Imran, the Sage and a Phoenix

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"You know we're not all born with the ability to throw fireballs right?" Imran watched the flames eat their way through a tree.

"If you can't create a simple fireball then we are wasting our time!" The sage turned away from Imran and the burning tree. He picked up his cane and hobbled through the forest.

"Wait up! I didn't say I can't!" Imran held his hand high and emptied his lungs. Like a sprouting flower on fast forward a flame grew in his hand. "Here you go!"

The sage turned round, his hips let him know they weren't happy with his sudden movement. "Ahh good! You've mastered level one pyromatics." He clapped. Imran gnawed on his lip. He tossed the flame into the air and clasped his hand shut. The flame stopped dead. It continued to burn but it hung suspended as if stuck to something.

"Level one pyro..." Imran grunted. He spun his raised fist in a clockwise direction and the flame mimicked him. It thinned out and spun itself into a large ring.

"Level two!" The sage shouted. Imran gritted his teeth, imprisoning his tongue, which was ready to go to war. He bent his knees and continued to spin his arm. The ring of fire seared from orange to white. "Level three." Said the sage with a smile that left as quick as it came.

The ring collapsed back into a ball. White flames danced and fell vanishing when they got too far away from their source of life. Imran stopped spinning his arm and dropped it to his side. "What level is this old man?" Before the sage could respond, the fire burst into an orange phoenix, with all the trimmings. A tail longer than Princess Diana's wedding dress train. Wings with an impossible amount of oranges and reds, and an elegant white beak that hooked at its tip.

The sage twitched his nose but didn't speak. Imran took his other hand and lifted it above his head. He pulled it down toward his chest and the phoenix dived instantly. He then raised his hand and the phoenix soared, stretching its glorious wings to their complete span.

"Pyro projections! Advanced level. I would say well done but I was expecting more." The sage turned his back and continued to hobble away. "I guess we must find another."

"Hey! You old sack of melancholy crap. I haven't finished." Imran thrust his hand toward the sage, and the phoenix raced straight toward him.

The sage turned back to the approaching phoenix and watched it, unfazed. The phoenix flapped and opened its beak ready to consume its prey. 10 metres from impact it vanished, leaving behind silver smoke. The sage's eyes narrowed. "So you aren't a precession of disappointment." He said.

Imran kept his hand outstretched and slowly raised it. "What level would you give me now?"

The sage opened his mouth but before the words escaped the phoenix reappeared. It stooped proudly on top of the sage's hairless head, this time in liquid form. The sage's cheeks flushed, like someone had squirted ketchup across them. He raised his hands, to dispel the liquid bird, but they didn't respond. He looked down at them and his cheeks diluted. Thick mud shackled them. He tugged but it only made the cuffs firmer. The phoenix lifted its head and a stream of water fountained from its beak and crashed against the floor.

"When you retire you'll be able to get work in a garden centre, old man." Imran chuckled as he held his hands in position.

"Multiple elemental control. Maybe there is hope for you." The sage smiled and stared at Imran. His beady eyes were nerve racking at the best of times but when paired with his smile they took on a creepy element. "Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul, Ash nazg thrakatulûk agh burzum-ishi krimpatul." An incantation left his lips, and as it did the phoenix lifted into the air. Like someone had added blackcurrant to the mixture, the phoenix turned a purple. Its face twisted and snapped, and is sprayed water in every direction. The mounds of earth fell from the sage's wrists. The ground trembled and birds scarpered out of the surrounding trees.

Imran's jaw hit the floor. He swung his arm around to move to phoenix but nothing happened. He tried again with the same result.

The phoenix stared at its former master and charged toward him. Imran contorted his arm, desperate for the phoenix to respond. Metres away the phoenix stopped. Imran looked at his arm, believing he'd regained some control. He thrust out his arm and waved it around. The phoenix didn't move, it would have been perfect for the centre piece of an art collectors gallery.

"You are good." Whispers came from behind Imran. "In fact you are brilliant." Imran tried to turn around but his feet were beneath sticky mounds of mud. "To have your abilities at your age is impressive." The sage hobbled in front of Imran. "Are you ready to come with me and continue the next stage of your training?"

A mixture of embarrassment and excitement slapped a smile across Imran's face. "Let's go!"

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allthingsm4tt

Writer of things, meme supplier, semi-occasional six string swordist, sporadic cinema goer and smiler.