Guardians

We continued following the phoenix until we reached a solid oak door.

"Do we go in?" I asked, afraid of what we could find on the other side.

"It's the only way to go," my friend replied, but even he sounded unsure.

"All right," I replied, and together we pulled the heavy door open. In the enclave before us, three Brethren wizards stared back at us.

"Hey!" one of them shouted; the cry startled the other two Brethren into action. I breathed a gasp as I struggled to push the door closed.

"No!" my friend cried as he put a hand on my arm. "We need to go through there!" We pulled the door open again, catching one of the wizards fully on the jaw with the handle. With a bloodcurdling battle cry, the phoenix flew outstretched into the room, talons and beak open wide. The other Brethren yelled out in surprise and ran from the bird of death as we headed towards the opposite door. We ran smack into two other Brethren, who had heard the commotion.

"Fillipio!" I shouted at the first wizard, and he was sent backwards into his follower. We pulled the door open as the second wizard grabbed at my boot. My friend's arm was suddenly there; he tore off the gripping hand, and we ran. Suddenly I stopped.

"Wait!" I shouted at my retreating friend. "Aren't we forgetting something? What about the phoenix?" My friend stopped and closed his eyes, searching with the Othersight. A few precious moments slipped by, and he returned to the real world.

"She says that we should go on without her," he said. Then he gave a sly grin. "I don't know about you, but I'm not going to let her steal all the glory." I smiled back.

"Neither am I," I replied, and we pushed the door back open. Feathers of beautiful fiery colors were everywhere; the phoenix herself was backed into a corner, surrounded by a half-dozen Brethren. Charging in full canter, I shouted out curses as counter-curses flew back at me. Suddenly everything stopped, and even the phoenix froze in panic. A huge slobbering troll appeared out of nowhere and loomed over us, roaring with terrible ferocity. One more moment of paralyzing fear, and we scrambled for cover from the horrifying monstrosity. The Brethren yelled out in terror, and before the troll could take a single step, they had disappeared. A huge column of air buffeted into me as the phoenix suddenly took flight. She yelled out a battle cry and attempted to take the troll head on. With a strange twist of fate, however, her talons, beak, and her entire body passed through the troll, like it hadn't been there at all. Then everything happened at once. The troll trembled violently and, without warning, simply vanished. The phoenix slammed hard into the wall, so when she struggled to rise, her right wing hung limp by her side.

"Wait!" my friend had shouted during this fiasco. I had completely forgotten about him when the troll had appeared seemingly out of nowhere.

"What happened?" I asked, suddenly very confused.

"The troll was an illusion," he answered, and the phoenix gave him a furious scream of shock. He quickly tried to defend his words. "I meant to tell you, but you just rushed in. You were going to get slaughtered; it was now or never."

"So the troll was never really there?" I asked. "How in the world did you pull that one off?!"

"Using the Othersight," he replied and shrugged his shoulders. "It's kind of complicated, though..." Not wanting to hear a detailed explanation, I shifted my attention to the phoenix, who was still lying on the floor. When I tried approaching her, she backed away, treating me as another threat.

"I just want to look at your wing," I pleaded with her. A few tense moments passed by when I could have sworn those talons were going to rip me apart, and she sat up straight, allowing me to step in. Although I wasn't an expert on birds, I could tell that her wing was badly bruised, maybe even broken. She also had countless scratches, bruises, and burns from her Brethren attackers, marring her beautiful plumage.

"You may have broken your wing," I concluded, "but that's only a possibility. All the same, I'm afraid you won't be doing any more flying for a while." This was met by a frustrated cry, but she didn't attack me in blind fury, much to my relief. She stood on her feet unsteadily but refused my aid.

"We don't have much time before they come back," my friend said in his calm, sensible way. I nodded in agreement, and the three of us continued as quickly as possible, much more cautious than before.