[center][h1]Ashes[/h1]

[i]Collaboratively written by BBeast and Cyclone[/i][/center]

A shape flew through the sky with a silhouette of a pterodactyl yet far larger than even the beasts of Kirron’s Hooflands. A mild heat wave followed in its wake. Eyes which burned like embers scanned the razed ground below.

A spot of midnight blue stood out among the grey and brown. Swiftly the shape descended and the Phoenix landed beside the heap of blood-soaked blue feathers. [colour=f7941d][b][i]“No, no, sweet Thunderbird, no. Why?”[/i][/b][/colour] The Phoenix lowered his beak to the Thunderbird’s. Scalding tears welled up in his eyes and sizzled as they fell on the ground below. [colour=f7941d][b][i]“I should have been there. I- I-”[/i][/b][/colour] The Phoenix sobbed, his deep guttural cries echoing across the land.

The Thunderbird shuddered as if waking again, but it was just the mocking twitch of dead muscles. The ground was strewn with the dead and dying, and almost in unison the corpses seized. Those slowly succumbing to their wounds laid still save for ragged breathing or gurgling, in many ways looking more lifeless than even the dead about them.

A hazy grey figure emerged from over the horizon, flying and fast approaching the scene. It didn’t circle around like a vulture, for its senses were keen and it easily found the carnage that had attracted its attention. The ghostly figure landed besides the oldest carrion, the shredded and mangled remnants of the first beast that the Thunderbird had slain. And then it set to work. In its grasp was a long pale rod, and the merest tap of that staff upon the ground brought a reek of decay so potent that it could have been smelled from leagues away. The Phoenix, however, was much closer than that.

The Phoenix’s nostrils flared at the stench and he raised his head. His eyes locked onto the ghostly figure. He rose to his full height, towering far above the newcomer, and puffed out his chest. [colour=f7941d][b][i]“Who are you?”[/i][/b][/colour]

Zotz cast little more than a glance at the monstrous bird. [color=gray][i]“The one who is left to remedy the filth left behind by the living who are destined to slaughter one another.”[/i][/color] His gaze returned down to the yellowing grass that withered beneath his feet and the now almost indistinguishable mounds of rancid flesh. He stepped carelessly over the bodies, raising his magical staff before the carnage and willing it all to become dirt once more. He did not know who or what the Phoenix was, but nor did he care enough to ask.

The Phoenix watched the circle of decomposing matter spread out from around Zotz. He looked around at the battlefield through eyes still clouded with tears and properly inspected it. A short distance away lay the body of Azadine, the burns of lightning clear. Around lay the dead bodies of both Azadine’s spawn and giant red crabs, slain in battle against each other. Any survivors had probably scattered and fled by now.

He looked back down at the body of the Thunderbird. Fresh tears welled in the Phoenix’s eyes as he bowed his head down to the bird. [colour=f7941d][b][i]“My sweet, I shall not leave you to scavengers or decay. You deserve a proper funeral,”[/i][/b][/colour] he said softly.

The Phoenix exhaled a breath of cinders and the body of the Thunderbird caught alight. The Phoenix stepped back and watched. As the fire took hold the feathers burst into dazzling flares of brilliant white light. As the Thunderbird was engulfed in an inferno some of the midnight blue feathers came free and billowed up with the smoke into the sky. Soon the feathers were gone and the light faded to just the flames, supernaturally hot though they were. The Phoenix released a mournful cry which carried far and wide as his beloved Thunderbird became ash.

The blaze caught the ghostly one’s attention. Zotz turned from his work and watched attentively. [color=gray][i]“Less work for me,”[/i][/color] he concluded. When the Phoenix finished its infernal wailing, Zotz unraveled his humanoid form into a gust of billowing smoke and approached at a frightening speed, then insensitively loomed over the Thunderbird’s remnants and inspected the ashes. [color=gray][i]”Purified!”[/i][/color] he noted with some surprise.

[color=gray][i]“You have garnered my interest with that display. Might you burn the rest? You would make for a good assistant, better than my wretched fool of a brother--”[/i][/color]

And then almost on queue, the ghostly silhouette of a giant monkey manifested at the edge of the battlegrounds, mouth cackling and a strange whip cracking. The corpses of the dead kicked, rolled, twitched, or seized with every snap of the whip, and even after all the years Ku couldn’t find anything more hilarious than their spasms.

The Phoenix regarded Zotz critically. [colour=f7941d][b][i]“The Avatar of a God reduced to a servant of a lesser being? I think not.”[/i][/b][/colour] His gaze cast over to Ku. [colour=f7941d][b][i]“Who are you?”[/i][/b][/colour] the Phoenix asked both of them.

[color=gray][i]“Servants of the god Katharsos,”[/i][/color] Zotz explained, unconcerned with the Phoenix’s slight. [color=gray][i]“I am meant to decay corpses when great quantities of them are made, before their poison spreads and their carrion feeds scavengers and worse. And my brother is supposed to mark the dead that I do not disturb those that yet live; however, to him our sacred charge is nothing more than a game.”[/i][/color]

[color=ivory][i]“I do what the god told me to do,”[/i][/color] the eavesdropping monkey called out. He never ceased flailing his whip, cracking it between every other word and grinning as he made some mangled corpses twitch and spasm so violently that they appeared to rise once again and dance in some crude fashion. [color=ivory][i]“But I find my own entertainment too, because if I took my job as seriously as Zotz takes his then I’d have gone mad long ago. Ha! Maybe I already have!”[/i][/color]

The Phoenix watched Ku’s peculiar display. Some of the brothers’ words echoed around inside his mind. [colour=f7941d][b][i]“I should probably return to Muspelheim. I have been away too long already,”[/i][/b][/colour] he said.

