How a Phoenix Comes Back

By Reggie Kwok

Illustrated by Warren Musak

Flying in circles, Aran the red phoenix feasted on carbon dioxide until his belly extended to a large, balloon-shaped size. He glowed like the sun, and each breath he took of the air renewed the radiance of his feathers. Inhaling made the vibrant color flare to life, and his wings spread far as his body inflated.

Then, too heavy to sustain flight, Aran fell, flames bursting out his beak and feathers. The fire grew until he crashed into a tree. A forest fire started, but firefighters arrived on the scene to quell it before it worsened. Water drenched Aran until he achieved his regular belly size.

When the fire stopped, and the red phoenix stilled, the firefighters surrounded the bird.

One of the firefighters said, “Don’t fret, Wildfire Xian. We’re bringing you to a good place.”

Who was Xian? Aran had never heard of this name. This human didn’t name him like a pet, right? That would mean slavery.

To combat the firefighters, Aran breathed in as much carbon dioxide as he could. In response, they put a muzzle on him, stopping him from starting another fire.

The muzzle filtered out the carbon dioxide. Aran feared he would starve to death before his return to the sky.

The firefighters tossed Aran into a birdcage in the fire truck.

#

Aran discovered the word Toyota on a sign. Wherever they sent him wasn’t good. The firefighters threw the birdcage outside next to a door. Then the door opened, and a man snatched the cage.

For the first time in his life, Aran witnessed metal monsters. The lights bothered him, so he closed his eyes for a little while. When they dimmed, he found himself in another birdcage with gray phoenixes.

Aran was the same as the ones in the sky. What happened to these phoenixes? What caused the color change? It looked like they might vomit at any time. Some of their feathers were falling off, covering the bottom of the cage. One phoenix couldn’t move without falling down beak first.

One larger phoenix approached Aran. “Wildfire Xian, we’ve been waiting for you.”

“How do you not know my name? It’s Aran.”

“No, your name is Xian now, for that is your human-assigned name. I am Wildfire Ember.”

“I want to return to the sky.” Aran pointed his wing upward.

“No, you aren’t a phoenix anymore. You are a car part.”

Aran tilted his head. “What is a car? Those are metal beasts.”

“The metal beasts are cars. A human will attach you to the end of an exhaust pipe, where you will feed off car exhaust for the rest of your life.”

Heck no, Aran wouldn’t be a slave. Wasn’t the exhaust pipe poisonous? What if he set aflame again? What if the humans harassed him? How would the carbon dioxide be removed from his body?

“I have more questions,” Aran said.

“I cannot answer them. I must go. Someone already bought me. Stay safe.” Ember nodded.

A human tossed Ember into a smaller cage and took her away.

Aran asked, “Are we going to die?”

The other gray phoenixes shook their heads. Aran tried biting the cage, but the muzzle got in the way. The others wore muzzles as well.

“I want to get out of here. Please, someone must know the way.”

The others remained silent.

Aran didn’t want to serve as a slave to the humans. Slavery was supposed to be in the past. Why did the humans use the phoenixes? Phoenixes were supposed to be in the sky, not on the ground like tools.

The human came back, but this time the target was Aran. A protected hand reached for Aran, but the phoenix didn’t want to leave. Who would buy him so quickly?

Aran tried to break free, but the human wore metal gloves to prevent bites. They took him to a car and attached his beak to an exhaust pipe. With force, the installer tied wires around the exhaust pipe and beak to connect the two parts.

With this new connection, Aran would consume so much carbon dioxide that he would start another fire near the car, and then he could break free and return to the sky.

The installer and another human examined Aran as if the phoenix was a work of visual, experimental art. Didn’t the humans do enough stargazing at night to see the phoenixes in the sky? Aran was a wild animal, not a car part.

The car started, and Aran consumed the fumes. The taste was similar to that of the sky, but something in the air made it smell more alluring and addicting. No, he did want to return, but Aran wanted more fumes.

Aran tried holding his breath, but with how the installer worked the wires, the car forced the fumes into him. His stomach grumbled for more.

Then after receiving the first dose, the car stopped. Aran didn’t know where he was, but to him, other cars surrounded him with other phoenixes attached to other exhaust pipes.

For Aran, another fire could set him free. But after the fire, where would he go? What if he couldn’t fly during the escape? What if he was punished for trying to run away to the sky? There had to be a way out. He couldn’t stay any longer.

