A Strange Struggle Of Life [M] {Open}

She blinked rapidly, ridding the tears which stung her eyes as she slammed the diary shut and clipped the lock on it, shoving it into her bag. She didn’t know why, but she had always had to write something down into her diary at least once a week. Usually, she was compelled to write in it every day, but she had been so busy this week that she hadn’t had a chance except for today. Running away from people could do that. And being hunted by a mage wasn’t exactly fun, in fact it made everything a hell of a lot harder to deal with.

Mages, after all, were the creatures which had wiped out her species five hundred years ago. They weren’t someone, in which anybody could take lightly, she was just lucky that she had managed to escape that day. Though not without injury. No, she had sustained many injuries, some which were life threatening. But she had managed to survive with the help of a single human boy and the forest animals. They had nursed her back to health, even knowing what she was. From then on, she had faith in the human race that they could one day coexist.. But that was proving easier said than done.

Shaking her head, she flicked her long blonde hair over her shoulders with a sigh. Her blue eyes stared into the trees as she pushed herself to her feet and started to move. She couldn’t stay in one place for too long; she’d be found. Pushing the overhanging branches out of the way, ducking occasionally when she couldn’t move them. Pushing through a bush, she came to a road and she smiled, relieved she finally found something. She pushed the brim of her hat down and she started to run. She ran and ran until the town finally came into view. A multitude of scents hit her as soon as she came near it. Freshly baked bread, meat both raw and cooked, sweets and chocolate and many other things. She inhaled deeply and a smiled spread across her features as she stepped into the confines of the town. This was the place to be. Even if the forest was peaceful, towns were awesome; they supplied the best foods, after all.

Walking over to a hotdog stand, she bought one with barbeque sauce and onions and then walked off. Taking a bite, she moaned as the flavour washed over her tongue. It was splendid. After losing the mage, she was finally able to indulge in the flavours of human food. For the past two weeks she’s been in forests and swamps and having to live off the food the land supplied for her. Given, she was a phoenix, so she was able to survive on just meat alone, she still enjoyed her fruits and snacks that towns would sell. She was only able to eat small amounts of such foods, but she didn’t mind. At least she was able to eat some of it. Shaking her head, she took another bite and smiled. She noticed people staring and she ducked her head, embarrassed and she wandered into a corner. She finished off the hotdog and wiped her mouth with the napkin. She looked into the streets and saw that most people were already at home. It was late afternoon and she knew that most humans preferred the safety of their homes during the night. Only a few people liked to stay out late, and those that did usually caused trouble.

Taking off her hat and tying her hair back before slipping the hat back on, she walked out of the alley, dropping her rubbish into a bin. She found some lodging and she paid for the board and grabbed the key the man offered. Walking through the halls and up a few flights of stairs, she found her room and unlocked it. Pushing the door open, she looked at the double bed with clean grey sheets, chair and table to the side and tv against the wall so you could see it from both the bed and chairs. She locked the door behind her and dropped her bag on the bed before she went and had a shower. Not that it was necessary; a phoenix’s inner flame automatically washed the person, along with keeping their clothes clean and fixed. It was handy, but she liked the feel of the water on her skin.

She closed her eyes, enjoying the water as it hit her skin. But then a sharp pain stabbed through her shoulder blades and she gasped, leaning forward and resting her hand on her knees. Her back burned to an insane level, though she knew it wouldn’t kill her. But the pain was sharp and relentless. She groaned and stumbled forward, hitting the shower wall and sliding to the ground. She gripped her shoulders and squeezed her eyes again. She could feel the tips of her wings breaking the skin, pushing to break free. She wanted everything to go black at that point, to stop the pain, but it wouldn’t come. She knew what was happening. She hadn’t changed into her true form for almost two months and it was protesting against her human form. It shouldn’t be locked in for this long and she knew that, but it wasn’t time for her to release just yet. Not in the town. She had to hold on until she was out of here tomorrow.

Her wings pushed out even more, this time poking through the skin, the tips visible through the splits in her back. Her breathing was shallow as she tried to fight against it. The shower ground was red with blood and she could feel it running down her back in rivulets. Her long blonde hair had blood through it and the water was stinging her back. She bit her lower lip to stop her screams as her wings pushed even further out. She reached up, shut off the shower, stumbled to her feet, grabbing her clothes on the sink bench and a towel which she tied around her so it soaked up the blood. She went into the room and shoved her clothes into the bag and grabbed it. She unlocked the door, left the key on the handle and then stumbled to the window. Shoving it open, she climbed onto the ledge and took a deep breath. The pain became worse and her towel was almost completely red. She jumped from the window as a rush of air blew through the town.

