Chapter 345: Interlude - Auri - Burn the tears, burn the world

Elaine woke up thrashing, fighting with her sheets like they wanted to strangle her. She bolted upright with a wild look in her eyes, panting and sweating.

I cracked an eye open, pretending to ‘wake up’. Sneaky Auri! Stealthy Auri!

Quiet Auri. Elaine needs her sleep! All the sleep! She’s always super tired, and see, SEE! Big yawn. Huge ashy spots under her eyes.

Not enough sleep, oh no. My big friend needs more sleep! Maybe that’ll make her happy.

“Morning…” I made sure my chirp was tired, all sleepy like.

I stretched out my wings as Elaine stumbled out of bed, then froze as she started to put on her robes.

“No! Wrong!” I flew up at her. “Burning time first!” If I didn’t remind her, she’d forget!

Burning time was fun. Trying to burn Elaine was funny! She didn’t burn, no matter what I did, and it helped my skills!

She blinked at me, like one of those poor owls.

They didn’t do well with fire, but they were SUPER quiet.

“You sure? There’s just so much to do…”

I made a few little flames hover around me. Reds! Yellows! Whites! Pinks! Purples! Even three blues!

I’d totally destinkify Elaine here, and she knew it. I’d done it before!

She muttered and shook her head. I narrowed my eyes at her hair.

I needed to figure out how to use a “comb”. I could carry it in my claws, but I couldn’t get it moving through Elaine’s hair. It kept getting tangled!

No fair!

And I couldn’t even burn the hair for getting in my way!

“Alright, alright, let’s go.”

Elaine’s shoulders slumped - weary? Subtle emotions were haaaaaaaard - but she walked across the hall anyways, over to the burning room.

[Immolate]! WHOOOOSH! Flames everywhere, just the way the world should be.

Flames drying Elaine’s tears, the ones she thought I couldn’t see. She was nice, trying to make me feel happy like that.

Ha! Water was evil! I could spot its traces from… very far away! Then burn it away!

Fire 1!n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Water 0!

Bridget was very nice. Not as nice as Elaine, but nice! She helped me find some classes! Yes!

One important class told me that I should have offensive skills! Then I can burn TWICE AS MUCH.

Good class.

My juice ran out, and Elaine’s morning burning was over. Elaine went back to her room to get dressed, and I flew through the hallways! Zoom! Zip! Back and forth! Under Varuna’s legs! Over Iona’s friend’s head! Staying far away from Reinhard!

Reinhard was scary. How did the others not see it??

Oh wait.

Only I had [See Magic], because I was the only one smart enough to take the skill!

I had to [See Magic] to [Burn Magic]. It only made sense! Yes!

Hmmm.

I was the smartest, yes.

I needed to make Elaine happy, yes. She worked so hard for me!

It was time for me to solve Elaine being happy, once and for all! It hadn’t worked yesterday, but yesterday-Auri wasn’t a very smart bird. Today-Auri was much smarter! A genius!

Elaine reading and learning lots helped. Bits of knowledge slowly drifted into my mind.

Elaine worked SO HARD! It was impressive, worthy of ME!

Ok, make Elaine happy.

Hmmm.

HMMMMMMMMMM.

Somehow, nothing I’d done so far worked. Who here was happy?

Reinhard - too scary.

Fenrir - YES! But I had already checked ALL THE THINGS he did, and none of them worked on Elaine!

Skye - always looked a tiny bit sad.

Iona - Yes, she was happy.

Iona’s friend, now leaving - Yes, also happy.

Varuna - SUPER HAPPY.

“Auri! Let’s go!”

“Ok!” I flew over to Elaine, in her poofy purple hat! Nice hat!

“My hat?” I asked her expectantly. Hats were fun! Made for people with fingers, which was all sorts of silly. People with wings deserved hats as well!

“Here! Let’s not lose this one.” No! Elaine! Why did you remind me! That day was terrible, I lost my hat!!!

I tilted my beak up. Elaine had clever fingers! Snip! Snap! I wanted fingers!

[*Rejoice!* Oh most wondrous of birds, brightest flame in all the lands, you have leveled up a skill! [Brrretty] has gone from 103 to 104!]

“Yay! Levels!”

“Oh yay! High five!” Elaine put her hand up. I flew over, and BAM! Smacked it with my wing!

“High five!”

I landed on Elaine’s shoulder, and we left for the day!