Aran flapped in place as if he could lift the car into flight, but he was too weak. Instead, he waited for his master to come back to the car.

#

Every day, Aran’s master spent the most time in two places in the world, with the same phoenixes parked in nearby locations.

One day, Aran discovered an aspect about his body. His stomach was more bloated than usual. He refused to succumb to the addicting fumes. At the same time, he craved for moments when his master drove around town for chores. He wanted more.

His feathers had started turning from red to gray. He tried saving one of his feathers, but it fell off. Every time he inhaled fumes, he felt like vomiting, but nothing came out. When his master wasn’t there, Aran tried jumping in place to stay active, but with each dose of the fumes, his hops grew slower to the point where he had to stop.

On that day, Aran’s master approached his car with a wire cutter and a canister.

The master sighed. “If the dealership can do it, why not me? I hope Xian treats me nicely.”

Aran nodded and planned to fly in the other direction once his master cut the wires. He would see the sky again.

The master snapped each wire with his cutters. When he cut the last wire, Aran flapped his wings away from his master. For some reason, he wasn’t light enough to achieve flight. In this escape, Aran only thought of one last hope: to breathe as much carbon dioxide as he could to start another fire.

With minimal levitation, Aran struggled to fly away from the parking spot to the street. Red lights emerged in front of a metal beast, which almost hit Aran. He sneezed fire, launched himself, and landed on top of a bus. The bus drove away with his master yelling nonsense at the top of his lungs.

At first, Aran could breathe the fresh air. At the same time, he missed the taste of carbon dioxide from the cars.

He peeked at the exhaust pipe at the end of the bus and didn’t see a phoenix. Aran decided to attach himself to the exhaust for more good fumes, but since the bus was still moving, Aran fell off the roof and couldn’t catch up.

With his ride gone, Aran was stuck in the middle of nowhere. Other humans stared at the phoenix. Aran looked to the skies and wondered how he could fly.

He found a white windmill far away from his current spot. With every breath, Aran felt a weight pulling him more to the ground, but the windmill was going to save him by launching him back into the sky. His mind focused on that windmill and nothing else.

For a moment, Aran waddled. He tried flying but couldn’t achieve the same lift as before.

When the humans tried to approach Aran, he would either ignore them or squawk at them. One human tried to attack with a flashing rectangle, and blinded for a moment, Aran fell.

Some humans surrounded Aran to capture him again, but this time, Aran spat fire, which decreased the size of his belly; however, spitting fire wasn’t enough to give flight.

As Aran wobbled down the street to the windmill, other phoenixes looked straight ahead and didn’t encourage Aran to escape. The other gray phoenixes’ silence only fueled Aran’s urges to return to the sky.

With carbon dioxide gathering in his stomach, breathing fire was the only source of release. After a block of walking, Aran would set fire to the nearest object to lessen the weight. Sometimes, it was a tree. Other times, a bed of flowers caught aflame and died. Once, a passing man tried to pet Aran only to suffer from his flames. The whole journey to the windmill felt like walking a marathon.

With the windmill only a few blocks away, Aran had to rest. His little legs couldn’t continue walking further. At the same time, he breathed deeply to recover from his walk, but the deep breathing caused him to consume more carbon dioxide.

Seeking refuge, Aran burnt down the nearest door with fire and entered. All the humans inside gawked at the wild phoenix, who was unsure how to rest given his stomach. Wanting to taste the human diet before leaving, Aran ate a circle with a hole from a trash bag. Then, almost immediately, he spat it out.

The food on Earth was nothing like the carbon dioxide from the sky. The circle did not have any flavor to it. How did humans survive on these foods? Aran didn’t belong here.

Not caring about the human food, he set a few empty tables aflame and left the building. With a lightened stomach, he tried to fly but failed. As a result, he waddled the last couple of blocks to the windmill.

Wheezing, Aran finally made it to the windmill with its three blades rotating in the circle that would bring him home.

Just then, the firefighters arrived on the scene with a birdcage and a canister to contain the carbon dioxide.

No, Aran wasn’t going back to slavery. No vehicle would force him to stay grounded. He was going home.

The fire within Aran came out, and this time, the fire went upward toward the windmill. Bursting out the mouth and feathers, the fire propelled Aran toward the windmill’s blade. Soon, the windmill blades spun faster, which caused the turbine to arc electricity. When Aran clung onto a blade that broke, he shot into the sky.

And Aran was free with his feathers returning to red.

END