Without any prompting, a huge orange bird took over her and it snatched her bag in its talons. Its eyes glowing blue. Only when flames actually encased her body did they change to an amber colour. Its powerful wings flapped once, sending it high into the air and it soared over the town. Its powerful, demanding screech echoing over the land as it flew through the night. Lights in the houses switched on and doors opened, looking into the sky. She looked down at the humans and saw her blood soaked towel falling to the ground. She huffed and then flew away from the town, leaving it forever. She flew longer then she could remember. The sun had gone up and by then, her wings were sore and her body ached. She flew into a forest, a few kilometres from another town. She changed back to her human form as soon as she hit the ground and she stumbled forward, her legs unable to support her weight and she went to the ground, her hair, still stained with her blood and her back still not quite healed and caked in dried blood. Her back hit a tree and she cried out before she curled into a ball, around her bag, her eyes drifting shut, wanting sleep, but it would not come.

A sound came to her sensitive ears and her eyes snapped open and she glared into the trees. She had no care that she was naked. She was a phoenix, not a human. What did it matter to her? Though from how she was, no one would be able to see anything they might be embarrassed about seeing. She looked around, sensing someone but not seeing them. They were hiding. “Who’s there?” she asked, her voice strained because her phoenix had decided to screech a whole lot, leaving her throat dry and sore.

She heard something rustle only a few metres to her side. She turned her head, craning her neck slightly to look, only to see a large black panther creeping towards her. Her shoulders tensed slightly and she gave a low, soft hissing sound towards the creature. She studied its movements closely; it was graceful and beautiful. Captivating. However, the violent lashing of its tail was rather startling. She tried to push herself up, however, pain exploded in her back and she cried out momentarily. “Shit. Dammit,” she cursed herself quietly, watching the panther. She could feel her wounds had opened again and she gritted her teeth. Her sharp blue eyes rose to study the panther’s face and she saw its eyes. White. An unnatural colour. And looking closer, they held a shimmer of something. It wasn’t life. Whatever this panther was, it wasn’t alive. There was no life, no light in its empty eyes. But there was something. She couldn’t quite pinpoint it. However, she did know, it was solid. At least somewhat. It could do harm to her if it wanted to. Somehow, she had to get away from this creature, whatever it really may be. Her mind was completely blank as to what it was she recognised in the panther’s eyes. At this point, it didn’t matter. Getting away was more important.

She reached up, her slender hands gripping to the rough bark of the tree. She winced slightly at the spark of pain in the back, but she ignored it for now. She held on tight and pulled herself up with the remaining strength she had, holding her bag with her other hand. Once she was standing, she tried to let go of the tree, however, she stumbled and almost fell again, so she gripped the tree again to keep herself upright. She stared at the large black cat, trying to ignore the uncomfortable feeling of her blood running down her human skin. It was going down her back and legs and onto the ground. It was slow, but gradual. It wasn’t nearly as bad as it had been earlier, luckily. She glanced at the ground then at her bag for mere moments before she looked at the panther again and into its eyes. In her current, weakened state, it could easily kill her. That’s what scared her at this moment. Sure, she could change back into a phoenix, however, she was seriously pissed off at her true form for damaging her as it had, and her stubbornness was keeping her from doing that. Maybe being stubborn was a bad thing sometimes?

Suddenly it seemed to click as to what it was that she recognised in the depths of the beast’s eyes. Her eyes widened in shock and she looked around quickly. “Shit, shit, shit,” she muttered to herself. She went to take a step back, but still, her strength had not returned and she almost fell from just one step. So she stayed where she was. What it was she knew she had recognised was magic. It was magic in the panther’s almost hollow white eyes. There was a mage around. Dammit. She took a deep breath and sighed before she looked around again, her sensitive ears trying to pick up his location. But it was no use. He wasn’t moving. She cringed at the burning sensation in her back as she straightened herself slightly. “Dammit. Mage, come out!” she called into the trees, mustering as much strength into her voice as she could. Not that it was much. But most mages could hear well. They usually used a hearing spell on them, seeing as most mages seen around were humans. At least where she was. Maybe because she was always in human settlements, not elven. Maybe this mage was an elf? In that case, he’d easily hear her.

