Prologue

The wind is bad today, the golden sand seemed to get everywhere, other slaves faces seem to naturally adapt a squint in their eyes.  Even though it was windy it wasn’t cool, the heat drained the life out of us.  Walking barefooted my feet were burned severely.  This last month was much hotter than the previous months.  To the right of me a slave fell to the ground in exhaustion.  A guard quickly ran over and yelled for him to get up, it didn’t take long for the whipping to start, but the slave just stood still.

Two dead today already huh?

It’s been eight months since I walked out that tunnel and grabbed by these slavers.  Everything is a blank, I don’t remember anything prior, I walked out of a cave dirty and bloody with a sword and some armor, after a few hours I was caught by these guys and been carrying big stones to carts ever since.  I’m about a head taller than most men, fair skin made tan due to the months in the desert, I feel like I’d be intimidating, well…use to be intimidating, eight months ago I was extremely muscular, but with the meagre number of rations received I’m starting to look more like a corpse than a living person.  

Most the slaves here have brown skin, I imagine that’s normal because of the heat.  They most likely have committed some sort of crime, or maybe they were unfortunate like myself and was just at the wrong place wrong time.  They are treated better than me, I think not knowing the language really frustrates the guards.  One thing I noticed different from him and everyone else is the tattoo markings on the chests, I never see the guards’ mark because they all have clothing, but a lot of the slaves wear no shirts.  The marks all had a red coloring.  The colored marks on their chest seem to symbolize their power, and the color the type which my guess would be fire.  An interesting thing I see is people change their bodies into different animals, I’ve seen a man who can change his legs into something like a rabbit and hop at great speed.  He tried running away but a spear was thrown through his chest, but something strange happened a green sort of material left him and traveled to the killer.  Since I have no mark I was someone with no importance to the slavers.  Which is why I’m lifting and carrying stone to carts all day.  One of the lowest jobs a slave can have here.  I haven’t had much of a chance to learn because I don’t have anyone to converse with, knowing the language would benefit much because not knowing is the main thing that causes most beatings. 

The sun was setting, one of the few moments of the day that I enjoyed.  The red desert sky was breath taking, I watched the sun slowly past over the quarry hill that I was under.  After sunset I am taken to a wall part of a mountain, not far from where I had my first memories of arriving here.  The shackles connected to my feet were chained to a post on the wall with a few feet of slack.  Close to me were slaves to the left and right.  Some of the children there also do not have a mark as well, which I found strange, it must be given at a certain age.  Many of them were hesitant to talk to me, but over time they opened up and slowly were teaching some words.  Tonight, the slavers in camp seemed to be having some sort of celebration, even the moldy bread was given without an insult or a kick.  Everyone seemed to be in a good mood. 

Working until sun rise to sun set is hard work, so I don’t stay awake for very long once I do have free time.  There was a large amount of noise being made when I woke, I was asleep for maybe a couple hours. Slaves were cheering, some were crying in joy.  The sky emitted bright colors coming from a moon size comet, it was speeding through the sky at amazing speeds, the trail was a mixture of multiple colors, a flash occurred slightly blinding me, I put my hand in front of my eyes, but the light went through my hands, as if it was coming from multiple angles.  Red light pierced my chest, the pain was intense, all the beatings and whipping was nothing compared to that brief moment.  After the shock of the pain he looked at the mark on his chest of a red bird, before he can react his vision went black and then he awoke laying on a floor he did not know.

After opening my eyes and looking straight down on the unfamiliar surface I was on, I found out that I wasn’t on anything, I was staring at blank space with the extremely large planet right in front of me.  I panicked and got up and ran on a ground that does not exist, each step felt squishy as if I was stepping on a few inches of water, the was no air but for some reason I didn’t have to breath.  After a few minutes I realized that this must be a dream.  Flapping noises came from a distance.  Staring off it came in view, a bright red dot far away coming towards me.  In the distance it didn’t look big, when it got closer I couldn’t even believe it, it was the size of the whole quarry, it was as if the bird was a mountain itself.  The red feathers surrounded by flames, I felt the heat of it but for some reason it felt almost good to me.  The bird had big blue eyes it was staring at me, it was so big it was hard to tell.