‘Day.’ This place was so silly! It didn’t know when the greatest flame went into the sky, and when it left! Like, duh, just look outside!

Well… that would be hard today, yes. We were flying through a storm! A big, GINORMOUS storm! This place had shields, and I could watch the storm without getting wet! Brilliant! Clever! They should do it for all storms, and not let the nasty rain come in.

Whyyyyyy they ever let that happen, I’ll never know. One day I’ll find out who’s in charge of this place! Yes! And I’ll tell them it’s bad! It should be only dry!

Oh.

Hmmm.

But wait.

Some people liked rain… and there were water creatures…

Maybe… maybe I should be nice and let them have some fun…?

Hmmmm.

HMMMMM.

NOPE!

Only fire and flames! Unless Elaine wanted something else!

The storm was SO COOL though. Black roiling clouds! Lightning! Thunder! Gigantic four-winged shapes in the middle!

“Thunderbirds.” Elaine whispered in awe. “I always wanted to see one.”

Big birds! LIGHTNING birds!

They were OK.

Would having lightning sparks fly off me make me look prettier?

Hmmmm.

HMMMMM.

YES!

Lightning would make me look prettier! Yes, good, GOOD!

Ok! Back to thinking on ‘how to make Elaine happy again.’

Varuna was happy. What did Varuna do?

She… ate a lot.

Could that make Elaine happy? Was she eating enough?

No, wait, silly bird! This was yesterday-Auri level thinking! I had already done food when checking with Fenrir! He ate food and flew lots! Elaine ate food and flew lots! I needed today-Auri level thinking!

Varuna… also ran a lot? But Elaine also ran lots and lots every day. She ran to class, she ran between classes, she also spent almost an hour running EVERY DAY! There was a whole class for it! First thing in the fake-morning, every day!

This required ADVANCED thinking! I needed a thinking cap!

Oh wait!

We were here!

Bridget! YAY!

“Good morning Auri! How are we feeling today?”

“Good! Elaine’s still sad though.”

“Oh no! Here, have an apple.” The tree-woman grew a WHOLE APPLE just for ME!

Not quite a mango, but still sweet and tasty! Yum!

“We’ve got a ton of fun activities for everyone today! Excited?”

“Yes! Can we go to the fire range today?”

“The firing range?”

BAH. Fire range! Not firing range!

“Yes!”

“Sure! But we have some other activities to do as well, ok?” Bridget was tons of fun! Yay activities!

“Classes and skills are important. It is critical that you carefully select yours such that you end up being a productive member of society. Now, your parents will be able to guide you more, but I also know some little ears and minds get their own ideas, that you think you know better. Maybe you do. Just don’t take a class like [Wastrel], [Arrogant Young Master], or [Layabout].”

I opened and closed my beak a few times.

A… productive member of society?

Elaine had never mentioned something like that!

But… I knew what that was, because of our shared skill! Yes! The companion skill! She was a SUPER DUPER productive member of society!

But… what did I do? How did I contribute?

I didn’t want to be a [Layabout]! That sounded like a wet class!

I was still thinking about it when I went to the fire range.

The fire range was the best! A place that gave me endless things to burn AND GAVE ME UNLIMITED JUICE TO DO SO!

I needed to work on my skills! Yes! They had to be the BIGGEST NUMBER before I classed up! That would give me the best class possible, which would let me burn even brighter!

I flew over to my special spot, the lightning bolts flashing through the clouds. Boom! Crash! Pretty lights! Only one color though…

My special spot was a pillar of Arcanite! The rock was filled with kindling! So much kindling!

I looked out at the field. Lots of people here! Whizzing blades! Lava whips! Magic missiles! Crackling lightning, beams of Radiance, clouds of dust and more! So much magic!

And things to shoot at! Rocks! Flying birds made out of Brilliance! Not-Creatures that looked real, and burned! Sometimes there was Sand blowing through the area, making it hard to shoot! Or it was Dark! Sometimes things stood still, sometimes they were zippy and zoopy!

Sometimes there were “don’t shoot these” targets, little flat kids with crying faces. Bah! If they didn’t want to get shot, why were they in the shooting area??

Sometimes there were shields protecting things! Had to burn through the shields. It was easy for me, because I was THAT GOOD.

This place was fun! Clever people making a good playground for me!

Today had lots and LOTS of wind going through the arena! Everything was tumbling through the air, going off-track! I was smart though. I watched everyone else fail, because they were not as good as me, and I learned! Yes! I would hit my target! There was one not-sparrow that was TOTALLY EVIL! Yes! We shoot the not-sparrow!