She blinked as the panther vanished in a puff of black smoke and she quickly rubbed her eyes. She was completely exhausted, however, she was that tired that she couldn’t sleep. It kind of sucked. Closing her eyes for a moment she took in a deep breath, her chest rising and falling with each breath. When she opened her eyes, her blue met with another pair of blue. She blinked in mild surprise at the colour of them. She shook her head, ridding her wandering thoughts as she looked down at the mage. Her grip on her bag tightening slightly as she pulled it up towards her chest. Her eyes narrowed as he mocked her, though the way he cursed seemed like a foreign language to him. She noticed it right away and she cocked her head slightly. She knew perfectly well what this man was. He was a mage. And not only that, by the looks of it, he was an elf as well. Elven mages were naturally stronger than human mages. That much she knew. Other than that, her information on present day elven mages were pretty scarce. She hadn’t come into contact with many, and if she did, she didn’t exactly stick around to have a conversation. Most elves were eerily perceptive of almost everything, so she knew she’d soon be found out if she stuck around one for too long.

“What do you want, mage?” she practically hissed at him. She glared at the man, a defensive, almost guarded look in her eyes. She was hoping he would leave her be before he figured out what she truly was. She just hoped like hell, that he wasn’t an elf that could sense stuff like auras. If he was, she was screwed. Completely and utterly screwed. That is, if he even knew the aura of a phoenix. She hoped he didn’t. It’d depend on how old he was and whether or not he had been in the war between mages and phoenixes. The war happened when she was 23, which was basically 302 years ago now. Which, in case one couldn’t do math, made her 325. Like elves, phoenixes had a very prolonged life spin, being able to live into the thousands if they were lucky enough not to get killed.

She huffed at her own thoughts and stared down at the mage for a long while. She could feel her legs were beginning to get some strength in them and she gave a sigh of relief. Finally. What she really wanted at this moment was to find a river or something and clean off all the blood she had on her skin and in her hair. Having blood dried in blonde hair wasn’t nice, and just made it worse that it was long. She shook her head slightly and returned her thoughts and attention to the mage. When would he leave? She was growing impatient already. She didn’t like staying in one place for too long, and she had been here way too long for her liking.

Glaring down at the man, almost like she was trying to burn a whole in his head, she listened to him and rolled her eyes. She could feel her strength returning with each heartbeat and she couldn’t help but sigh in relief. Again. When the man introduced himself as Dresden, she couldn’t help but scrutinise him. She shook her head at his bow, noticing just how uncaring he seemed towards everything. She watched him carefully, staring at his outstretched hand, untrusting and uncertain. Should she take his hand? She knew nothing about this man. What if he tried to attack her? Whilst she couldn’t fight back, staying in a tree felt a lot safer. But then again, he was a mage, and a rather powerful one at that from what she could sense from him. Her eyes narrowed again as she decided to stay where she was. Even if he could attack her from where she was. Mages sucked like that. Huffing at her own thoughts, she crouched where she was, looking down at him. He was a mage. Mages were untrustworthy. She should just leave him hanging and wait for him to walk away. He seemed oblivious to her aura, so, either he was a moron or he couldn’t sense auras at all.

Once Dresden spoke again, she gave a low hissing sigh of defeat, before she reached down and gripped his hand. It was nowhere near as strong as it would be if she had all her strength, but one could tell she was regaining her strength. Her feet touched the ground a few moments later and she winced slightly before she straightened herself out, glancing back at her back before she looked up at Dresden. He was a lot taller than her. This really pissed her off for some reason. He was a head taller than her all up. She glanced down, glaring at his chest for a long while before she quickly let go of his hand, pulling it back to her side and stepping back. She almost stumbled, but caught herself swiftly and she created some space between herself and the mage. She looked down at the bag then looked at Dresden and grumbled incoherently to herself. She looked up at him for a second before the tree became the most fascinating thing in the world to her. Why wasn’t he leaving yet? It kind of made her very uncomfortable that he kept watching her.

“Thank you, Dresden,” she said half-heartedly, “I am Edan,” her eyes studied him for a long moment before he planted a hand upon her hip and said, “I do have to wonder what kind of mage toys around with people and then helps them? Isn’t that kind of sadistic?” she raised a fine eyebrow at him before she looked around momentarily, wondering if there was a river anywhere nearby. Having dried blood on her wasn’t exactly the most comfortable feeling.

