Yvie, still trapped in the water as the sun was shining, and the red sand was burning, looked upwards at the flying bird. The forced smile she had started off with had turned genuine, as Phoenix was making air acrobatics, not missing a beat, though it did look a bit awkward at times. The restrictive nature of a Lizard who could only lose a tail or be used as a bucket felt long gone, and it was now enjoying itself.
Meanwhile, Yvie tried to figure the turn of events out. One animal turning into another wasn't all that weird. She, herself could turn back and forth from a snake and a human, after all. But the way it had happened bothered her. Like there was something more to it.
'Why does it look exactly like the phoenix I had in mind' Yvie asked herself, as this was the thing currently bothering her the most.
As coincidences go, she was willing to turn a blind eye to both the turning and the timing for now, but the fact that it looked exactly like something she imagined, in the moment she said the word was where she couldn't move on from.
'Magic…' was the only answer she could come up with. Or at least the 'sort of, sort of not magic', that Aqua had mentioned. She just couldn't figure out exactly how it worked, or what it worked with.
'Aqua could only control water' Yvie reminded herself, going through her ideas and thoughts one by one, trying to figure it out.
But the sun was heating against her, making her brain go numb. She wanted nothing more than to find shadow. Sadly the sand wouldn't let her get that far.
'I feel like I might burn if I take more than three steps' Yvie considered, as she looked upon a tree that would be helpful, if she could only reach it.
"Phoenix!" Yvie called, as she had an idea. If she couldn't walk to the tree, maybe she could fly! Phoenix, surprisingly obedient, flew down to her, once again using her head as a resting place.
"You called, Young One?" It asked, sounding more like the original voice Yvie heard in the cavern, than the voice of the insecure and useless Lizard that had been following her around so far.
"If I turn in to a snake, do you think you can carry me up to under that tree?" She asked, not entirely sure of how much Phoenix could carry. It was larger than her head, and as it was sitting there, it felt like her neck would break. So maybe it wasn't entirely impossible.
"I don't know" Phoenix said, making Yvie aware that she might have made a mistake in teaching it how to admit it properly. However, she was a bit too tired to argue with it now. Telling it that admitting to not knowing something AFTER trying to figure it out first was the correct way of things. NOT just admitting to not knowing anything before the question even got time to correctly enter one's mind.
"Let's try, then. Let me just get my clothes tied properly" Yvie said, getting to work. Not a second later, she was in snake form, ready to get over to the nice shadow.
Phoenix tried lifting her with it's claws, but somehow wasn't entirely in control of it's new body yet. After a few more failed attempts, it managed to grab around the silver and curtain rope, successfully lifting her up.
The feeling of flying was quite enjoyable to Yvie. She understood the happiness Phoenix had shown, as well as she understood that her own feelings of jealousy was somewhat justified.
'I'm happy I was happy for Phoenix instead of letting myself getting swallowed up' Yvie thought to herself, as a pleasant rhythm of wind brushed against her face, with the red sand flying by under her, looking less like individual grains, and more like a red blanket, as she let her eyes rest.
Without trouble, she got dropped from a bit too high up, under the tree. Even though an unpleasant memory resurfaced, as she thought about her time in the cage, she was happy that her thick skin could soften the blow.
'If I had been in human form, I would have gotten a bruise' she told herself, once again feeling satisfied with being both snake and human. She also had understanding for Phoenix, as it had shown earlier, it didn't have too much control yet.
"Thank you" Yvie said properly, she turned back to a girl, put on her clothes, as she enjoyed the shadow and breeze slowly surrounding her in a comfortable and lulling sleep. It didn't take long before she dozed off, taking a break from thinking and asking, taking a break from the world.
Meanwhile, Phoenix felt weird. It was the first time it had ever been properly thanked. Even though it had dropped her. Even though it almost couldn't get her in the first place. Even though it wasn't yet super good at flying, and felt like it had been a bumpy flight. The Young One, nay, Yvie, thanked it.
Having a spiral of thoughts, not unlike Yvie, but made by completely different worries, it started to think about everything properly.
Had it really earned a thank you? A sudden sense of self-realization hit upon it, attacking it out of nowhere, as flashes from the entire journey kept filling it's mind.
Annoyance, madness, arrogance. Feelings of being better than an ignorant little girl, who in reality had been the one to get them this far, kept hitting it, as it tried to forcibly stop them.
But the thoughts had taken a hold. The piece of mind Phoenix had gained while flying through the sky with no worries had caught up, and it was time to sit down and think properly. Something Phoenix wasn't all that keen on.
A piece of it deep inside still thought it had been right all along. That it hadn't done anything wrong.
A little voice kept telling it that Yvie was at fault for dragging it out into the world in the first place. For not fulfilling her destiny, and not letting it fulfill it's own.
As Yvie found a piece of mind, sleeping peacefully as she could sense no danger, Phoenix had found chaos, as the inner turmoil kept building up.
It tried flying around again, trying to regain the feeling of peaceful bliss it had had just then, but it couldn't fly from it's problems, nor it's own thoughts.
So what was it to do?