[Burning Orbs]! Three beautiful orbs of resplendent fire popped up around me! Hurray!

[Domain of Fire] made all fire stronger, and everything else weaker around me. Because that was the natural order of things. WHY this wasn’t already a worldwide thing, I’d find out one day. When Elaine read about it, I learned it.

But they were my normal flames! My normal flames were the BEST, but I also liked having ALL THE FIRE! Elaine was smart, bringing me to the museum! I got to see lots and lots and lots of different types of fires, and now I could use [Flame Selection]!

One white, sticky, [Burning Orb]. Naturally sticky!

One green [Burning Orb] with [Burn Magic] attached! Yay clever me!

One black orb with spreading flames!

Three! Three was my limit! For now. One day it would be more.

Sometimes the people here had a whole THING of what to do first. An order to shooting!

I only remembered the IMPORTANT part, the end!

FIRE!!!!

Pew pew PEW pew PEW! Each orb spat out little bullets of their flames! The little crying kid cutout went WHOOSH! The trees exploded in black flames! The people running the place were running over as the green flames started to eat the fancy magic underlying the fire range!

If it wasn’t supposed to be on fire, why did they call it the fire range?

Humph.

My flames were huge! The best! And all the tasty kindling I was on meant I could keep going and going and GOING! Burn, burn, BURN! Burn until my little heart was satisfied!

Or until Bridget came back, and we got lunch. Bah. Time limits!

One day I’d learn how to [Ignite Time]. Then we’d see who the boss was!

[*Rejoice!* Oh most wondrous of birds, brightest flame in all the lands, you have leveled up a skill! [Burning Orbs] has gone from 79 to 80!]

[*Rejoice!* Oh most wondrous of birds, brightest flame in all the lands, you have leveled up a skill! [Burn Magic] has gone from 120 to 121!]

[*Rejoice!* Oh most wondrous of birds, brightest flame in all the lands, you have leveled up a skill! [See Magic] has gone from 21 to 22!]

[*Rejoice!* Oh most wondrous of birds, brightest flame in all the lands, you have leveled up a skill! [Domain of Fire] has gone from 125 to 126!]

[*Rejoice!* Oh most wondrous of birds, brightest flame in all the lands, you have leveled up a skill! [Flame Selection] has gone from 41 to 42!]

Yay!

My little area of the fire range was now in the right and proper way things should be.

Ok! New skill practice time! Elaine had this skill, and she was taking a WHOLE CLASS for it! I wanted to be like her! Because she was the best! Her learning helped me get the skill!

It was time for my grand new skill to make an entrance!

“[Abjuration!]” I grandly announced to anyone who could understand me.

A flaming shield popped around me! Hurray!

I puffed up, pleased as an ember in dry twigs, and waited for the notifications. Some of the range people were trying to talk with me, but I ignored them. Brrpt! BRRRPT! They’ll never know I’m saying brrrpt and nodding and completely ignoring them! Silly people who can’t understand me! All the important people can. Elaine! Iona! Fenrir! Bridget!

Well, Plato didn’t… but he hurt too much to think about…

SHIELD! MAGIC! Focus on that! Wait for the levels to come rolling in, like the sun rolling across the sky!

And waited…

And waited…

THIS SKILL WAS SO STUPID! AHHHHHH! Why did Elaine like it so much!? It just made a sphere of fire around me, that was it! What was the point??

I turned off the skill, and made a tiny little ‘hand’ of solid Inferno flames. Carefully manipulating it, I twisted the clasp of my hat off, then threw it to the ground! I jumped on it a few times for good measure.

Silly! Stupid! Skill! Who needed a shield of flames!?

[*Rejoice!* Auri the great, the grand, the glamorous, I come to you with tidings of a new Class Skill for your perusal! Oh mighty phoenix, most heavenly of birds, would you like to take the skill [Mage Hand]?]

Hmmm.

HMMMMM.

The notification needed some work! It wasn’t praising me enough! Most heavenly of birds? No! Most heavenly of all creatures! Yes! There we go! Improvements!

Also [Abjuration] was stupid, and I’d just stomped on my hat. I needed to put it back on, because hats made me look [Brrretty]!

I took the skill! Down with [Abjuration]! New skill, make me a hand!

