Words of the Phoenix

Aeryn was always the strange one among us; being English we all had
mainly blonde hair and light colored eyes. But Aeryn had raven black
hair, and bright green eyes that always seemed to be alight with an
eerie glow. It always made the fact that she wasn't one of us stand
out. My father found her wandering around in the forest one night; he
had mistaken her for a cat with her luminous green eyes. When he came
closer he realized that his cat was actually a lost little girl, being
a kind man he took her home. I was seven at the time, and I remember
being roused from my bed to see my new "sister."

I resented her at first; her reading and writing skills were way ahead
of mine, even though she was two years younger. It always made me feel
inferior the way father always complimented her. But as the months went
by I realized that I was lonely, we lived in a small English
settlement, and we had only been there for a year or so when my father
found Aeryn. There were only a few of us living here as new settlers
wanted to see if we made it first. That said there were only two kids
my age in the settlement and we rarely played together.

That's when I decided to make friends with Aeryn. It turned out that we
had a lot in common and it didn't take long for us to be acting like
the sisters my father had wanted us to be from the beginning. After we
became friends we were rarely apart, and due to our friendship and
sisterhood the town grew used to Aeryn. After a year of Aeryn being
with us she was friends with everyone in the settlement. I, on the
other hand, was ignored, but I didn't mind, I no longer minded how much
better Aeryn was than me; I treasured her as a friend.

That all changed though, not our friendship, but it came to pass that
the rest of the town would come to hate her. That is what brings me
here to the town square; Aeryn was tried and convicted of being a
witch. Today she is to be burned at the stake, I didn't want to be
here, but I was due to a promise I made to Aeryn when she was
convicted. She wanted at least one person there who would morn her
passing. I calmed myself for what was to come, by thinking of the past
and how it had gotten this far.

I think that she was about ten when she started acting strange. It was
as if a trance would come over her. She would crave solitude, which was
fine; it was when I followed her that things got strange. She would
wander for hours in the forest as if she were looking for something.
When I got close I could hear her muttering under her breath in a
language I had never heard her speak before. But the worst was her
eyes, they would become orange like fire and the flame would circle
around her pupil. I screamed and started to run home as fast as I could
but she turned and caught me.

When I got up the courage to look at her, she had returned to normal.
She told me that she didn't know what happened, only that she needed to
find out where she came from. Aeryn had never looked so sad or more
determined in the entire five years that I had known her. I remember
her telling me not to be afraid and asking for my help. Suddenly she
was my best friend again and not the vicious creature I had seen a few
minutes ago. I simply nodded my head and together we traveled deeper
into the forest.

We continued our search every day after that, the more frequent Aeryn's
"spells" got the longer we searched. Often we came home dirty and tired
and way past bedtime, which would get us lashings from father. But
three weeks ago Aeryn and I got separated in the forest, I searched for
hours but I never found her, finally dead tired I went home. The next
morning I went looking for her again, about midday she appeared next to
me with a huge grin on her face. I breathed a sigh of relief before I
started yelling at her for scaring me like that. That's when I noticed
that Aeryn had a strange gleam in her eye. "Where have you been?" I
asked her. "I found them, I found my people!!"

I just stood there staring at her; I had never expected us to find
them. I had always thought that Aeryn was the answer to my prayers for
a friend and that God had placed her there for my father to find, she
wasn't supposed to actually have a family. Aeryn must have seen the
confused look on my face. "Come on Samantha, didn't you hear me? I
spent the night with my people, with my family. Guess what?!?! I'm a
witch!" In the five years I had known Aeryn I had never seen her pick
up a bible, and now I knew why. "You're a demon!!!" I screamed at her.
Aeryn looked at me with sadness and shock, she kept shaking her head
and backing away. "They told me you'd be like this, but I wouldn't
believe them I didn't think? you're my sister." With that she turned
and ran back the way she had come.

I have never felt so ashamed of anything in my life. Having Aeryn look
at me with so much sadness created turmoil within me. I had been taught
all my life that witches were evil, created by Satan to destroy the
followers of God, but that wasn't Aeryn. Everyone loved her, if someone
in town got sick she'd make her own special soup and have him or her
back on their feet in a day or two. She read to the little ones and
helped the elders with their chores. She wasn't a demon, she couldn't
be! She must not be a witch, whoever she had found must have tricked
her mind.

I had to find her and clear her mind of all this witch junk, whatever
demons had possessed we could get taken care of by the church, but
there was no way that Aeryn was a witch. I ran towards the way she had
turned, I kept calling her name but I never heard a reply. I wandered
for hours finally getting lost in the forest, I didn't care all I
wanted to do was find Aeryn and make her understand. I just kept
walking and calling her name until I got so exhausted that my legs
ceased to hold me and I fell to the ground asleep.

