Legend of the Phoenix


Long ago magical creatures lived alongside humans in relative harmony. The sky was full of dragons and pegasi, the forests overflowing with pixies and elves. They were dazzling beings that were admired by all. The most beautiful though, was the phoenix.
They were wondrous birds with plumage that shown with all the colors of a sunset. And even though many magical creatures disliked humans, the phoenix were different. With their magic they brought good luck to poor townsfolk, and gifts of everlasting fire to light even the darkest of nights. Phoenix loved stories and were know to listen to writes read their stories out loud. If they liked the writing they would allow the author to take one of their feathers to create a quill pen.
But in contrast to the generous phoenix, the humans were quite greedy. There was a certain human who was unsatisfied with the gifts of the fire birds. He knew they kept the best magic to themselves, and one day he followed two phoenix to their nest in the woods. He snuck up the tree and using a large rock, killed both of the birds. Then he scattered their ashes so that they could not be reborn from them.
The man took the phoenix eggs that were in the nest and ate them. From the eggs the power to use fire magic was born within him. He smirked to himself, happy with his new found magic and started back to his village. Unknown to the man, a young fairy had seen the entire thing and flown off to tell the other phoenix of the forest.
Meanwhile the greedy man went back to his village and lied that the phoenix were going to attack them. At first the villagers did not believe that the kind birds would ever attack them without reason, but just then a large flock of phoenix flew out of the forest looking for the greedy human the fairy had told them about. The humans, thinking that the magical birds were indeed attacking, grabbed their shovels, hammers, other and tools to fight.
Because of the misunderstanding many humans and phoenix died in the battle. Most of the birds’ ashes were blown into the wind stopping them from rising from the embers again. Word soon traveled across the land that the phoenix had ambushed a human village.The people, terrified of the powerful magic that the birds possessed, rallied behind the greedy man to battle the phoenix. The magical birds were much more dangerous, being able to burn dozens to death in one sweep, but the humans were far more numerous.
They warred for several years and soon few phoenix were left alive. The last of the magical birds went to the wizards of the land to ask for their help. The wizards agreed to help and gave the phoenix the power to transform. They took on human shapes and lived in secret as their enemies. There was confusion as to where the magical birds had disappeared to, but the wizards had vowed not to tell anyone the truth.
Many wars with other magical beings followed the massacre of the phoenix. Humans killed hundreds of them for spoils or out of fear of their magic. Many went extinct but some managed to go into hiding and escape the humans. To this day, no one has found the mystical birds but some people say that the phoenix and their descendants are still hiding among the humans.