Pieces of Glass

Let me introduce you to my enchanted lantern: Sara. She can be an annoying chatterbox, I tell you, but is quite efficient when comes to forest finding.

It was a warm, sticky June night. We were roaming around the forest on my bicycle. Sara lay inside the basket.

“Do you really think She is here?” Sara chirped. “I’m sure that Bodkin, lied! A born muddleheaded dwarf he is! And to think you---”

“Look there!” I interrupted. I stopped and put the bicycle in a shade.

Ahead of us was a tall, large cave. Near the entrance, a few shards of glass lay. The pale moonlight glinted on them.

“Come on, let’s go inside,” I said, taking my lantern up.

She looking fearfully at the ground. “So Bodkin wasn’t lying after all…”

Torches lined up inside the cave. And bright red flames danced on top of them. The crackling of the fire echoed around.

“Look there,” I whispered, afraid that my echo shall awaken the Guardian of this cave.

On the feet of the torches lay some pieces of glass. I bent down to pick one but suddenly a voice loomed in:

“Who dares to get in my cave?”

It was a voice that curled my blood. A voice that reached the core of my heart. A voice as fiery and fearless as the leaping flames.

I froze in my place but my eyes strayed up. There She was… an enormous bird, red as burning fire… the Great Empress of Flames… the Phoenix.

A strange but strong fear grasped my heart as I remembered what Bodkin had told: Phoenix fire can turn people into glass.

But I stood up, fearlessly and dusted my skirt. “O Great Phoenix, I command you to follow me. We have matters to talk.”