The Last Phoenix- Book 1 of the Legends of Henge Series

Chapter 2

Harper Magdalena

I breathed in the dry air around me with relish. I would never get tired of this. The sun cast its first rays into the canyon and I sighed at the beautiful sight of the rocks around me flourishing with color.

Living in the Grand Canyon definitely had its benefits. I set my lunch next to me and picked up my guitar. Strumming a few chords, I leaned back against the ledge and closed my eyes, breathing in the sweet scent of my mother's spanish cooking.

I wasn't your typical country girl. My mother had light colored hair and an unusual Catalan look to her. She was adopted from Barcelona in the region of Catalonia, Spain. She grew up in New Mexico with her foster family.

My father was part of the Havasupai tribe that lives along the south rim of the Grand Canyon. Unlike the rest of the Havasupai, we live in the actual park where as most live in the Havasu Canyon. This was due to the fact of my father being a tour guide and my mother working for the Grand Canyon Trust, a nature conservation organization.

Yes, my father's heritage combined with my mother's background gave me an odd look but my family agrees I have more of a Catalan look to me.

My father is who taught me to love music. He plays the wooden flute and taught me when I was a little girl. I met another girl one day who was visiting the Grand Canyon from Kansas. She showed me her guitar and country music.

I instantly fell in love and begged my parents for a guitar. From then on I was a country girl through and through. Even now, watching the sun rise over the Grand Canyon, I had my favorite aztec cardigan on and my guitar across my lap.

My parents and I were extremely close and I loved them to death. I was an only child, which made me even more adventurous. My mother homeschooled me, which did mean that I had no real friends except tourists that came and went but it was okay.

Our little family loved to hike and camp together and every three years we'd go on a rafting trip down the Colorado River. As I said, we're extremely close but that doesn't mean my parents know everything about me.

For instance, they don't know about me having already kissed a boy. Or the fact that I have a YouTube channel of my own country music where I have 63,000 subscribers. But perhaps the biggest thing they don't know about me, is the fact that I can shapeshift.

When I was five, I fell off the side of the Grand Canyon. Obviously, I survived or I wouldn't be telling you this. My cat, Gopher, had gotten out and so I went to go find him.

I was out all night and I eventually searched until I found the rim. I stopped to watch the sun rise, much like this morning, and as I sat on the edge, I started to fall asleep. And, well, I just fell over the side. You can imagine that woke me up real quickly and as soon as I started to panic I felt a pain like I'd never felt before.

It felt like someone was taking my bones out, hollowing them, and then throwing them back into random places. I felt lighter but I was still plummeting into the canyon. I started flapping my arms frantically and suddenly I was soaring through the air... like a bird!

Next thing I know, I'd made the papers. It's not what you think. The headline was, Young Hawk Unexpectedly Takes a Nosedive and Pulls Up at the Last Second. They had a picture of me frantically pulled back out of my plummet to earth and no one ever knew that I wasn't a hawk. It wasn't a huge story and I doubt anyone really saw it because it was in a nondescript corner of the paper.

The story was that they suspected me to have fallen asleep and fallen out of a tree. Well, they were partially right. I never told my parents or anyone really. I just kept it to myself, scared that I'd be thought crazy.

The sun was well in the sky by this point and my mother was calling for me. She was beautiful woman with caramel skin and dirty blonde hair and vibrant blue eyes. It was streaked with sun bleached blonde from living in Arizona. I looked a lot like her with my eyes and skin. No one knows where my tinged reddish blonde hair and freckles came from. My father's hair used to be raven black but as time went on it was flecked with gray and silver.

I opened the gate to our back yard. We had to keep a gate for our dog, Marley, because of Park rules and regulations. My mom love cooking and baking and I'd been doing it since I was a little girl. In fact, I worked Fridays and Saturdays at the food court in the South Rim Historic Village. Of course, most of us didn't actually cook there but the point is, I was big into the food industry. Especially the eating part.

I poured myself a cup of milk and sat across from my mom and next to my dad. He was already dressed for work and had a mug of French Vanilla coffee next to his plate of omelets. I preferred my eggs scrambled. Mom liked them sunny side up. I guess we were all a bit different.

After breakfast, I went to get the mail and placed it in the living room for my parents to sort through. My lessons started at noon everyday, giving me the morning to go out and meet people. But as it was summer and I was two years ahead of where I'd normally be in public schooling, I didn't have any lessons.

I made my way into the village and towards the rim trail. I had a ledge I'd always go to for lunch and since I'd pack that and my guitar before breakfast, I could stay the whole day. I knew a lot of the workers here and really they were the only social interaction I got.

I sat on the ledge and waited until I couldn't see anyone on the trail before jumping off the edge and transforming. It was the most exhilarating feeling in the world as I felt the wind passing below me and I soared through the air.

This is what I lived for. The reason I woke up every morning. I flew to the opposite rim of the canyon. I dived and swerved and spun and somersaulted until my wings were sore. It went on for hours and when I finally started getting hungry I flew back to the ledge where I'd left my lunch.

I'd learned a lot over the nine years of experience I'd had. Things like when I was in life threatening situations, I'd transform, or when I was stressed. I'd learned to control it so I could shift with ease and keep it a secret from everyone around me.

It was relatively easy for me now.

What wasn't easy was being the only person that knew.