[color=ivory][i]“Why hurry? Loosen up, take your time, stay and watch the show. Hey, see if you can light these things on fire!”[/i][/color] Between giggles, Ku used his whip to goad the throng of ‘dancing’ corpses towards the Phoenix at a clumsy gait.

A slight smile might have crept onto the Phoenix’s face if he had lips. [colour=f7941d][b][i]“Burning things is in line with Sartr’s will.”[/i][/b][/colour] The Phoenix took a deep breath in, then exhaled an incandescent beam of heat which vaporised the moving corpses. In the thick of it all, unperturbed by mundane flames, the ghostly monkey laughed and danced. His whip flew back and forth at a blurring speed, and Ku sent hordes more of the dead forward whilst guiding their every motion like a crazed composer. Some tried to use others as shields, some tried to stealthily approach the Phoenix from behind, and still others just bounded forward like rabid beasts. Yet all fell to the flames as the Phoenix swept the beam around.

When some of the corpses from behind reached the Phoenix, having escaped his notice, they burst into flame as soon as they reached for the Avatar of Heat. As he felt their claws and teeth clatter uselessly against his hide the Phoenix paused his fire breath. He swept a wing which caught the small horde and hurled them away, leaving a flaming heap.

The surge of animated dead suddenly came to a stop, though many lumps of flesh still remained on the periphery of the battlefield where the Phoenix hadn’t bathed the ground in sweltering flame. [color=ivory][i]“Pah, the rest still cling to life, and Zotz would be fuming if I tried to move them around. But good show! Working with you is fun. Say, care to do this again next time the fleshbags leave behind a big mess?”[/i][/color]

[color=gray][i]“I had already extended him the offer. It remains from my end, still,”[/i][/color] the forgettable Zotz whispered. The bat-shaped ghost had watched with far less glee than Ku, but he’d seemed pleased enough all the same.

[color=ivory][i]“Great! So we’d only have to run it by Balam! When are you, uh...available?”[/i][/color] Ku asked the Phoenix.

The Phoenix looked around the scorched earth around him with some satisfaction. It had been a long time since he had properly incinerated anything. [colour=f7941d][b][i]“I would be open to collaboration. Although I am only available when my master does not need me elsewhere.”[/i][/b][/colour]

The monkey’s neverending smile widened a bit at that. [color=ivory][i]“What is it that you’re supposed to do, anyways?”[/i][/color]

The Phoenix hesitated for a few moments as he tried to remember his purpose. [colour=f7941d][b][i]“I burn what Master Sartr tells me to, watch the world for him, and do anything else he requires of me,”[/i][/b][/colour] he answered.

[color=ivory][i]“Huh. To have such freedom! What’s ‘watching the world’ supposed to mean anyways? You could probably bend that one to do whatever you want! Well if you stick around us, you’ll get to have lots of fun and laugh at Zotz’ expense, and maybe we’ll put in a good word to the god of death for you, eh? We’ll be able to find you next time there’s something worth doing. You’ve got a particular scent to you, and we’re sharp enough to smell a bloated corpse halfway across the world!”[/i][/color]

Zotz, lacking words, silently backed away and began to attend to the remaining monsters one by one as they drew their last breaths. Ku’s absentminded fidgeting of his whip and the dead’s resulting motion made it easy enough to spot them once they’d expired, and then a quick tap of Zotz’s staff left them rotted within seconds.

The Phoenix looked guiltily away. [colour=f7941d][b][i]“Sartr will be asking where I’ve been…”[/i][/b][/colour] he mumbled to himself. He shook his head and looked to Ku. [colour=f7941d][b][i]“If we cross paths again then I would be happy to burn things with you. I cannot guarantee when that will be, though.”[/i][/b][/colour]

Ku shrugged. [color=ivory][i]“We have all the time in the world. It’s been fun, fiery bird! See you next time!”[/i][/color] Then the monkey fled and left his brother to finish their macabre work.

[colour=f7941d][b][i]“Yes, next time.”[/i][/b][/colour] The Phoenix then stretched out his wings and with a wingbeat which stirred up dust across the battlefield took to the skies and left.

[hider=Summary]
The Phoenix finds the body of his beloved Thunderbird. He mourns.

Zotz and Ku, two brothers created by Katharsos to dispose of the dead, arrive. Zotz starts rotting the bodies to dirt.

The Phoenix cremates the Thunderbird. This impresses Zotz and Ku. Ku orchestrates a little game where Ku makes the corpses move while the Phoenix incinerates them.

Zotz and Ku ask the Phoenix if he’d like to tag along and do this again some time. The Phoenix says he would like to, but he needs to return to Muspelheim and answer to Sartravius.
[/hider]