Killian awoke and tried to think around and ignore the sounds and smells surrounding him. Finally, Killian agreed with his memory that yesterday was too vivid a memory to be disregarded as a dream. Opening his eyes, seeing the swampy forest he had been resurrected in, and the now snoring fairy who had become his companion, Killian’s first emotion of the day was frustration.

An intense growl from Killian’s stomach woke Jol, the fairy quickly looking around for a predator. As he saw Killian, it would have been fair to say he’d seen one. Killian was furious.

“You said you’d stay awake.” Barely contained shouting wasn’t how Killian liked to wake up. He liked waking up with anxiety and anger even less.

“I wasn’t asleep!” Jol said, flying down from his position, hands up and head down. “I’m a fairy, Killian, we can dream when we’re awake. I was still watching, I promise.”

Giving the fairy a wary glare, Killian bit his tongue. He instead stretched and looked around. He had no clue what he should be doing to start the day, other than looking for some food. A smell cut through the forest, one of the first familiar smells Killian had experienced.

The acrid stink of wood burning. Grey smoke was rising from close by. Walking in that direction for a few minutes, Killian found a path which led to a farm. In the pitch black of night, he would have walked over this path without even seeing it. In the light of day, it became a lifeline.

In the dark, he hadn’t had any idea how close to civilization he might be. Seeing actual signs of human life was a pleasant surprise. That said, the blazing inferno that was currently destroying it didn’t leave him much hope. Without anything he could do to help, Killian and Jol simply watched the home be devoured by the gluttonous flames.

As the wooden building burned, Killian found himself increasingly curious. There was no one here. The farmhouse itself wasn’t large, only looking like five or six rooms from the outside. Half of the structure had been consumed by flames, the other half waiting for its own turn to burn.

Killian looked around, the mid-morning sun sitting comfortably in the middle of the sky. Looking to the south, he could see that there were some treetops that were smoking.

-Quest-

|Uncover the mystery of the burning farm|

As the fire rages, questions continue to rise.

Curiosity can lead to wonderful discovery, but also danger.

Objective: Solve the mystery of the burning farmhouse.

Yes/No

Reward: ???

Killian frowned a little before shrugging and accepting the quest. That was the second time a prompt had appeared as if in answer to his thoughts. The System was going to take a lot of learning to understand, Killian thought, excited at the idea.

“What do you think, Jol?” When it came to people and cities, Killian was definitely the more learned of the two. However, amongst the trees and sounds and smells of nature, he was wise enough to defer to someone with more experience.

“It’s quite pretty.” The fairy seemed to bounce in the air, wavering around as though dancing with the flames.

“Right, but any thoughts on what caused it?”

“Lightning? I’ve only ever seen fire from lightning.”

“It’s not been raining, though. Also, never? How old are you, Jol?” Killian realised he knew very little about his companion. In the face of being alone in the strange land, he’d happily latched onto the creature. Now, though, Killian was a little more thoughtful and feeling more himself. With that sense of self, came instinctive paranoia.

“I’m not sure?” Jol phrased it as a question, “I didn’t know I was supposed to keep track of things like that.”

“Maybe it’s more of a human thing,” Killian mused. Thinking, he asked if the fairy knew how many full moons it had seen. The fairy said eight, and Killian realised he was talking to a literal baby.

The months followed the moon, with 9 in the year, each 40 days. Killian knew he was 15, but he didn’t know which month he had been born. He and his friends had all chosen to celebrate their birthday on the same day. The first of Ninmon, the final month of the year.

“You’re not even a year old?”

“That sounds rude. I am as old as I am, and I always will be.” As though he had just been very wise, Jol nodded pensively. At the same time, Killian was thinking how unlikely wisdom would be from his new friend, stunned at the youth of the fairy.

He looked again at the still smouldering trees. Killian and Jol had approached from the north, so the smoke from the trees hadn’t been evident until now. Walking further south still, rounding the farm some, Killian’s confusion grew even more.

A large section of the building had been burned away. It looked as though the farm had been crashed into by a boulder, with a fairly uniform hole in the side of the building. There was enough debris that Killian was confident something had crashed down hard.

The flames were slow to die completely, but the building survived some of the damage. A portion of the burning wood fell away, while the roof above it smothered that area. The farm’s kitchen and dining room had seemed to survive the worst. With the south side still smoking and under risk of collapse, Killian decided to explore the rooms untouched by flames.

The smoke had covered what might have been a nice room in a monochrome that sapped all joy from it. He was sombre as he picked through the room. The stove held a pie within, which Killian wasn’t shocked to see had been ravaged by time.

-Item-

|Inedible Pie|

Once a hearty meal, now a poison.

Effect:High chance of illness from consumption.

