Lily was not happy about the whole situation — she nearly lost her human.

  She was prepared to kill everyone in that city if he had died, but the shadow lady he trusted had helped him and assured her he’d be okay now.

  Still, he was far too fragile. There had to be a solution. Crisplet also assured her he could take care of any issues that arose, but she was not convinced; he had been panicked just as much as her when her human collapsed.

  Crisplet was a young elemental, barely past his second cycle; he had much to learn about this world. But she had no choice but to trust her human’s safety to Crisplet until she returned.

  Just in case, she paid a visit to the individual the shadow lady had mentioned — the one who caused trouble for her human. She would not kill them. Probably. But she needed to make sure they would not be a problem for a while.

  It didn’t take long to find them. They were not far out of town, near the swamp lands to the north.

  The man the shadow lady had mentioned, along with some other humans, sat around a campfire. She watched briefly, wondering how best to resolve this. The logical solution was just to kill them all — quick, easy, simple.

  But the shadow lady said it was unnecessary, and it would just cause more issues. So for now, she’d resist.

  If she couldn’t kill them, her next plan was to scare them. So that’s what she went with. Appearing between the trees, she glared at the man in question. His frozen form shook.

  So weak.

  His companions were even weaker — two of them fell to the ground; the third one started to run away.

  Was this enough?

  She didn’t know, so just to be sure, she slapped him with her paw. There was no need for the claws, and the man went flying into the trees, skidding across the ground before he slammed into the base of a trunk.

  She appeared above him, staring down at his unconscious form. He was still alive. Perfect.

  With that dealt with, she moved on to her next plan. She didn’t know many creatures that lived forever. In fact, she knew the location of only one. Sure, there were dragons who could live for thousands of years — or other shadow cats — but she didn’t know how to make someone else live for a long time, and she was the smartest shadow cat of them all.

  Sylverith also didn’t know how to prolong life. She had asked!

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  So that left the Phoenix, Alira. She always found the silly orange bird overly arrogant, but she’d need to try to appeal to the feathery fireball and see if she knew how to make her human last longer.

  So she went north. Far north.

  She was racing across the continent — she needed to get back as soon as possible — and she knew the Phoenix would try to play games. Games she didn’t have time for.

  ***

  It took a few days for her to reach the volcanic homeland of the Phoenix. She knew there were other phoenixes on other continents, but she’d never met them.

  It didn’t take long for her presence to be noticed, and the giant orange, fiery form of the Phoenix appeared on the horizon. Lily waited patiently. It would be best to allow her to play out her theatrics; in the past, she always got upset when Lily interrupted.

  Several minutes later, the giant orange form of the Phoenix landed before her, feathers a blend of pure fire and organic matter — much like Crisplet was right now with his ash.

  This gave Lily an idea. A possible angle.

  “Greetings, young Lily. It’s been a long time since you’ve come to see me, and far less attitude this time, it seems,” Alira said in a singsong voice not befitting the size of the creature in front of Lily.

  Lily inwardly sighed. She hated dealing with these creatures. “Hello, Alira.”

  The singsong tone of Alira’s voice continued. “What brings you to my domain today?”

  “I need help,” Lily began — not missing the shock that flashed in Alira’s eyes. “I was wondering if you know a way to make a human live longer, or just be tougher?”

  “A human? And you?” There was a chirp that was unmistakably a chuckle.

  “Yes, you fire chicken,” Lily responded tersely.

  Alira waved a wing, brushing away the insult Lily threw out. “Calm down, child. I only jest. The last time you visited, you wanted my assistance in eradicating all humans from this continent. Now you seek to save one. It’s a drastic shift in such a short amount of time, but I have to ask — why?”

  Lily thought about this for a long moment before responding. “I do not know fully. There is something about this one that is special — besides the snacks — but he’s too fragile. Too young.”

  Alira looked at Lily for a long while. “You have adopted a human child? Does he embody the nature of shadow?”

  Lily shook her head. “No, not at all. His magical talents are lacking, but he cooks amazing meals. He also has a companion who you might find interesting — an elemental, new to this world, just a couple of cycles old, made of fire and ash.”

  Alira’s eyes widened. “A new elemental, you say? I assumed I knew all the fire elementals on this plane. Very well, you have my attention. What do you need?”

  “He needs to be able to stay alive,” Lily answered bluntly.

  Alira shook her head. “You cannot make humans immortal that I’m aware of, but there may be something I can do — that is, if you do something for me.”

  Lily sighed. There was always a catch. “What?”

  “I wish to meet this elemental. Can you bring him here?” Alira asked.

  Lily shook her head. “No. He is bound to my human right now.”

  Alira looked crestfallen at that, before perking back up. “Bring the human here too!”

  Lily again shook her head. “He’s too fragile. The environment here might be enough to kill him alone,” she said, looking around at fresh lava rivers and plumes of smoke and ash rising into the air.

  Lily thought for a moment. “You could visit him, I suppose?”

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