She couldn't believe what she was hearing. The voices swirled around her - acusing, defending, and some just plain screaming. The chaos; the pain; the fear. she ran, trailing flames from the burning tower behind her. It wasn't her. That's all she knew. She didn't know who - or what - had started the fire, but now she was free. She leapt over a log, transforming into her true form - a pheonix - mid-leap. It was so good to be a part of the outside world again. She flew up to a tall tree and allighted on a branch to rest for the night.

She woke the next morning with the sun, and flew into a small town to do a job she had been ordered to carry out several years before. She had been captured that time, but she was more careful this time, and she now knew what she was doing. It wouldn't happen again. She swooped into the clocktower and grabbed a small crystal hanging from a chain. Her duty to her master would be finished soon enough. She took off, and flew into the mountains.

The castle was more moss-covered from the last time she had seen it, but was otherwise unchanged. She flew in the window, dropped the crystal in her master's hands. Then, her job done, she burst into flames, changing into a younger version of herself.

But now she was free.