Over the weeks Nico regained most of his strength and his wounds healed but the scars remained on his face, his back and his wrists for the rest of his life. Faith and Sarah help him to walk again as his legs could barely hold his weight. In time he was able to hold his own, but the pain still resonated throughout his body. Each day he woke up and fell asleep. As the two women helped him, Jason had taken all of his family’s belongings to a home far north into a new peaceful place far from all this hatred. His journey would take him a week to get there and back but, in the end, it was worth it for their future. By the time he got back to the house Jason could see how Nico was improving day by day. Where he improved in body his mind was suffering.

During the night as he slept all his pain turned into nightmares. Ones that could even haunt and scare the dead. Some nights Faith would stand watching by his door as he toss and turn sometimes even call out in words foreign to her ears. She could not even pronounce the words. When the nightmare got to be too much Faith would sit beside him and hold his hand offering comfort till, they were gone. This was something Nico never knew. All he remembered was someone pulling him out of the dark and back into the light. Faith would do this most nights as her mother and Jason slept never knowing about his nightmares. Thanks to Faith’s strength and peace of mind to stay by him. When the morning came each day Nico could not or would not remember his nightmares. What he saw in his nightmares frightened and confused him. His nightmares were that of death to be exact his death and his rebirth.

Each night they were the same an old man chanting while two warriors armed with spears stood guard beside him. The old man chanted in a language he could not understand. The words struck fear into his beating heart. Halfway through his nightmare the old man and the warriors were consumed by hell fire turning into ash. Through their ashes a bird of fire rose up to take the shape of a man but not a man. The man in his nightmares had eyes black as the night. While strange symbols ran down both sides of his neck. The symbols faded into golden feathers that burned into both arms to the backs of his hands. These golden feathers ran down along his spine. The feathers were burnt into his skin with hellfire so that he felt no pain. Each time Nico had this nightmare the man’s face was always covered apart from the black eyes. Which meant to Nico only one thing death.

These nightmares would haunt him until his end because only at his death would he come to understand what they warned him of. This certain nightmare did not only haunt him it scared him. Far away in a land untouched by the white man’s hand stood a village. This was an Indian village. It was a small village yet strong by all accounts. In this village an old man the tribe’s shaman was awaken by a vision. In his vision he saw a man of fire who eyes were black as the night sky rising from the ashes of death itself. The man he saw was covered by a black mist yet

through this blackness shown the pure goodness of his heart. For it was shown with golden fire and blood red. The old shaman awakened from his vision sweating allover as his black/gray hair fell over his face. Warriors who guarded his home rushed in when they heard the shaman shout out in fear.

“Shaman, what is wrong?” the young long-haired warrior asked with great concern for his mentor.

“He is coming....” the shaman spoke as he tried to catch his breath.

“Who?” the warrior bent down as he asked.

“The man of fire, the Phoenix” the shaman told him looking at him through the hair that covered his eyes.