#REN3: Phoenix Tears, Part 4

Internet Book Fair Blogfest MonsterFest 2011: Penanggalan

#REN3: Phoenix Tears, Part 4

Gah! Darn combination of head cold and 11-hour work day! Curse youuu…

Please excuse the lack of polish, but I had to whip this together and post it in the space of an hour.

Prompts used: The misfortune is resolved/accepted; relationships mend/are torn asunder; the final event becomes another secret for generations to come; there is a new arrival in town.

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Phoenix Tears, Part 4
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"Phoenix Tears" by Renee LeCompte (Rene! Coincidence or what?) (click for picture source)

Rene ignored the stitch in his side as they ploughed down the mountain. Whether intentionally or not, the Phoenix had left a convenient trail of feathers for them to follow. Encumbered by the heavy cage, Cortez couldn't be much further. They should catch up with him soon.

He gasped as he slipped on some loose stones, narrowly escaping a thirty foot fall.

That is, if one of them didn't break their neck first.

Ana panted beside him, porcelain cheeks flushed, eyes flashing with grim determination. Considering the circumstances, he supposed she was taking the news of his impending demise pretty well.

As Ana turned a blind corner, she ran straight into the solid bulk of Cortez. Rene heard her utter a startled gasp, the wet sound of metal sinking into soft flesh. Ana crumpled to the ground. Cortez loomed over her, bloodied knife gleaming in his hand.

"Heard you guys coming from miles away," Cortez snickered. "So much for stealth and subtlety. You townspeople are like lost sheep in the wilderness. Easy pickings for wolves." He ran the blade across Ana's lifeless jaw. "And I, my friend, am a wolf."

"NOOO!!" Rene's own primal scream snapped him from his paralysis. He lunged at Cortez, who easily sidestepped him, tripping him up as he passed. Rene sprawled to the ground, skidding on loose gravel, inches from the cliff edge. Cortez was behind him, coming up fast. Grabbing a fistful of pebbles, he turned and flung them at Cortez. The man cried out, surprised and blinded. Rene grabbed his foot and pulled. Cortez slipped and fell on the shifting stones, his momentum sending him sliding off the precipice.

The man's screamed as he plunged to his death rose and fell like the mournful yowls of an injured wolf.

Rene rushed to Ana's side. Blood soaked the front of her shirt. Her complexion held a deathlike pallor.

"Oh Ana, what have I done?" This was all his fault.

A squawk drew his attention to the Phoenix, still imprisoned in its cage. It spread its fiery wings as soon as he released it, ready to take off, but seemed to hesitate. With eyes reflecting uncanny intelligence, it looked from Rene to Ana.

"Please," Rene said, his voice quivering but firm, "if you can spare any tears at all, use them to save her."

Feathers shimmering, the Phoenix approached Ana's body, its graceful neck curved, head bowed.

Then it shed crystal tears.

As Ana's chest rose with a flutter of breath, the Phoenix soared off towards the setting sun.

* * *

Ana placed the lone rose on the freshly turned soil of Rene's grave. The other mourners were gone, his fellow academics, all bemoaning a brilliant mind, who wasted his life pursuing a baseless myth.

But they shall never know how real the myth was, how Rene had destroyed his papers, photographs, even the feathers – all evidence of the existence of the Renaissance Phoenix.

Freedom from being hunted by greedy humans. That was the least they could do for a creature that once saved their town – and that had saved her.

She ran her fingers across the inscription on his headstone:

To live on in the hearts of others is to never die.

What Rene never knew – what even Ana hadn't known – was when he'd begged the Phoenix to heal Ana, he'd inadvertently saved more than one life.

Ana's hand dropped to her belly.