“Wh-wh-wh-what is h-happening?” I said silently as I stagger backwards.

The bird seemed to look off in the distance and sigh.  After a few seconds this behemoth reduced down to a similar size of myself, but changed into a human looking man with red spiky hair, pale skin, feathers designed into normal clothing.  One thing that stayed the same is the piercing blue eyes that felt out of place.   The bird man snapped his fingers and my head hurt with pain, knowledge of words swarmed my mind.  

It took a minute to recover, by then I was no longer in space, but on grass, the area was hilly, a calm breeze, sounds of small birds in a few trees nearby, and a perfect blue sky, for some reason I felt like I’ve been here, as if this was home.  An out of placed throne was right in front of me, it was made out of small pieces of twigs, same type of material birds build their homes with.  The now transformed man was lazily sitting on it.

“About time you recovered…learning a new language isn’t that hard.” He said with an elitist sound to his voice, he looked at me as if I was dirt.

“What’s going on this isn’t a dream?”

“So, you don’t understand what’s happening?  Makes sense since you are so old without a mark, you’re obviously not from this world.  I’m a God, the Red Phoenix, and lucky for you I blessed you with my powers.”

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Shocked with what was happening, I wasn’t used to having a conversation with anyone over the last eight months, this is the most I have conversed since I can remember, and it’s with a God!

“I might as well let you in on what’s happening now…I give you this mark and then you receive some of my powers, when you gain life essence from the planet you can exchange it for more powers.  Eventually one day you can become a Phoenix…Kinda.” His bored tone didn’t match his stare at me as if the very thought of me being a Phoenix disgusted him.

“It’s not very easy though, the location you are at has very little life essence.”

“I’m a slave, I can’t leave, I’m chained and constantly guarded…” I know my place in this world, even if I try and resist or escape it will just end in torture and death like the many I’ve seen before.

The Phoenix laughed hysterically.  His personality seemed to switch instantly.  “Sorry!  Sorry!  Hahaha… I’m talking with you in the future as well, just something really funny.” He quickly went back to his elitist look and viewed me like I was below him.

“Your Human problems do not concern me…I will tell you that a Phoenix can never be put in a cage, we fly high…and prey on the weak.”

Confused at what he’s saying, I look down to the dirt in front of me, eye contact is hard, after so long being treated as a slave it’s hard to act what I imagine is normal.

“Come here…” he said, instantly the surrounding changed again and I’m standing in a cave with a wall of flame covering a whole wall next to me, the Phoenix was sitting in his throne again facing the fire wall and he pointed at it, as if he didn’t want to even waste energy talking about it.  I stared into the fire and saw unlimited possibilities.  I saw the ability to grow wings that are on fire, flying through the sky, fire developing on a sword as I sear people in half with it, also being cut in battle but in a short amount of time my wounds heal as if nothing occurred, and many other things not even combat related, like making weapons, armor, pottery, clothes, and everything you could imagine.  The possibilities seem endless.

“So now you understand.  My power is great, and so can yours.  These abilities aren’t given, they are earned, you must trade life essence to receive such rewards.  You just happen to have enough for two abilities… you may choose from these.” The Phoenix waved his hand at the firewall creating five different screens each one had an image of myself doing different abilities.

So, I must choose two, I analyze the abilities and try and figure out what can help me immediately.  

It was interesting to finally see what I looked like, I could feel the scars on my face before, but I had no way of seeing myself, my left side of my face was very disfigured, it would probably startle most people.  My hair was jet black, it looked as though I usually kept it short but over the months it has grown into a ugly shape, I have a large jaw, and thick eyebrows.  The lack of food I was receiving really showed in my face, as my bones indented more outward.  Whoever I was before, seemed like someone you wouldn’t want to mess with, this current version looked as if someone you wouldn’t want to mess with also, but for the reason that it looks like I might try to eat you.   