I awoke to find Aeryn sitting next to me. There were the remains of a
fire that she must have started. "You shouldn't have fallen asleep, it
got cold last night." Aeryn sighed and I started to say something but
Aeryn stopped me. "I know why you said? what you said. I'm not a demon,
Samantha, but I am a witch and you're just going to have to accept
that. I can't deny who I am now, so the town will have to accept it
too." I didn't know what to say, Aeryn honestly believed this fantasy.
"Aeryn you can't be a witch, they're evil it says so in the bible." I
still couldn't believe that my best friend was a witch. "I am what I
am, Samantha and if you don't believe me I'll have to prove it to you."
I didn't understand what she meant and I was about to ask her when she
stood up and raised her hand toward the pile of ashes. She whispered
something under her breath and the ashes caught alight and turned into
a roaring fire.

I gasped, there was no mistaking it now, she was right. But as I looked
at her I still couldn't find her evil, even if she was a witch. Aeryn
stared at the fire awhile before turning to me. "Do you still think I
am a demon?" Aeryn had a sound of desperation to her voice that sent a
chill through her spine. "No, Aeryn I don't but you must keep this from
the town, they'll have you burned at the stake for being a witch!"
Aeryn closed her eyes and sighed. "If I can't make them see otherwise
then yes they will, but I have to try I can't deny who I am just
because someone doesn't like me, I have a duty to uphold to my people.
I have to prove to them that I can be a witch without being evil." I
wanted to make someone else do it, but they would have a hard enough
time believing Aeryn much less a stranger. "Okay Aeryn if this is what
you want I'll help you."

With Aeryn in the lead we walked resolutely to town. I didn't know what
we'd say to the townspeople, being so cut off from the world we relied
on our small little church for everything. My father read from the
bible every night, especially the parts about the sins against God, he
viewed God as someone to punish you if you did the slightest thing
wrong. The church was believed to have the power to carry out this
punishment. Even with father's stern ways he'd be our best chance at
getting anyone to believe that witches were not demons.

Before I knew it we had reached the door to our house. I remembered
with a shudder my father's reaction when Aeryn didn't come home the
other night. He would be furious to know that neither of us had come
home last night. With a resolved face Aeryn knocked boldly upon the
door. When our mother answer the door, she hugged us both and asked
where we'd been. That's when father came in and started yelling at the
both of us. When he finally calmed down, we told our parents about
Aeryn.

When my father heard Aeryn call herself a witch and me defending her,
my father declared us both witches. He grabbed us by the wrists and
took us to the church. Three days later we were put to trial. I
couldn't sit there with a calm face like Aeryn, with everyone including
my own family looking at me with hatred and fear. Aeryn was called to
defend herself, and with an indifference that scared even me, she
admitted to being a witch. I heard the entire courtroom gasp at this
statement. The priest shook his head and asked if I was her fellow
conspirator.

I took a deep breath in truth I was considered a fellow conspirator and
I deserved to die beside Aeryn, but that didn't mean I was prepared for
it. I look up to Aeryn, for one moment her indifferent face faded as
she smiled at me, she nodded towards my pocket. I was confused but I
nodded back letting her know that I understood. Then Aeryn did that of
a true sister, she saved my life. "No, I put a spell upon Samantha to
make her help me." I looked at Aeryn with shock, I was about to protest
when Aeryn whispered something again, I suddenly felt very tired and I
collapsed upon the floor.

When I awoke I was in my own bed, my mother beside me fretting over me.
I sat up and she hugged me saying how worried she had been. Then she
told me that everything was going to be all right, I wouldn't have to
worry about being placed under a spell by a witch any longer. When I
asked her why, she told me that Aeryn was to be burned at the stake in
two days. Aeryn had put me to sleep for two weeks.

It was then, that I remembered to look into my pocket, in it was a note
written by Aeryn. In it she told me that she had spared my life because
I had believed in her, and it was up to me to convince other's to
believe the same that way she'd always live on. She also asked that I
be there when she dies so that she may have someone who loves her be
there so that dying would not be so bad. I spent the next two days
locked in my room crying over Aeryn.

Today I had finally risen and put on my Sunday best. So here I stood
about to watch my sister and truest friend. I promised myself that I
would keep her words with me and pass them on that way Aeryn would be
as the phoenix. Her words would rise up from her ashes and defend her
people long after she was gone.