YAAAAAY! I HAD HANDS! It looked like Elaine’s! No more would I get yelled at for burning through doors! No more would I need to melt lids to get into the juice! Nest material could be done in one trip now, not fifteen!

And!

AND!

I could put my own hat back on!

[*Rejoice!* Oh most wondrous of birds, brightest flame in all the lands, you have leveled up a skill! [Mage Hand] has gone from 1 to 2!]

Yes! Getting better skills was the best!

Oh!

I should make ALL my skills better!

Hmmm.

HMMMMM.

I should think about it while shooting targets!

[Burning Quills!] Let’s not burn the magic this time, it made people grumpy and disturb me. Smart Auri! Today-level thinking!

Hmm. [Burning Quills] was only so-so. It needed to be bigger! Better! What was the biggest, bestest burning thing?

Elaine knew! Yes! Sometimes there were big flaming rocks that went through the sky! I should have big flame balls like that! I was the best, yes, but my quills weren’t as big or as great as a sky-fire-rock! I should make them like that!

Wait, not one rock. That was yesterday-Auri thinking. I needed today-Auri thinking. What was better than one rock? ALL THE ROCKS! AND THE ROCKS SHOULD BE FLAMES!!

[*Rejoice!* Auri the great, the grand, the glamorous, I come to you with tidings of a new Class Skill for your perusal! Oh mighty phoenix, most heavenly of creatures, would you like to take the skill [Auri’s Meteor Storm]?]

Good, good! The System was praising me like it should! And YES! One meteor storm coming right up!

Those were screams of joy and excitement at seeing my new skill, right?

“Auri! Time for lunch!” Bridget called me over, a few of the other kids in tow with her.

Food! Yes! Tasty, tasty food! Elaine liked eating SOOOO much that I also liked eating! It was brilliant!

But BOO! Lines! I got swatted at when I tried to fly over them, because DUH, how else do you skip the lines, but even BRIDGET said it was wrong! Elaine complained about lines all the time as well, yes!

Bad lines! Burn the lines!

But that would be burning lots of people… and I could only burn bad people.

But the people were making the line… therefore they were bad?

My logic seemed sound, but everyone kept disagreeing with it. Booooo.

Food time!

Yummy!

Food was great! I liked food! Elaine liked food! Fenrir, Iona, and Varuna liked food!

Oh! Wait!

BRILLIANT TODAY-AURI IDEA!

Maybe Elaine was sad because she was eating the wrong kind of food! Varuna ate hay! Fenrir ate meat! Elaine usually ate mangos, but there weren’t a lot here! Maybe I needed to get Elaine some mangos to make her happy!

She could even have mine!

The chef today had a huge poofy hat!

“Can I get one of those?” I asked Bridget.

“One of what?” She asked me.

“The hats!” I pointed my beak right at the big poofy thing on the [Chef’s] head.

“Well, are you a [Chef]?” Bridget asked all too reasonably. She liked asking fun questions to make me think!

“No…”

“Do you want to be one?”

!!!!!!!!!!

I perked up.

A [Chef]! That was a brilliant idea!

Wait, no, even better! A today-Auri idea! An idea that let me be a productive member of society! That would make Elaine happy! That would get me a poofy hat! That would let me use fire all the time!

Yes! I was a [Once in a Million Years Genius]!

“Can a [Baker] wear one of the poofy hats?”

Bridget smiled.

“Of course! Would you like to learn how to bake?”

“YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!” I screamed my approval as loudly as I could.

After all, Stentor was in my name.

“Auri! Ready to go home? Oh my, you’ve got a cool new hat!”

“Yay! Elaine! You’re back!” I flew over to my favorite perch, grabbing my fancy new hat with my fancy new hand. Life was good!

“Are you a [Cook] now?” She asked as we started walking back.

“No! I’m going to be a [Baker]! I’m going to make you lots of tasty cookies! Because I’m the best!”

I carefully didn’t think about the piles of ash I’d left behind. Nope! That was some bad… [Turn the Cookies to Ash]... water-fish that had done that. Not me.

“Oh my! A baker! I love chocolate chip cookies. I haven’t had one since… well, forever.”

AHHA! An idea! A food to make Elaine happy! Yes! New mission! Find the cho-co-late chip cookies!

I needed to figure out ‘chocolate’ first, but I had a goal! A path to success!

We made it back home, and Elaine immediately turned around and went to work. This was my chance!

First!

Fenrir!

