faintly with silver fire, as if lit from within him.

Celphi’s four clawed limbs hung along his body, talons tipped in crystal and mist, grasping the air like he longed to hold the world itself. 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, the winds obeying his will. 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 can’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…

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. Not angry. 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 serpent 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.’