Deciding to let that particular item not take up space in his inventory. Still holding herbs that Jol had said were “the good ones”, he had 17 spaces left. The iron handaxe was in one, though Killian took the opportunity to equip himself. The herbs he was happy to see only took up one space, assorted as “flora”. Similarly, his 10 sal coins sat comfortably under the umbrella of “money”. What decided which things stacked or not, Killian couldn’t tell, though it felt fairly intuitive.

He did fill some spaces though. Looking through the soot-covered room, he discovered two jars of pickled fish, along with a small bag of mutton jerky. He hesitated, but he also took the small stuffed rabbit which he found under the dining table. He hadn’t seen it as he first looked around the room, but the small, once white toy had blended in slightly.

Nothing else of value, or intrigue, was left in the space. The time taken to look around had allowed the fire to turn to embers. Time spent searching, explaining slight quirks like the horseshoe which was placed above the door, had let the sun snake into late afternoon.

To Killian, it almost seemed like the farm’s fire had ignited the sky. Gorgeous oranges and yellows washed the horizon with the promise of night. The scorched south side of the farmhouse glowed still, a huge, warm coal in the darkening evening.

Jol was having a hard time around the fumes and smoke, so Killian made the journey into the reeking building alone.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

“I’ll keep an eye out here!” Jol said, earnestly.

“Thanks, Rin.” Killian replied absently, not noticing that his natural response no longer fit. It hadn’t been particularly warm on the outside of the hole in the still standing wall. Stepping inside though, the heat brought nearly instant sweat to Killian. His clothes stuck to him quickly. Killian barely noticed.

There was something far more interesting than his perspiration happening.

From outside, Killian hadn’t heard anything but in the quiet heat, the cries were obvious. Something was injured inside the burning building, and it sounded… lovely. That was the only way Killian could think of it, the pained cries were so pure and innocent that his heart began to break and swell at the same time.

Losing some of his self-preservation, Killian ventured a little deeper. The room he had entered was devastated, but he guessed it was a bedroom. The walls opposite his entrance had caved away, leaving a wide space filled with debris. None of it seemed at risk of falling, though Killian kept his eye out anyway.

The whimpers were weak, as Killian closed on the source. The noises were coming from where the roof had caved in. Killian had to move some charcoaled wood that had clearly fallen on the poor creature. He burned his hands, but sensing he was near, the sounds had become more panicked. To Killian, it seemed to be asking for help, rather than scared.

The final chunk of roof removed, Killian was dazzled and completely overwhelmed.

Right in front of Killian’s eyes, with a crude arrow in its side, a somehow grateful looking expression in it’s avian features and the glowing embers of magical fire, a phoenix lay dying.

An incredible plumage of vibrant reds, oranges and yellows lay ruffled in a small heap. Around twice the size of a chicken, its wings curled around an injury to its ribs. The face of the bird was clearly pained, yet it seemed to emanate gratitude as well. It was as though the phoenix was broadcasting its emotions for Killian to share.

Before he could so much as break into tears at the stately bird, the phoenix uttered a terrible, beautiful wail. Killian had never heard anything so lamentous and yet hopeful. It was with that final burst of energy that the phoenix erupted. It’s fire wasn’t hot, not causing Killian any injury.

Instead, he was surprised to feel a strong chill. The glowing remnants of flame died, heat drawn into the mystic pyre the phoenix had made for itself. Enraptured, unable to look away, Killian waited with bated breath. As the temperature continued to drop, the gold and red flames lowered in intensity, more and more. Killian could see his breath leaving in misty gasps. Until the only lights were the sun’s final minutes, and a small ball of light.

Attention fixed, Killian saw as the ball of light cracked. From the crack, a red flame licked outwards. Just like a chicken escaping its shell, the cracks continued forming. A smaller, mournful squeak from within the luminous egg heralded the shattering of the fragments of light, which faded away without a trace.

Left in the now dark space was a tiny hatchling.

-Creature-

|Phoenix|

Majestic and noble, the phoenix is a symbol of rebirth.

Not undying, but eternal, its flame will never extinguish.

Disposition - Friendly

Releasing a small squawk and tilting its head as it looked at Killian, the baby phoenix seemed to be appraising him. Unsure exactly what to do, Killian took the jerky from his inventory and held some in his hand. The newborn was a spindly little thing, its down non-existent. Small hints of feathers existed, but for now it looked very much like any other hatchling that Killian had seen.

It looked ponderously at the dried meat held between his fingers. Then it chirped, and a small gout of flame came from its beak. Killian quickly dropped the jerky and yelped, sticking his singed fingers in his mouth. The phoenix chick repeated the burning a few times until the meat had turned nearly completely to ash. Then it happily began gorging itself on the ashes.

Stunned, Killian finally paid attention to the subtly flashing prompts in his Display.

