The Phoenix's Prophecy

*Chapter Twenty-Seven*

*Chapter Twenty-Seven*

“How's it going?” Aria asked concerned as she stirred her hot cup of coffee - another new thing she found in the Living World that she has managed to become addicted to.

She and Zach were waiting for me to come back from my training. As soon as she saw me, she gaped and me with her jaw hanging open. The first thing she did was to scream at the top of her lungs for Rayden. Zach and I both winced because of our sensitive hearing. Aria took no concern for that. After screaming for some more at Rayden, she called a healer for me.

It's been three days, and it's the same routine every single day: wake up, hunt, training, come back, sleep.

“Same as always,” I replied nonchalantly, “although I managed to keep the death counts below fifty now.”

“That's an improvement!” she exclaimed with a grin.

Well, it has been three days.

I let out a puff of air as I lay back on the bed. My long hair sprawled out underneath me. My wounds were just healed. I swear I'll become immune to pain one day with the amount of wounds I've received in the past few months.

“Twenty-seven more days huh?”

“Yeah,” I heard Aria mutter. The soft mattress sank a few centimeters as Aria came to lie down beside me. “Hey, erm, Zach and I has decided to, erm,” she inhaled deeply, “getbondedinafewweeks.”

“Wait, I didn't quite hear - OH MY GOD!”

I jumped off the bed when I suddenly realized what she had said, knocking off Aria's cup that still had her remaining coffee in it. Aria tried to wiped it, but I grasped her shoulder to make her look at me. My eyes were wide with excitement.

“Oh. My. God. You guys decided! Finally! Oh my - !”

Aria clamped her hand on my mouth, muffling my yells. I pulled her hand off me. She gave me a panicked look.

“I don't want the whole castle to know,” she hissed. “We're supposed to be all stressed and stuff. I don't want them to think - ”

“No, Aria. I think you can't choose a better time to celebrate. It's in times like this that there should be happy news going around,” I said honestly. I was extremely proud of them to be willing to bond themselves to each other when they know that their time is limited.

“Well, it was Zach's idea. Well,” she blushed a shade of bright crimson, “I was testing the effect of my newly developed cure. It can temporarily let Zach maintain a human form for a few hours,” she explained. “I just couldn't say no when he,” if it were possible, she blushed an even deeper shade of red, “knelt down and...” she trailed off, blushing even deeper.

“Zachary did not!” I gasped. Out of all the human girlfriends he'd had, he was never romantic. It wasn't like he treated them like the players do, but he never was serious about them. I just couldn't imagine Zach doing that. It would be like...Rayden being all cheesy and romantic and offering flowers to girls.

I shuddered. That was not only impossible to imagine but also incredibly disturbing.

“I plan to have a small one. You know, just a few people,” Aria started to count the people whom she was going to invite, ticking the people off with her fingers. “Oh, Amy, you'll have to dress up. Wait, forget about it,” she changed her mind, “I'll pick everything out for you.”

“Hold on,” I felt dread settle in me. Dresses, parties, you name it, and I do not mix.

The memory was imprinted in my mind, crystal clear. The last time I wore a dress was when I was six. It was a party for one of the Royals in another dimension. The snobby fairy Queen's daughter's tenth birthday. She looks at every non-fairy Royals like they were diseases that she would catch if she were to go near them. The disgusted looks she sent Ray and I were enough to show her distaste without us accidentally knocking over the table piled with presents. Hey, it wasn't my fault. It was all because of the length of the dress. Of course, Ray takes the other half of the blame since he was the one who chased me and ripped the bottom half of my dress in two by accidently tripping over my fallen body.