The first ability was the Phoenix’s wings, the image showed me gliding through the sky, the wing span was twice as long as my body, easily scaling mountains.  The second one was a leap ability, the video shows myself leaping from about 25 yards away at great speeds towards a bear, flames followed my jump leaving a trail, as I reached the bear the strike was devastating, killing the bear instantly.  The third screen was just a sword becoming engulfed in flame, it seemed self-explanatory.  The fourth was myself being stabbed and cut all over my body in battle, during the fighting and after, the body was closing the wounds, recovering at an astonishing rate.  The last was a screech coming out of my mouth at people running toward me, they quickly rolled on the floor covering their ears as it disoriented them.

All five seem extremely useful, there are only two that I can see helping me escape my current predicament.  While the screech seems like a way I could immobilize the guards and make a escape, it wouldn’t be long enough for me to get away.  The flaming sword is useless now because I have no sword.  I strongly considered the leap, it could help me quickly get away then give me enough breathing room to fly off with the wings, but if I was injured during this it’d have no way to treat the injury.

“The wings, and the ability to recover fast.” I said nervously, it’s foreign to me to request something.

“As you wish…” the Phoenix snapped his fingers again and a wave of pain hit my head as knowledge expanded my mind.

I awoke in the grass fields again with the Phoenix standing right over me, I rolled on my back staring right back at him.

“Do as you wish mortal… a word of advice, head East, you will encounter something you’ve lost in your past.” 

My sight went black again and I was back at the slave camp, the comet still flying through the night sky, not a moment has passed since he left, hours have gone by with the Phoenix but not even one second seemed to pass in this world.

The next day went on as normal, the comet was gone in the sky and I returned outside in the quarry picking up stone and carrying them to the cart.  My torn-up shirt had enough fabric to cover the mark on my chest, the guards seemed to care less what my new mark was.  One thing was odd, right when I picked up my first rock, it felt much lighter than normal, it was almost as if I could pick up two at a time now.  The speed at which I picked it up perked a guard’s attention that has been watching me for months, he knows my strength and knows I couldn’t easily lift such a weight.  He followed me until I reached the cart, I tried to nonchalantly walk away after that.  A swift kick in the back knocked me down, I knew there was no way for me to hide it.  The guard stood close looking at me on the ground, I tried to look weak and pathetic, maybe he’d just walk away.

“Number 53! Turn your ass over now!” he yelled full knowingly that I didn’t speak his language.

I acted like I still didn’t understand not to rouse suspicion.  He grabbed his whip out and hit me a few times causing me to bleed on my back “Get the fuck up fifty-three!”

At that moment I knew it was going to be bad if I didn’t get up, I couldn’t let them see it yet, once they figure out what my mark is, they might know that I can fly.  They’d try and keep me grounded.

A shout came across the quarry “Hey Rolo!  Need your help moving some slaves to town!”

“God damnit!  Why the hell I gotta go?  This is bullshit!” He grumbled while he walked away from me.

Close one

When he walked away I stood up making sure my shirt still covered my front, I touched my back where the pain was, feeling the blood, but the wounds were already closed up.  I got lucky he was gone, if he saw his rejuvenation ability that would’ve been bad.  I moved stone for a few more hours in the heat, the guards were taking a break eating and talking to each other at the tables 100 feet away.  If there was a time to get some space and fly off with no one looking it’d be now.  I threw a rock onto the cart and shuffled to the far edge of the quarry, no one seemed to notice me so I went around a large stone in the open, so no one can see me, immediately after going around the corner I activated my wings, it was strange because I’ve never used it before but it was quite natural for me to do.  In an instant large wings sprouted from my back, the feathers red in color, with hot flames emitting off of it, which I was immune to.  I didn’t take too long admiring it, I flew off in great speed going East.  I didn’t know what was East, but it felt great to finally be free.