Of Ashes and Wind

Decisions

"You should have grabbed us, I would have loved to see actual dragons!" Kieara and Fredrick pestered Arthur, Galen walked alongside Natasha while they made their way through the city streets to the Adventurer's Guild.

Phoenix followed from the back, her hands in her pocket while nodding along to what her friends were going on about.

"You're impossible to wake up early in the morning, if I had tried, I would have missed it all together." Arthur rolled his green eyes. Kiera flipped her blond hair at him in a huff, her light blue eyes squinted in protest at her friend.

Fredrick laughed, "He's got a point." His light brown hair was messy most days, his chocolate eyes looked between Kieara and Arthur. Fredrick was easily the tallest in their friend group.

Galen raised a brow, he kept his dirty blond hair cropped short and had his sea green eyes flick over to Natasha to make sure they didn't lose her in the crowd, "What was it like though?" Galen was the second tallest in the group. Phoenix was a close third.

"Amazing, they fly so high that they blotted out the sun at one point." Arthur recounted, "Their scales looked as tough as steel even though we were all the way in the bell tower. I could even see its piercing gaze from where I was."

"And what about the elves?" Natasha's soft voice cut in, she was often the voice of reason for their group. Her auburn hair teased itself in the wind, her eyes were reminiscent of the olive-colored fields that decorated the nearby forests.

Her and Kieara were extremely popular in their year group (and outside of it) at the Wyvern Youth Seminar.

"They showed up with a ton of gryphons, but it didn't really compare to the beastmen's dragons." Arthur explained, "I didn't get the best look at them, but Phoenix did."

The girl snapped her head up at the expectant glances from her friends, "Their gryphons are much bigger than ours, their captain probably had the biggest one." Phoenix recounted.

"The only other thing worth mentioning is that there might have been royalty among the beastmen and elves." Arthur snapped his fingers, "You said you think you saw the royal mark?"

Phoenix nodded, her hands still in her pocket, "Yeah, I think the smaller dragon and his rider might have been royalty. And I think I saw something similar with one of the gryphon riders."

She thought back to the scene and it was clear as day to her, the braided silver hair and the Elatoris Royal Family Mark.

"The Royal Family of Eostrun are only rumored to have a daughter, right?" Fredrick pondered aloud.

Arthur nodded, "Elves are supposed to be long-lived beings, but it's a bit more difficult for them to have children in comparison us humans and the beastmen."

"Long life and only having to deal with a brat a time, doesn't sound too terrible." Kieara joked, her blue eyes flashing to Phoenix, "What do you think about that, Nix?"

She looked up at her friend and shrugged again, "Not sure, but sounds interesting."

Not too many people know about Phoenix's little disappearance, she took her mother's words to heart about flaunting Lionheart's mark. And with it, Phoenix naturally kept the story to herself. There was quite a bit of people – much older people – that knew about the journey though. Naturally Gareth, Icarus, and Lyra knew. Phoenix would sometimes spar with the three whenever they blew through town. Wren mentioned that they were adventurers now.

King Jerrick and the Council were aware that Phoenix spent time in Eostrun, but didn't know about the mark. Olena had obviously known, she and her mother plus two other colleagues that specialized in beast and monster studies conducted research on the mark (as long as Phoenix was okay with, which she was as long as they told her the result of their findings).