I didn't get to see the phoenix. I sat looking at the mountain for hours but the phoenix didn't show itself. I left to return to town planning on coming back again the following day to see if I would get an opportunity to see it then, but those plans changed when, on our way back to the town, Anbu heard something in the bushes to the side of the path we were travelling along. I left Lucy behind and followed Anbu into the vegetation and found him in a clearing standing over what looked like a very sick horse. The horse was lying on its side and was struggling to breathe, had several wounds on its body and looked malnourished. It appeared to be on death's door, nevertheless I couldn't just leave it there. I got behind the horse and used all of my strength to try and get it up off the ground, to no avail. Anbu saw how much I was struggling and started barking threateningly at the horse, which startled it into trying to get up off floor on its own.

Once it was reasonably erect I was able to steady it and get it standing properly upright, after which I had to soothe it as it was still in a panic from Anbu barking at it. The horse was able to stand on its four legs without any real trouble and I was able to get it back to the town. I stabled it at the inn with Lucy, gave it food and water and made sure the bed of straw on the floor was comfortable. After checking on it the next morning and feeding it again I visited the local beastmaster to get some medicine for the horse and to find out more about the phoenix. I got some balm and bandages for the horse and some disconcerting information about the phoenix.

"Nobody that's gone after that bird has come back alive, that includes experienced beastmasters working in teams."

"That phoenix is my only way into the kingdom."

"Others have come here and said the same thing. The truth is that the kingdom isn't expecting anybody to actually get rid of the phoenix; their hope is that enough people will die in the attempt to alleviate the refugee problem. My advice to you is to forget about this and go home."

"I don't have a home to go back to; I have no choice but to go through with this."

Seeing that he wasn't going to be able to deter me, the beastmaster relented.

"Are you planning on driving it out or capturing it?" He asked me.

"Capture."

"A binding stone for a creature that size costs five gold coins."

I took the coins out of my pocket and slid them to him across the counter.

"How big is it?" I asked him.

"You're the girl with the teewah, right?"

I nodded.

"About three times bigger."

"That big?!"

"That's why I'm telling you to forget this! It's a suicide mission!"

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"I'll figure something out."

After a week of feeding the horse and tending to its wounds it got much better and was well enough for me to take it for a walk to get some exercise. I put a harness on it and walked with it to where I had found it, where I stood and looked up again at the mountain within which the phoenix was nesting. If everything that the beastmaster had said was true then I really ought to have given up and returned to the north, but for some reason I couldn't do that. Something was pushing me forward, telling me that the phoenix was my only option. I returned to the beastmaster when I got back to town to ask him if he had any more information about the phoenix that could be of help to me.

"I've already given you the best advice that I have to give you: forget about that bird and go home."

"And I've already told you that I can't do that, so I'll ask you again if you have any information to share with me that can help me."

"The phoenix is nesting at the very bottom of the mine, if you enter from one of the higher entrances you should be able to safely get a look at it; hopefully once you've seen it you'll realize how foolish this all is."

I thanked the beastmaster for the information and returned to the inn. I needed to feed Lucy, the horse and Anbu and get some dinner for myself. I went around to the back of the inn to where the stables were to feed Lucy and the horse and the horse was gone. In the stable pen where I'd left the horse there was a shabby old man with a long beard sleeping on the straw.

"Hey! Wake up!" I opened the stable door and said to the old man.

Groggily he turned on his side and opened his eyes.

"Who are you? Where am I?" He asked confusedly.

"Where is the horse that was here?"

"Horse? What horse?"

"There was a white horse here that I was taking care of; I left it here less than an hour ago."

"There was no horse here when I arrived; I came in here and laid down to get some rest because it was empty."

The old man didn't appear to be lying, and there was no reason for him to lie. There were other empty pens in the stable where he could have gone to sleep. I walked outside to ask the stableman what had happened to the horse. He told me that he hadn't seen the horse leaving and when I told him that there was an old man sleeping in the pen where I'd left the horse he looked at me with an expression of utter bafflement before going inside to see for himself.

"What are you doing in here?" The stableman asked the old man, who was still lying on the straw.

"I just need a place to sleep for tonight."

"This place is for guests of the inn to keep their animals, you can't stay here."

"Do you know this man?" I asked the stableman.

"I've never seen him before."

The old man got up slowly to his feet. He was frail, filthy, and had a terrible cough. Even if the stableman would allow it I couldn't leave him to sleep in the stable, that just wouldn't have been right.

"Come with me," I said to the old man.

I got him a room at the inn for the night, arranged for a change of clothes for him and told him to have a bath and meet me in the mess hall for dinner, where we ate soup and bread together. There was something mysterious about the old man. I couldn't shake the feeling that he wasn't just some bum, that there was actually a lot more to him. Over dinner I tried to get answers from him about who he was and what was going on in his life but he wouldn't answer any of my questions with a straight answer. He wouldn't even tell me his name, saying that it wasn't important.

The next morning the old man was gone. I went to his room to ask him what he was going to do next and to offer him some silver coins to help him on his way but when I knocked on his door there was no answer and when I opened the door and entered the room it was empty and perfectly tidy. I went downstairs and asked the innkeeper at the front desk when the old man had left and he told me that he hadn't seen him leave. The old man had vanished, just like the horse. Something strange was going on that unfortunately I didn't have the time to get to the bottom of. My only priority was the phoenix.