I knew the raven was telling me junk when I grabbed it out of the air with my paw. I could see in its arrogant, beady eyes that it thought it was important. PFFFFF. Yeah, right. I then heard a rustle in the tree next to my home cave, and I could’ve sworn I saw an orange, glowing thing in the trees. Of course, Dendro Forest was filled with glowing orange things, including my orange paws that occasionally illuminated. It looked like mushrooms, but I had never seen a mushroom with wings, much less in a tree.

  Another rustle. All right, now things were getting suspicious. I squinted through the thick leaves and blossoms of the tree’s branches. At first, I thought maybe I was hallucinating, but that’s when I saw the bright golden eyes of a real, living creature staring back at me.

  “ALL RIGHT, WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?!” I bark up at the tree. If I was talking to absolutely nothing — which seemed very, very unlikely, given the eyes and wings — I would crash out. I don’t like to look silly. Who does?

  To my surprise, a phoenix (NOT a glowing, orange mushroom with hallucinated eyes and wings) fluttered down in an elegant matter, staring at me in the eye the second her talons touched the dirt. For some reason, I thought they only lived in Mount Pyro, but I guess I was wrong.

  I let out a growl meant to threaten her, letting the raven in my claws go but not taking my narrowed eyes off the phoenix. The Messenger of the Lords flapped away clumsily, squawking about how he’d tell the Lord about this. Since I didn’t care, I started advancing on the phoenix, slowly stalking her even though she was not prey in any way — not any creature I could eat, anyway. But the phoenix only let out a hissing laugh, which made me stop. Wait — what?

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  The laughter rang in my ears. Most creatures feared me, but the flaming bird showed only smug amusement. Never, even from Geo Desert all the way to Electro Moor, have I ever seen somecreature laugh at me. Me, the most murderous kitsune Magix has ever seen. Anger bubbled up in me. I lashed out my claws, swiping at the phoenix, only for her to smile as she dodged neatly and landed on her talons.

  Her feathered tail lashed over the grass as she took one step toward me.

  “Who are you?” I repeated, sneering. Trying to intimidate her. It seemed to work a bit, for she looked surprised.

  The phoenix said with a hint of mock disgust, “I should be asking you that question.” Her eyes briefly flicked up to the yew tree that my mother had insisted on planting. Then back at my golden eyes that almost matched hers, but not quite.

  “I’m somecreature you should be respecting,” I needle, testing her tolerance. “But you’re just a bird who can’t survive without feathers that are literally on fire.”

  She flinched, but other than that, she showed no sign that my insult stung her. Moderate tolerance, I guess.

  “My name is Pyra,” she grinned, trying to establish me as an acquaintance. “I heard that yours is Star?”

  “Stalker?!” I snarl at her. I’m not falling for her tricks.

  “Ha!” Now the laugh is a little musical this time. “And why would I stalk you? I just saw you looking for something and came to watch the show.”

  I relaxed my stance ever so slightly, lifting my ears and blinking my eyes wider so they aren’t slits. Giving Pyra a calculating expression, I observe, This bird isn’t afraid of me… but she might be just the one to serve me.