“What an idiot.” Chara sighed and rolled her eyes. It had been hours. Hours of scouting, and she had finally tracked down her charge. For miles, she had stepped stealthily through the Ember Forest, which was on the outskirts of the city citadel she called home. Sometimes, The Ember Forest could be a real pain in the neck for Chara. It contained a multitude of ghoulish creatures who always wanted to catch a glimpse of the regal warrior. There were fire-breathing reptilians like the Qilin, who had hooves like that of an ox, scaly bodies, and a dragon’s head atop. There were manic pixies and deer women--half-female above the waist and half-deer below--roaming the forest. Griffins and devil birds, who predicted death by ear-splitting shrieks, flew above the treetops. Jorōgumo, ghostly women who turned into spiders, floated above the forest floor and clung to branches. 

No matter how terrifying and blood-thirsty, all these nightmarish creatures were starstruck by Chara. They wanted to challenge her every chance they got. Today, though, the monsters could tell she was not in the mood for pleasantries. They fled from her path, and those stupid enough to confront her were singed. Chara’s temper only simmered down once she was through the forest. Coming upon an open meadow, she actually smirked.

Suddenly, the girl lifted herself up into the air, above the blank clouds, quickly losing contact with the earth. The peach-streaked sky gave off a golden hue as the sun began to set westward. She arched her back, exposed her round belly to the warm glow of the setting sun, calculated the aerodynamics of her throw and threw the spear she carried.

Her weapon whistled into the air. The spear climbed and climbed until it reached the highest point, arcing downwards. The shaft fell swiftly into a murder of crows, their dark feathers glinting brightly from the setting sun. The sharp tip of her weapon nicked the center crow. Chara never missed her mark. Today was no exception.

As the center crow plummeted to the earth, the other birds quickly surrounded it, forming a shrieking, black-feathered tornado that descended towards earth. The center crow disappeared within the whirlwind. The sky seemed to darken as if evening wasn’t the only event it was expecting. Dark, inky feathers soared outwards as the tornado struck the ground. The wind settled down. The air crackled with palpable anticipation, as if the world were holding its breath. What was left on the ground was a dark-haired boy. He shook his head in confusion. Seeing the spear that lay beside him, the boy focused his coal-colored eyes to the sky. Immediately, he recognized the olive-skinned girl who had thrown the spear. He glared up as she slowly descended towards him. With a sizable gash on his left leg where the spear had pierced him, the tan boy cursed in Spanish.

“Crow Boy!” barked Chara, commanding attention. “You’re an idiot.” The girl in red battle gear frowned.

The young man, who was just eighteen, looked up with a seething scowl as the eurasian girl dropped to the ground and picked up her bloodied spear. He glowered maliciously as the warrior straightened and peered down at him.

“I will not excuse this behavior again. You have been warned. Do not disrespect your elders.”

The hispanic native-american man laughed. Even in pain, he couldn’t pass up the opportunity to point out someone’s stupidity. “You’re only two years older than me, fénix,” sneered the crow boy. He did not disguise his disgust for Chara. His voice had a raspy, croaking quality, like sandpaper against wood. Even as evening was upon them and she had caught him, the young man’s eyes glinted with intelligence, as if he had expected such an inconvenient distraction to his escape plan from the start. Jet-black hair fell in waves just past his shoulders. Chara secretly wanted to give the man a hair-tie because he had just been shot down from the sky and his hair was in his face. He didn’t look like he was having the best of days.

Regardless, she kept up her appearance. The older girl chuckled.

“Calling me phoenix is a compliment. You, like all my subjects, should know of my heritage.” Chara peered down at the boy, who was starting to perspire in pain as the blood from his leg-wound seeped into the green meadow where they had landed. He had some spirit, she admitted to herself. Not many could handle a wound from her spear, be in excruciating pain, and still find the energy to mouth off. Crow Boy was what many called him. A famous nickname for an infamous young man. Only a select few knew his true name: Ash, and there was no use hiding it from Chara. She knew every creature in the sky, whether they wanted her to or not.

After imprisoning Ash, Chara had thought her Crow Boy problem was over. She was mistaken. Crow Boy had stayed in Ember for a week before he escaped from the city citadel and its soldiers. It seemed as though he had gotten tired of imprisonment and had simply broken out. The soldiers that prevented escape incidents like these were soldiers she had trained herself, and the young man had left many of them--all genders--heartbroken in a matter of days. They wanted Ash back and not just because he had disobeyed the city’s orders. Chara would never admit she was impressed. But she was impressed. The Crow Boy’s flirting reputation surpassed her own. By a lot. Mostly because she had no reputation when it came to flirting. It was non-existent. Her fighting skills were another story.

And yet, the royal warrior wasn’t even upset at her soldiers. Chara had pulled one of them aside and they told her that Ash had clearly communicated his involvement with them. As a kind of Crow Boy commemoration, all her soldiers were eating ice cream and watching rom coms together while off duty.

With this train of thought, Chara spit into the Crow Boy’s wound.

“Fénix Maldito,” muttered Ash.

Chara clucked her tongue and gave a wry smile as the gash from the pansexual boy’s leg closed up, leaving only a brown scar.

“You must not die today. We have business to discuss.”

Whether that meant Chara would properly charge Ash with his crime of escape or question his courting skills out of sheer curiosity, the both of them would find out soon enough.