-Quest Updated-

|Uncover the mystery of the burning farm|

The fall of a phoenix is not to be taken lightly. Something in the area was foolish enough to attack a creature this pure.

Take your first step as Champion by challenging this evil.

The reward remained unchanged, still a string of question marks. The new words filled space below the previous, showing his progress by fading the earlier objective slightly. Killian found that he wasn’t against the idea at all, though violence wasn’t usually his nature. Whatever had thought, not to marvel, but to attack the phoenix had drawn his ire.

Feeling that it was the right thing to do, Killian scooped up the phoenix as it finished eating and left the destroyed farm. Jol had his small mouth agape at the wondrous bird. For once though, he seemed lost for words, choosing instead to just gawk at the small creature.

Looking to the south, and the now extinguished treetops, Killian set his jaw and began heading north instead.

Killian had made the, in his opinion, only smart choice. Walking into an unknown forest, to hunt an unknown enemy, at night was at best idiotic. At worst, a death wish.

Killian had taken the baby phoenix and Jol, the fairy, north. He suspected that the trees on the edge of the farmland had been ignited by the phoenix as it fell. If he was going to continue guessing, it seemed like a pot shot from some savage thing had been lucky and struck true.

Images of immense orcs, their grey skin thick like gravel, wielding catastrophic bows, hurried Killian’s pace. After some quiet travel, Jol spoke.

“Killian?” The fairy had a softness to its voice that was new. Killian grunted to acknowledge that he had heard. “You called me Rin when you went into the farm. That’s not my name, you know? Is it like a nickname?”

A dagger of ice punctured Killian’s heart. He may have missed himself saying it, but hearing Sherrin’s name had threatened to shake any and all resolve Killian had gathered. The dark trees seemed to suddenly be much closer together, and his breathing became quick and shallow.

He missed his friends. He was scared. A brave face is easy to hold when it’s all you’ve ever shown, but everything was so different. He didn’t know how to get home, much less change the world.

As anxious thoughts threatened to overwhelm Killian, he felt two things. The first was a small, worried hand on his upper arm. Jol’s worried features made Killian feel even worse, annoyed at his own emotions. However, the second feeling was much more profound. Alongside a sudden bloom of warmth in his chest, Killian noticed his mana pool had dropped slightly. The blue circle in his vision dropped to about half full, and continued to empty slowly.

The cold that had leapt into Killian’s heart had not been just the pain of hearing his friend’s name. It seemed as though the phoenix had started to draw mana from Killian, causing the cold.

The phoenix, which Killian had kept in a pocket inside his thin leather jacket, made a noise somewhere between annoyance and pity. With surprising dexterity and control, the small chick managed to extricate itself from his pocket and, without issue, began hovering before Killian’s face.

It was definitely a little larger, almost looking to have matured weeks in the few hours that he had been walking. Graceful, almost too-slow swoops of its small wings kept it at eye level. Along its wingbeats, a trail of sparks followed. Killian began to make a joke about being stealthy, but the phoenix let out a cry and he stopped.

It was defiant. The noise came with emotion, the phoenix throwing a feeling of opposition at Killian. It was a strange sensation, as the phoenix overpowered Killian’s angst with resistance. Without words, the phoenix conveyed a disapproval of Killian’s train of thought.

Killian shook his head and looked at the two mystical creatures that were worried about him. The fairy, Jol, was looking at the phoenix like they had both been on the same side during a fight. The absolute absurdity of the situation hit Killian with full force. Where a moment ago, he had been spiralling, now he was simply howling with laughter.

It took far longer to compose himself than expected. Jol had started laughing, the contagious giggles causing the pair to roll around begging for relief before long. The phoenix flitted around playfully, enjoying the changed atmosphere.

“Thank you. Both of you. Jol, I’m almost as new to this world as you are. It’s scary… But I think I’ll be okay now. I almost forgot how to be confident for a second there.” It was as heartfelt a conveyance as the two had shared so far, and Jol looked touched.

“You, on the other hand,” Killian continued, turning to the bird currently perched on his shoulder. “For one, don’t just take my mana without asking you little cretin. For two, I can’t keep calling you Phoenix in my head.”

Casting his mind back to the place they met, the moment that struck Killian the most had been as the farmhouse looked like it ignited the sky…

“Pyre.” Killian said, naming the phoenix. A prompt buzzed, instantly.

-God Pact-

|Your god pact grows in strength|

As you have been given power, so too may you share this gift with others.

In the right circumstances, you may bond with another creature.

This creature’s strength will become your strength, and vice versa.

Create a bond with Pyre?

Yes / No

Killian had no idea what to make of all of these phrases the System liked to throw at him. Still, he accepted yes. It was a little embarrassing to say it like that, but he definitely wanted a bond with Pyre. Jol, too, but being there for her birth had made Killian very attached.

Accepting the prompt, everything changed.