Edan stared at Dresden as he put on the show of mock nervousness. Her eyes narrowed as he spoke and she shook her head slightly. It had nothing to do with stereotypes rather that he was acting like a cat toying with its food. Which, that analogy really pissed her off, seeing as she was a phoenix, and though huge, were technically birds, which cats ate. Sighing at her thoughts, she turned away and looked away properly. Now that she could more or less walk without falling flat on her face, she could look around properly. Her keen eyes stared into the trees, trying to locate some of the clear running liquid. She located some hidden behind some bushes. However, it was a small pond, not a river or moving body of water. Which was why she hadn’t heard any earlier. Sighing at her incompetence, Edan looked at Dresden for a moment, watching as his demeanour changed drastically. Her brows raised slightly at the man, waiting for him to speak. As soon as he did, she wished, she turned away and walked over to the small pond. “Not at all,” she replied calmly to him as she peered into the water. It was small, but deep enough. She dropped her bag by the edge and stepped into the small pond and looked back at the elven man.

She washed as much blood from her golden hair as she could before she rummaged through her bag quickly, finding a tie. She tied her long hair into a messy bun before she looked at her back as best she could. The wounds were beginning to close again and she couldn’t help but sigh in frustration. Even though she had a fast recovery rate in human form, it was still taking too longer compared to being in her phoenix form. She shook her head and started rubbing as much of the dried blood from her skin. She glanced over at Dresden again. “That was not what I was implying,” she said to him, “I just find it a bit sadistic is all. To toy with an injured young lady and then help her. It really is sadistic,” her blue eyes studied him for a moment longer before she tenderly wiped to blood from her wounds, clearing them as much as she could. Wincing slightly at the spark of pain flittering in her back, Edan watched Dresden for a long moment before she finished washing her wounds as best she could. It was kind of hard, seeing as they were on her back and pretty hard to get to, but she did her best.

Edan sighed before she pulled herself from the body of water, looking down at the now murky water. She bent down and picked up her bag. Until her wounds healed a little more, she wouldn’t be able to put any sort of material on her back. Which was a real pain in the ass. Though it did not bother her, the way humankind worked, walking around naked was rude and disgusting. So until she was fine, she’d have to stay in the forest. “So why exactly are you in this forest, anyway?” she asked, looking back at the man again as she tugged at her hair tie, pulling it free and letting her wet hair fall down her back before she began to tie it in a ponytail now instead.

Edan watched the elf closely as he spoke and gestured to her. She glanced down her body and shrugged lightly. “I could be a nudist,” she remarked with a sly smirk, “I could also be a mage, and that’s why I didn’t run?” she said. They both knew she wasn’t either, but she had to say it. Shaking her head slightly, Edan gave a soft smile as she could feel her wounds slowly stitching back together. It was a weird sensation, to actually feel everything heal itself on her human skin. Usually it was pretty much an instant heal. Sure, she was healing at a rate no human would, but it wasn’t fast enough. Feeling everything come back together felt odd and rather uncomfortable. She flexed her fingers, not daring to stretch her arms or roll her shoulders just yet, even if the need to was driving her insane. She wanted to stretch her muscles. They were stiff and sore, but until her wounds were at least mostly healed, she couldn’t. Instead, she ran a hand through her golden hair, feeling that it was already dry. Being a phoenix did have its perks in human form. Chuckling at herself, Edan turned her attention to the pond as Dresden froze it.

Her eyes narrowed at the elven man before she sighed and watched as he spun around and commented about elves in forests. “Well, duh, that’s not a surprise, I was asking what you were doing in this forest in particular. It’s obvious you don’t live here, so what are you doing here?” he asked with an impatient sigh. She pulled her hair over her right shoulder, playing with it absentmindedly. Her sharp eyes watching the man. Some may call her eyes cat-like, which actually pissed her off. Being a bird and having eyes like a cat wasn’t something she was overly proud of. Hissing at her own thoughts, Edan gently rolled her shoulders in small circles, testing how her wounds were. They stretched slightly, threatening to open again. Edan dropped her shoulders immediately with a sigh before she took a step to the side, leaning sideways against a tree. Still, as she watched the elven man, his height seriously pissed her off. He was too tall. Why was it that elven males were always so damn bloody tall? Playing with her hair, slowly plaiting it, Edan waited for the man to finally answer her.