The ground around them was painted black and gray. Once a a luscious green field had stood here and was the grazing ground of a nearby village's cattle. To see it reduced to such nothingness was heartbreaking.

The large white bird stared down her cowering prey, the phoenix that had been responsible for this crime against both humanity and nature it's self. She let out a mighty screech that made the young bird cringe under her shadow. "Please... Spare me!! I beg you find mercy! You may be of a different element but you are one of us!" he cried, clearly desperate to live. Mortality was easily the biggest fear of any immortal creature.

The bird hesitated as she listened to pleas for sympathy. She seemed to almost consider letting him go free. But as her memories flashed an image of the mages that summoned her, she quickly lost such feelings. Her great wings flapped at a faster rate, mater materializing around the tips of her feathers. "You heartless..." the phoenix screeched below her before suddenly rushing at her blazing with fire. The two mighty elements crashed and wrapped around each other. The water was quickly putting out the flames though, gaining more power and strength as it did. The phoneix let out cries of pain and clawed with his talons at his rival. This effort was futile though against the more power bird. The white bird sunk her claws into his chest and forced him towards the ground as the water over came both him and his flames.

When they hit the ground, there was nothing but a puff of ash left from the phoenix. The ash filled the air around the bird who came out victorious of yet another battle. Her cold blue eyes piercing through the cloud of ash around her as she eyed the area to make sure she was alone. Satsfied that she had done her work, she took off into the air, leaving nothing but dust and an empty burned field.

Leah felt disoriented as she pictured her last kill. The girl walked among a crowded road in a town rumored to be the place where the phoenixes would strike next. She groaned feeling sick and guilty as she pictured the poor bird's fearful look. His pleas repeated endlessly in her hears.

This usually happened after a kill. Most of these phoenixes really didn't deserve to be killed so harshly and it haunted her. Usually she had alone time to recover from this feeling but times had become more urgent and she was forced to quickly move on to the next town, feeling repulsed by her previous actions.

Leah swayed slightly as she walked, bumping into a few people who nearly looked ready to kill her. "Idiot girl..." growled one man pushing his cart. "Sorry..." she mumbled as she attempted to get a grip on herself and her actions with what little control she had.

Taldo stared with blank eyes at the mound of ash before him, a pile of soot that had once been one of the most regal creatures in the world, a defiled carcass that had once been his friend. It was still difficult to believe that nothing would spring up from those ashes even after they had completely dried from the witch's spell. Was that the glow of an ember beginning to smolder? No, just the sun's rays playing a trick on his eyes. A single bottled up tear forced its way out of his eye, but quickly sizzled away as soon as it touched his torrid feathers. "My friend..." he began, his somber voice belied by by the furious conflagration erupting about his feathers, "I'll not forget the color of your flame. I'll sear her eyes with all of the colors that she has seen fit to remove from this world. You didn't know me as a violent creature, but if you still exist in some form in another world, watch me. You will see the part of me I have chosen not to show for so many years... and she will see just how terrifying a phoenix can be."

With that, Taldo took a deep breath, opened his beak wide, and, with a horrendous screech, unleashed a torrent of flame on the pile of ash before him. Somehow, that which was already burnt and withered was reduced to an even lower form, an even more severe state of incineration. Yet, as the blackened ashes were caught up by a breeze, Taldo's flames subsided. "If you cannot be reborn as a phoenix, then return to the earth. Perhaps one day your cycle will begin again." His mourning complete, Taldo spread his scarlet wings and took flight. He would put an end to this travesty. He would find her, learn her weaknesses, and make her feel the pain and fear of mortality that she had inflicted on so many of his brethren.

* * *

Taldo walked amidst a crowd of mortals in a small but lively town. Most of them weren't such bad creatures. They were short lived, yet the somehow managed to make the most out of their brief existences, living more in one lifetime than many phoenixes did in a dozen. Their productivity was indeed an admirable trait, but perhaps that was also the very reason the phoenixes were compelled to destroy. Taldo seldom felt that compulsion and had never personally burned down a human settlement, but those few times he did feel the urge, it was insuperable. His mind ceased to function and his heart was overcome with an insatiable lust for destruction. These waves always passed, though, and even if he hadn't felt such a sensation in many years, he understood why his brethren needed to destroy. It was simply their nature.

His train of thought was interrupted by a ball to the head. "I'm really sorry mister!" a hapless child called out, peaking from around a corner, unsure whether he dared to approach the stranger whom the ball had just collided with.

Silently, Taldo leaned down to pick up the ball, looked at the child, and then grinned. "You should try to be more careful," he said in a soft voice. "Not everybody has a head as hard as mine. You could hurt somebody." Realizing that the stranger wasn't going punish him any further, the child retrieved his ball from Taldo, gave a half-sincere nod, and then ran off. Taldo afforded himself a quick chuckle, but then took on a more serious expression as his eyes and ears scanned the streets for any sign that the hunter may be near.