“Hey! Hey! Fenrir! Let’s play leapfrog!”

“Humrmn?”

“I stand here! You jump over me! Then I jump over you!”

“Ok.” Fenrir growled awkwardly. Little Fenrir! Baby Fenrir! He’ll get bigger and better soon!

Fenrir awkwardly galloped at me, crouching down and leaping over me in a single bound.

“Yay! You did it! My turn!”

I had wings, it wasn’t cheating. It was fun!

Over and over we went, down the hall and back. Play time!

“Hey Auri, Fenrir. Having fun?” Iona asked us as she came back.

“Fun.” Fenrir agreed.

“Lots of fun!” I flew up to Iona!

Wait!

MORE IDEAS! Today-Auri was full of them! Today was a good day!

“You make your friends all happy all the time, right, right?” I asked Iona.

She blinked at me. Silly Iona! Be smarter!

“Yes?” She answered.

“Ok! Good! Make Elaine happy, please?”

Iona sat down on the sofa, and put her head in her hands. She muttered something in a language I didn’t know. Unfair!

I pecked her! Ha! That’ll teach her to use different languages around me!

“Alright. I’d love to, uh, make Elaine happy.” Iona slowly explained to me.

“Good! You should do it!”

“But Elaine is very busy.”

I gave Iona the stink-eye.

“I don’t think she’d appreciate me asking her if I, uh, wanted to make her happy, and it would just add more stress to her. That wouldn’t be very nice of me now, would it? I think she should see a mind-healer. That could help more.”

Hmmmm.

HMMMMM.

I continued to give Iona the stink-eye. She… might be right.

Iona sighed at me, and relaxed back.

“Look. Speaking frankly. She’s a complete badass. A badass babe.”

Yes, yes, good. I knew I liked Iona for a reason. Keep saying good things about Elaine! And drawing pretty pictures of me!

“I would love to share a bed with her, but if Elaine doesn’t want to and is too busy, shouldn’t we do what Elaine wants?”

Hmmmm.

“Yes… but I gotta tell Elaine all this! Let her decide! Maybe she wants to!”

Iona’s eyes opened wide.

“No, wait, get back here!”

I flew up to the ceiling, where Iona couldn’t catch me.

“Nya nya NYA nya NYA!” I taunted her.

Iona bent her knees and leapt at me.

“Noooo!” I shrieked as I dodged her grab, only for her to pivot off the ceiling and attack again!

Dodge again! Zippy bird!

“I’ll draw you a picture! Three pictures!” Iona shouted, and I hovered in the air.

Hmmm.

HMMMMMM.

Iona’s pictures were super good, showing off the most important person in the world to everyone who saw them, AND let me see myself whenever I wanted. They were good! Very nice! I wanted!

I also wanted to tell Elaine! Make her happy!

Tricky Auri time! I had a [Mage Hand] now! I could cross fingers!

[*Rejoice!* Oh most wondrous of birds, brightest flame in all the lands, you have leveled up a skill! [Mage Hand] has gone from 6 to 7!]

“Ok!”

[Name: Aoife Auri Stentor]

[Race: Phoenix]

[Age: 1]

[Mana: 101370/101370]

[Mana Regen: 94,032]

Stats

[Free Stats: 0]

[Pushing Power: 474]

[Fancy Flying: 636]

[Reactions and Reflexes/Twitchiness: 3,080]

[Zippiness: 3,200]

[Kindling: 10,137]

[New Juice: 10,113]

[Flame Size: 8,928]

[Fire Control: 8,820]

[Class 1: [The Eternal Flame - Inferno : Lv 128]]

[Inferno Authority: 128]

[Phoenix Rebirth: 3]

[Inferno Manipulation: 128]

[Inferno Conjuration: 128]

[True Flames: 128]

[Burn Magic: 121]

[Domain of Fire: 128]

[Auri’s Meteor Storm: 34]

[Class 2: [The Phoenix Everliving - Inferno: Lv 128]]

[See Magic: 22]

[Immolate: 79]

[Everything Burns: 40]

[Clinging Flames: 45]

[Burning Orbs: 80]

[Mage Hand: 7]

[Ash to Ash: 10]

[Flame Selection: 42]

General Skills

[Phoenix's Perfection: 128]

[Incandescence: 117]

[Adorable: 121]

[Precocious: 122]

[Companion Bond between Auri and Elaine: 128]

[Flying: 105]

[Preening: 113]

[Brrretty: 104]