Pursuit
#2 of Odds, Ends, and April 1st's
Sacred fire lit up the night, as another gang of thugs were driven off for fear of burning to death. They would have to take him by surprise to stand a chance of capturing him.
The phoenix pecked at the girl gently in an attempt to wake her. He licked her cheek, tasting a combination of grime and blood from when she fell after being struck by one of the creeps during the ambush. She soon stirred to consciousness, and he helped her get up. The phoenix squawked insistingly until she climbed upon his back.
Towns and villages scrolled by until the sky began to brighten. They had to land and hide again; if the sun's rays touched his feathers, the iridescent rainbow would alert anyone from here to the horizon.
She awoke to a baby bird's idea of breakfast: the regurgitated remains of whatever the phoenix had hunted from the forest, cooked to her preference, as the chef had learned to prepare it using the flames he could summon at will. It used to be gross, but spending so much time on the run meant that a meal was a meal, and it wasn't so bad as long as you pretended it was a processed meat paste. The consistency was the same and the smell only slightly more offensive.
As she wiped the slime from her cheeks, the phoenix lied down beside her, not closing his eyes until she slid beneath his wing. She felt like a teddy bear. Honestly, she was beginning to regret catching the legendary beast. That one action had put her on the radar of over a hundred zealous trainers; all of which would kill for the chance that she stumbled into. But now, she wondered if, given the opportunity, she would kill to undo it, to go back to her life as it was before she bumped into a bird named Ho-oh.
She looked up towards his face. His left eye opened slowly, and the leathery, featherless skin at the edge of his beak and mouth curved upwards slightly as he drew his wing, and her with it, nearer to his body.
No matter how long it took and how far they would have to fly, she realized that he would never abandon her for his own sake, and despite all the trouble they had been through, she wouldn't want to get on without him.
In a low but audible voice, she whispered a prayer that their fortune and stamina would be greater than that of their many pursuers.