It was a little while before Leah began to realize that it wasn't guilt or stress that was making her feel so terrible right now. It was the mages. They had made yet another tie between her and another of her kind, though she prayed that it was not anyone from her family. This tie connected their feelings, so when the other bird felt pain so did she. The mages often did such dark things in order to remind her where her loyalties lied.

From the pain, she could already tell what they were doing to that poor soul. It was fire, one way or another, that was their weakness. In direct contact, water was always sure to over power fire but when it came to indirect contact, fire would cause their water to boil making them be reduced into nothing but air. It was a weakness that no phoenix had yet learned of and Leah found herself rather lucky.

She had a fever now and as it progressed her whole body began to ache as if it were on fire. She could barely focus her gaze anymore and figures began to mingle together, everything around her becoming hazy.

She stumbled and clutched onto the nearest thing to try and steady herself. It was only afterwards when she realized it was a person. "S-Sorry..." she slurred out her words as she kept a hand on Taldo to keep herself from falling. Leah tried to bring herself to move away from this stranger but she found herself too weak and knew that the moment she did she would only end up falling to the ground.

There was plenty of chatter in the streets -- merchants shouting their sales pitches, parents berating their unruly children, young couples exchanging their sweet nothings -- but nothing about any phoenix hunters. In fact, nobody seemed to talk about the phoenixes in general, as if it were some kind of taboo. Taldo even went so far as to ask a merchant where he could find a phoenix-feather quill, but the man just looked at him like he was crazy. Taldo was now beginning to realize how difficult this job would be. The hunter could be literally anyone, and he didn't expect her to just walk about the streets flaunting her identity. This would be a game of patience indeed.

Just then, a woman bumped into him, seeming to be quite off-balance. "Oh, it's fine," he began in his usual pleasant demeanor, but as he got a look at the woman something seemed off with her. "You... don't look very well," he said with legitimate concern. "Perhaps you should sit down for a minute. Here." He guided her away from the flood of people and to a quiet patch of land just off the main street. "Is everything alright?" He asked as he eased her to the ground. "Perhaps I could get you some water." Her face seemed to be a bit more red than the others, though he had to admit that skin pigment in humans could vary as wildly as phoenix feathers. Did she have a fever? He couldn't tell; they were all rather cool from his perspective.

And now that he thought about it, why was he going out of his way to help a random mortal? He had a job to do. While he was helping this woman, the hunter could slip right under his nose. Well, it couldn't be helped now. He had already offered to help her. It would be inexcusable not to see it through.

Leah cringed slightly as she sat down with the stranger's help. "Thank you..." she forced out the words despite herself. Her hands clutched the ground beneath her feeling much more stable sitting down than standing up. "I'll be fine soon enough. This happens every now and then...." she told him sounding a bit breathless.

The pain was subsiding slowly. It seems the mages felt they had put her through enough for the time being. Despite the tie being broken between Leah and the other bird, the fever and aching still stuck around but it was much more bearable now. A small sigh of relief escaped her. The fever would set her back on her work though. It would last at least the rest of the day if not into tomorrow as well.

"I'm ok..." Leah mumbled as she became much less disoriented. Her vision began to clear and she now got a look at the man whom had helped her. "Sorry for troubling you.." she mumbled. Leah's face was still a bright red and she still found her muscles aching when she moved even slightly.

"It is no trouble at all," Taldo replied as the girl began to regain her composure. Still, it didn't seem normal for people to be on the verge of passing out "every now and then" so he didn't quite take her word that she was ok. Phoenix or not, Taldo had no intention of leaving an exhausted young woman on the side of the road alone. "Forgive me if this sounds a bit presumptuous," he continued, "but please allow me to walk you back to your home. My business here is not urgent and it would be a grievous wound to my conscience to know that I abandoned someone in need."

Taldo gave the woman a pleasant smile and offered her his hand to help her up. "Oh, and before I reveal myself to be bereft of all courtesy, my name is Taldo Reynis. Feel free to simply call me Taldo." With that, he felt that he had fulfilled his moral obligations. If the woman refused, that would be the end of it. Still, his mind had been so saturated with death and vengeance lately that he thought a simple walk would be enjoyable.

"Pleasure to make your acquaintance, Taldo." She said as she accepted his hand and stood up to her feet with his aid. "I'm Leah. Leah Rivers." She spoke her name freely for most people only knew her as 'water phoenix','water bird', and other such names. The only people who knew of her true name were the dreaded mages.

"I wouldn't mind the walk but I'm afraid I don't quite live in this area. I've traveled here for business reasons." Leah informed him giving a sheepish smile. Though her 'business' would have to wait, which was never a pleasant thing considering she couldn't afford to stay at an inn and was much too paranoid to sleep out in the open as a bird. The chance of being seen by an enemy was much too high for that risk. "Thank you for your kindness, though I think I can manage myself from here. I wouldn't want to be a burden on you anyways." she told him.