Alex
When I walk out the door I’m a little shocked. I figured with the whole being-in-hell thing the outside might look a little more torture-y or something. Instead, it looked like a normal night, with twinkling stars in the sky, but no moon. A cobblestone road stretched off to a valley full of twinkling lights. A city with short buildings surrounding a castle with spires stretching up nearly as tall as the surrounding mountains.
“I have a place in the city,” Phoenix says. “It’s going to be a bit musty after being gone for so long though.”
“Sounds great,” I say cheerfully.
After about an hour, we reach the city. It’s only a few minutes more before Phoenix stops.
“This one’s mine,” he says.
“It looks… great,” I respond. This house may be slightly worn down, but so are the others. The whole neighborhood looks like it would crumble with a good kick.
“It’s not, but the only places that get any maintenance are near the palace. It’s a wonder it doesn’t look worse.”
The worn roads and broken street lights just add to the whole fucked-up package. Phoenix fishes a spare key from a pot with a long dead plant, and we head inside. I poke around, finding a small living and kitchen area, two bedrooms, and a lot of dusty furniture. As I go out the back door to look at the yard I see Phoenix ruffling through the cabinets while Derek sits on his ass doing nothing. The yard has a small path leading to a room connected to the main house, but I didn’t see another door inside. I open the door to reveal… the bathroom. Outside. Just great. I have to go outside every time I have to use the toilet.
I walk back inside. Derek hasn’t moved, but Phoenix is closing the doors on a set of cabinets over the counter.
“What are you looking for, Phoenix?”
“Food, but there isn’t any. At least, nothing anywhere close to suitable for us to eat.”
As I just said, this is great. An outdoor bathroom, dirty furniture, and no food. My life’s desires have been fulfilled.
“So, what do we do now? This isn’t exactly the best living accommodations,” says Derek. Well at least the grump that never does anything agrees with me. And then he continues, “If we don’t have proper access to food and water here, we would do better staying by a stream.” Scratch that, he’s a dumbass.
“For the record, I am not going to live by a stream and sleep on the ground! Also, who says we don’t have food and water here? You’ve just sat around doing nothing. The taps work.” I checked those earlier. And now I’m glad I did.
He completely ignores that of my statement though. “I guess you must have been sheltered if you’ve never had to worry about obtaining food and water…”
“AND WHAT DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH ANYTHING, YOU BASTARD!” He’s been getting on my nerves. Who says that I’m sheltered just because I’ve never had to live by a stream!? He knows nothing about me.
“Just that we’ve been overly fortuitous so far. Starting from scratch isn’t usually this simple. Don’t expect this luck to last.”
Then Phoenix interjects, “Alright, both of you. That’s enough. Alex, let’s go get food.”
“Alright. And I have dibs on the couch!” I yell back at Derek as I follow Phoenix out of the house.
I wait until we are reasonably enough away from the house before saying, “Hey Phoenix…”
“Yes?”
“I was wondering if you could teach me how to fight.”
“Is this so you can beat up Derek?”
“Not exclusively.” Though it definitely reminded me to ask him.
He chuckles. “That aside, are you sure you want me to teach you?”
“Yeah. You seem to know what you’re doing if you’ve lasted this long with fire dude running around.”
“Well fighting a man made of fire might not be in your best interests, I’m okay with teaching you. I’m just not really qualified to.”
“It’ll be great! I’m sure everything will work out.”
We keep up a nice chat as we walk down the street. I have to keep forcing myself not to ogle the strange-looking people we pass. Though, it’s not many. This street looks ancient. We stop at an old building full of dusty metal lockboxes set into the walls.
“Is this a bank?”
“I suppose. I left a little money here a few months back, but I lost the key.”
“So what are you going to do about that?” I ask as we walk down the row. He stops at one and pulls out two metal rods and starts picking the lock. “Well I suppose that’s one solution.”
“It’s best to be prepared. It’s not the first time I’ve lost a key. I didn’t have them where I grew up.”
“Really?”
He nods in acknowledgement as he opens the lockbox and starts jostling things around. He pulls out a small black bag at the back and empties it into his hand. He counts the gleaming silver coins under his breath before saying, “We should have enough, but we’re going have to get jobs soon.”
“Let’s get something to eat before we worry about that.”
We go back outside and walk through a series of mostly deserted alleyways. It’s kind of creepy, but Phoenix seems to know where he’s going. We turn a corner and I can hear the buzz of a busy street ahead of us. We walk out of the alleyway into a wide street bustling with people. They look so different with all sorts of colors in skin, as well as the occasional wings or tails and other odd features, yet it also seems rather familiar being in the hub of a busy city. I love it.
Phoenix takes my hand and guides me through the fray to a large shop with shelves stacked with food. I don’t recognize a lot of it, but Phoenix seems to as he quickly picks out items. He patiently answers all my questions, which there are a lot of and we pay before heading back the way we came.
After a while of silently walking through the alleys Phoenix says, “I’ve been wondering…”
“About what?” I prompt.
“What was your childhood like? You got mad at Derek about it earlier. You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.”
Honestly, there are a lot of things I would rather not dwell on, though I suppose it wouldn’t to tell him a little. “I grew up in a wealthy family in the city. I never really had to worry about food or a place to sleep. I went to college and lived in the dorms, then got started in professional basketball and lived on my own from there. What about you?”
“I-” He pauses for a moment, recollecting his thoughts. “I grew up in a warzone. I don’t know who or started it, or why, but by the time I was born it had been raging for years. The water and air elementals were both wiped by then, and we were attacking the fire elementals next, but it didn’t work out. I fought against them my whole life, and I never questioned why until after I died. By now, I’m pretty sure my world is gone. The fire elementals were starting to turn on each other towards the end.”
Holy shit. I can’t even imagine growing up like that. What am I supposed to say? He sounds so sad.
He clears his throat and continues, “Anyways, it’s been a long time since then. I’ve moved on. It’s better to focus on the present.”
Now that, I can work with. “So let’s make the present as awesome as possible!” I grin at him and he smiles back.
“Alright.”
We spend the rest of our walk in a comfortable silence. Focusing on the present, huh. I like that idea.
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