I opened the door, and with a creak it swung open. I peered my head inside before entering, and then let Lucy go inside. I trailed behind her, closing the door behind us.

I looked around for a certain phoenix, but I couldn't find her. She was usually sleeping... The corner where she usually slept in looked empty, and the Berlix wood table was untouched. I started to worry... Had she gone outside and the dragons came back? Was she lost? Could one of the humans came here and killed her? Did she come looking for us? Did a pony phoenix-nap her?

Something in the air of the cabin quickly came and went, almost like a blur..  I looked up to see that blur zoom across the air as if it were the sky back and forth. My eyes followed the blur, and slowly I made out what it was.

"Oh.. Athena.." I sighed in relief and laughed. She then realized we were home and froze in mid-air.. Had she been frightened of us? Did she not want us to see her like this? Were the thoughts that raced through my mind as my reflects kicked in and I was now leaping to save her, with my midnight, black, fluffy, arms reaching out as far as they could to grasp her.

Right now I was defying gravity, because I reached so far, yet the impact of the air wanted me to drop onto the hard wooden floor. Athena seemed only a little further away, if only I could reach further...

I reached my limit of reaching, but I tried to push that limit with all of my power to reach to Athena, to once again grasp her warm feathers. I closed my eyes, because the reach was getting really powerful.

I felt them... The warmth of the fiery phoenix that I called, Athena.