The old man made his way up the sun dappled path, a golden bird perched on his shoulder. Though there were many birds lining the route, not one made a sound. The trees where still. Nothing dared to disturb this sacred moment.

A soft chirp came from the Phoenix, and the man looked at her and smiled.
"Soon."
His eyes conveyed the message silently, they had been together for too long for them to need words to tell the other what they wanted to say.

The soft glow of the setting sun cast shadows on the old man's face as he stepped out of the cover of the trees and looked over the view the mountain gave him. Pools of darkness made themselves at home in the valleys and dips of time.
"Soon", he indicated again.

The man made his way to an ancient stone chair at the highest point of the hill top. It had sat there, undisturbed for decades. The villagers of the nearby hamlet never ventured this far.

The Phoenix's companion lowered himself slowly onto the seat as the firebird alighted on a similar stone stand to the right of him. Together they watched as the sun set, the fiery orb slowly retracting its fingers from our world and sinking down below the horizon.

And still, there was silence.
No wind was blowing.
No birds were singing.
The world held its breath.
And watched.

As the last rays of warmth left the withered being on the chair, he gave a long sigh. As life and the sun left him, his eyes, previously as gold and as dancing as a warm fireside on a cold day, dimmed, and went out. Under the watchful eye of his Phoenix, the old man dissolved into the wind and blew away as a cloud of ash.

His feet were the last to go, and when they had, the Phoenix began to sing. A heart shatteringly beautiful song escaped the bird, and the feeling of immense sadness swept through the valley. Down below in the hamlet, the villagers stopped their everyday life and bowed their heads to mourn the passing of the wise man.

Softly, slowly, the song petered out, and the Phoenix sung a single note, before bursting into flames and turning to ash, like her eldest friend had done before her.

Then the world woke up. The villagers carried on with what they were doing, the wind stirred the trees and the birds began to sing.

And somewhere above them all, the ashes of two friends floated together.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When the world was first created, it was in chaos. Humans were just discovering their violent tendencies and wars began to spring up all over the place.

The last 7 remaining Phoenixes in our world banded together to try and create a solution to this new problem. But it had happened. The humans were slowly destroying the beautiful world they lived in. At first tried to talk to the beasts, but they were ignored and killed for their beautiful plumage. Their brethren had been hunted to near extinction by the two legged predators, a feat most thought impossible. The only solution was to find someone without the distraction of money who could talk to the humans in their stead.

So the phoenixes separated, spreading out over the continents, to find those humans of the purest of hearts. They flew above the masses and saw the souls ranged out before them. Some where black, darkened with hate and anger, most were grey, a mix between pure and corruption. But there were a rare few of the white soul.

These particular souls where usually found in those who had yet to be touched by the horrors of our world. They lived carefree, or as much as they could in those dark times, and happy. The Phoenixes sought out these pure souls (and amidst the grey and the black they shone out like the stars in the sky) and bonded with them.

When a Phoenix bonds with you, it is a magical occurrence. The human gains certain abilities, a longer life and the ability to communicate with the bonded. The ritual is one very few ever experience in a lifetime.

The phoenixes, having all found their companions, joined together at the top of an undiscovered mountain. Here they pledged to help keep our world from falling into ruin. They pledged to always save the innocent, to be a fair judge and jury, to gain knowledge and teach their ways to all those who listened. Their Ambition was to have a world finally filled with peace and pure souls. And they called themselves the Phoenixes Ambition.

Each member would have one artefact that distinguished themselves from their comrades. A necklace. A ring. A pair of earrings. A bracelet. A watch. A tattoo. A crown.
Each mark was formed in the bonding ritual, made of the glowing go,den bonds that connected human and Phoenix.

The bonded pair would go out into the world and share peace with the humans. They travelled far and wide, yet as the centuries passed and their time had come and gone, the bonded needed a way to die. They were becoming weary. Time and the terrors they had seen began to weigh down on them. It was their time to go.

No being can live forever.

The seven Phoenixes and their bonded met one day at the place they had taken their vows, and from the rock they carved a stone chair and perch from which man and bird could spend their final moments. Infused with magic, this sacred place was guarded from the harmful eye and only those of clear soul could pass its boundaries.

And so they parted, to carry on their quest.

When they come to the end of their life span, they will travel to this sacred place and their mortal body will crumble to ashes, their soul escaping from the frail walls that encased them. Their souls will fly together, forever in the air, until humanity forgets the peace and they are needed. Together, they will be reincarnated and when one finds the other, they will carry out their mission.

And so the Phoenix's Ambition was born.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Several decades later ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A young boy was running through the woods near his house, playing hide and seek with his younger sister, when he stumbled across a fire, burning brightly in a dip in the ground. The boy knew what a forest fire could do to his home, and he ran to get his mother, forgetting the game and leaving his playmate behind.

A girl, around the age of six, emerged from her hiding place, giggling as she watched her brother recede. She suddenly became aware of a beautiful song, singing faintly. It brought to her mind images of people hugging by a fireplace, children laughing at a campfire, babies playing by the hearth. As the voice grew stronger, she noticed a flame - the same one her brother had ran from. Contrary to his fears,the fire had not spread.

The young girl crept towards the heat, drawn in as inexplicably as a moth drawn to a flame. As she approached, the fire died down to a soft glow, revealing a beautiful, golden chick lying in the centre. Slowly, she reached down and picked up the baby bird.

Slowly, slowly, the newly born firebird opened its eyes and connected with the fiery orbs it hadn't seen for so long.

The music reached its crescendo as she was encased in a golden cage of glowing lights, each one resonating with the sound of the melody. Still she stared into the eyes of the chick as she floated up into the sky. As she hovered, the bird grew, each beat of his wings caused the song to grow louder.

The golden bonds covered the young girl as she floated their, weaving together to form an exquisite dress. Slowly the song began to fade, and the bonded pair slowly floated down to rest on the ground. The debris of dead leaves and decaying twigs had been burnt away. Softly, her feat landed on the ground, and the glowing cage suspending her and the Phoenix, shrunk into a crown shape, resting itself on her dark curls.

The young girl gasped as memories came flooding back, and she smiled.

Softly, she spoke to the Phoenix,

"Hello, old friend."

The firebird gave a small chirp in response as she placed him on her shoulder.

And together, they turned and walked out of the Forrest to continue the quest of the Phoenix's Ambition.