Sofia: Phoenix Rising - Fire Within! Book 1
Chapter Twenty-two

I throw my bag into the back seat of my car and then after shutting my door, I start my car up and leave the school parking-lot. Marshall Park is but a stone’s throw from the high school so in five minutes I find myself pulling into one of the farthest parking spaces available. This also happens to be one of the closest to the edge of the woods that Ash had referred to.

Sending Ash, a text that I have arrived, I hop out of my car and pick the closest walking trail to the woods and begin to walk along it. The leaves from the surrounding trees clutter the path and I admire how some of the leaves have still maintained their color because this time of year everything is usually brown and dreary or covered in snow. My phone chimes and I glance at the screen to see Ash’s text: Do you know where the old oak tree stands? Can you meet me there?

I send a ’yes’ back and continue down the dirt path that leads directly to the tree he is talking about.

Taking in a deep breath, I smile to myself and close my eyes, wanting to capture the beauty in my memory. I absolutely love nature. The serene, picturesque view before my eyes is awe-inspiring! The oak tree that Ash wrote about is standing intimidatingly in front of me. It would take at least ten people standing fingertip to fingertip to be able to wrap one’s arms around the massive base of the trunk, (just in case anyone wondered how ‘old’ the tree is). What makes the moment all the more memorable is seeing Ash in a form fitted black tee-shirt, muscular arms crossed over his chest, one leg in well-defined jeans, propped up against the tree trunk as the rest of his body casually leans against the tree too.

I smile at seeing him and quickening my steps, I hurry to get to him. In my haste though, I did not notice anyone else and as I come to stand next to him, a small, roundish person turns and smiles at me. I blink a couple of times I swear there wasn’t anyone standing with him as I was walking up to him! “Hey Sofia.” Ash says my name and I am distracted for a second as I look at him and see his beautiful eyes light up as seeing me. His entire face is beaming as he says my name and my heart skips a beat or two…

“H-hi,” the word stumbles out of my mouth. I am not one to normally stutter but he gets my mind working over-time and I swear my brain cannot handle it.

“Ah, this is the Einan girl, I take it?” My attention is diverted to the little old lady by Ash’s side.

“How do you know my name?” I cock my head to the left in curiosity. Has Ash been talking about me?

As I look at Ash, I see his cheeks turn a bright shade of pink… He has been talking about me! I wonder what all he has said. “You are correct dear boy; she is absolutely beautiful. I see the fire within her that you speak of.”

Ash suddenly has a coughing fit, and I cannot help but laugh at him. I definitely like this lady! “I would like you to meet Charlotte, Sophie. She is a wise old owl and I mean that both metaphorically and literally. She also finds herself quite humorous.” Ash says this after ‘collecting’ himself enough to speak.

Trying to contain my laughter, I reach my hand out to shake the lady’s. “Hi, Ms. Charlotte. It is nice to meet you.”

Chuckling, she swats my hand aside, “nonsense dear girl. Call me Charlie, everyone does.” And with that, she wraps me up in a gigantic bear hug as though we have known each other for ages. For someone so small and ’bird-like’, she has a grip like a massive brown bear!

Once Charlotte, I mean Charlie has sat me back upon the ground and releases me from the hug, I step back and really look at the little lady. She cannot be more than 5 feet 3 in height and does in fact have attributes of one of those small cute little brown and white feathered, fluffy owls that people show videos of on YouTube.

Charlie slaps her hands together and rubs them; “okay, let us get down to business little bird.” I look to Ash who comes over and stands by me, taking my hand in his, giving it a squeeze. The electric current runs between us and to my surprise, Charlie can see it as it does so. “Oh now, that is very interesting indeed.” She states this and smiles broadly at both Ash and I.

“Uh, what’s interesting?” I ask and can hear the nervousness in my voice. Should I be worried? My brain wants me to panic, and I have to tell myself to calm down. Ash wouldn’t do anything to put me in harm’s way, or at least I don’t think he would. Sᴇaʀ*ᴄh the FɪndNøvel.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

Charlie chuckles: “not only have you found the last surviving phoenix dear boy, but you are correct, she is in fact your Twin Flame!”

I swear I hear Ash say, ’I knew it’, but his mouth never moved for him to be able to utter the words. I didn’t dwell on the thought because everything in the last 24 hours have been so strange anyway but if I would have thought about it, I would have realized I heard him say this within his mind which shouldn’t be able to happen because neither of us are in animal form if I understood what he said yesterday.

I look at Charlie confused. “I hate to tell you, but I have no idea what a Twin Flame is. In fact, I have no idea about any of this.” I wave my hands around in a circle dramatically. “I was literally thrust into this yesterday because my body became a human torch.”

As I go to elaborate what I mean by knowing absolutely Nothing about what was going on or what was happening to me, Ash shushes me by placing a finger against my lips and mouthing the word ‘quiet’ to me. My eyes go wide because I don’t think anyone has ever shushed me like that before. However, instead of wanting to tell him this, I see his eyes narrow and a moment later Charlie has disappeared. Well not exactly disappeared for as I look to see where she might have gone, I see an owl perched upon the branches of the tree we stand by.

Ash yanks me into him and moves us away from the tree and towards a fallen log nearby. We crouch down, essentially hiding behind it and I watch as Ash listens intensely to what, I’m not sure, the wind maybe? But then I can hear voices and look to him to ask who it might be, he though, shakes his head telling me not to make a sound.

Recognizing one of the voices, I go to stand. I want to know why in the world is Blake out here! Did he follow me? I guess I really do need to have a word or two with him. No! I hear the word inside my head, and it keeps me frozen to where I am.

“I swear, she went this way! I know it’s her. She is who we’ve been looking for.” Hearing Blake say those words turns my heart cold. Had he been using me this whole time because he thought I may have been someone they had been looking for?

My blood begins to boil. I hear Ash hiss into my right ear and feel him remove his hand quickly from my arm. In my head I hear; “ouch! Sofia, get a hold of yourself. You have got to calm down before they spot your flame.” I glance over to Ash and see him looking at my arm. A moment later he returns his hand to my arm as though he had to prepare himself to touch me and reach me through the fire surrounding my body. His touch once again helps in calming me down and the flames dissipate.

It feels like Ash is whispering in my ear, but I know he is still inside my head; “are you good?” I nod my head and both of our attention is drawn back to Blake and to whomever he is speaking with.

Unfortunately, Blake and the unknown person have walked beyond even Ash’s hearing and I hear him sigh. Standing up, I want to ask Ash what in the world is going on, but I hear Charlie speak before I have a chance to; “boy! Get her out of here. I didn’t know they were looking for her too! I will meet you at the Nest on Saturday. Keep an eye on her at all costs until I see you next!” And then she was gone. Standing baffled, I watch as Charlie flies away from us.

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