~~{Vermilion}~~Suzaku~~{Bird}~~
~Flames of the South~
Fire....Flames....Beauty....How it all comes together...
The day was fierce with heat and the wind was gone. It was nothing out of the ordinary. Reiko walked slowly in the hot summer day, on his way back from a recon. The day had been long, hot and muggy. "It's....too hot..." Reiko complained to himself as he walked through the woods just north of the plains. Reiko dragged his feet through the dirty forest floor, leaving trails of twigs,leaves and lines of brown dirt. The birds chirped and the animals scurried about the floor of the woods.
Reiko sighed to himself and jumped from the ground. His feet kicked off of different trees of various girths and heights. The kid was making his way through the trees with jumps only, touching branch after branch. The leaves shook lightly and birds flew away from Reiko's presence. Overall, Reiko was a white ghost in light clothing moving through the trees.
After a short distance of traveling through the trees, the heat easily conquered Reiko as he came to a sudden rest. Reiko rested on a tree branch breathing heavily and sweating from the heat of the summer day. It felt like a fireplace with all the trees and the heat. He slowly dropped from the branches and went to sit at the base of the tree.
"Oh boy...." Reiko complained and rested his head against a tree. The heat was insane as Reiko thought to himself. He began sweating like a dog as he began to return on his way back to a small town he had visited before going off on his recon. Shrugging off the heat, Reiko sped off in the woods. Trees passed one by one as Reiko ran. His feet pounded lightly on the forest floor with little sound and rapid succession.
Within minutes, Reiko suddenly felt the temperature rise even higher then it was. He stopped and rested on one knee breathing heavier from fatigue. "What the hell is this heat...!" Reiko yelled out but he was cut short. Birds and other animals fled the area as the light brightened with an orange hue. Some plants began to wilt from the sudden rise of heat. Small flowers turned brown and died away. Leaves began to char and fall off of their trees. Once green and lush plants, turned into yellow and black piles of death. The animals fled from the intense heat and birds dropped out of the sky. Reiko sat in the down and looked high up in the sky to see something he could not believe.
High in the sky, a giant vermilion bird soared over the tree tops. Fire and a orange aura trailed behind the giant bird. Long feather like tails flowed behind the bird with bits of bright fire. The bird let out a earsplitting scream that caused more birds to flutter away and made Reiko feel the vibrations in his stomach. The bird quickly soared on towards Reiko's direction.
"What the...No!"
Reiko stood up and ran despite his fatigue. The town he was running towards was in the direction of the giant bird's path. Reiko ran as fast as he could, the heat had begun to beat down upon his skin as he came out of the woods and onto a grass plain. The blazing sun came into view along with a small town several hundred yards away. Just above horizon, the bird had flown to the left away from the town. Reiko slowed to a walk and he settled his upon the creature in the sky. He had never seen a creature of this size and the heat seemed to have come from the bird itself. Reiko felt the temperature was immediately different when the bird had flew off. It was worse then being inside a forgery.
The kid let out a soft sigh but he felt something was going to happen. Reiko walked along the grass and then the sky flashed three times. It was followed by an earsplitting screech from the bird like creature. Reiko immediately twirled back around and stared in awe. Three balls of fire rained down towards the earth. The bird soared over the grasslands once again followed by a heatwave it gave. Reiko held his arm over his eyes to protect them from the light the fire and the bird gave off.
The fire plunged into the earth. One hit the grassland and made a explosive impact; spreading it's deadly torrent of hell across the dried ocean of grass. The fires raged like a natural wildfire, sending smoke into the air. Reiko felt the force of the fire from where he stood when the fire was several hundred yards away. He was impressed at the power of the fire and he just stared in complete awe...
It was soon gone as the last two fire balls headed straight for the town he was heading to. "No!!!" Reiko yelled out as the balls of fiery hell devastated the poor town. The fire had hit with an explosive impact just like before on the grass. Each ball completely leveled several if not many homes and buildings. Bits of flames and debris flew up into the air from the bird's attack. The heat did not help the cause and it had been drought like conditions. Reiko fell back in disbelief as the small town was being engulfed in hell's torrent of red flames. People screamed and buildings stayed lit with fire.
The fires burned and burned to the point the town was to be long gone. It looked nothing more then a massive torch. Reiko stared off in the horizon and saw the bird flying off. It's feather tails trailing behind it and leaving the carnage it had caused with little ease behind. Reiko stood back up and felt flabbergasted at what he had witnessed. Pivoting himself, Reiko took off to return to his group to tell what had happened. As Reiko began to run off again to flee from the scene. The bird had left off another screech which echoed in the air. How can something like that be that deadly....
~Meanwhile...~
Suzaku glided along the skies. His eyes scanned for a decent perching area. His day had been fun and a small town was gone because of him. Suzaku flapped his wings casually along the summer sky. The day was only around noon and he was bored. His feathers flowed gracefully with the breeze. The tail feathers behind him trailed like ribbons on a kite and his heat spread gently over the land.
Suzaku spotted a neat spot and let out a screech. A small clearing in a forest came into view as the bird leveled himself for landing. His feet were outstretched and his wings flapped quickly to slow his descent. The wings gave off a light gust the shook several trees and stirred up loose leaves. The bird's heat gave it's influence on the area already as several animals fled the area.
Eventually, the bird was perched casually on the ground. His wings remained wide open and they gave a few final flaps before folding back into place. Suzaku's stature took up the ground and his neck lowered for a rest. The feathers on his body shook and fluffed up to make him look like a giant red puff ball of feathers. Suzaku felt comfortable in his spot and opened a wing. His beak ran along his feathers to clean them. The giant bird simply cleaned and cleaned his feathers with little to no worry.
After several minutes of cleaning, the bird opened his wings and stood up. His giant stature gave a dark shadow a good portion of the woods in front of him. With a few flaps of his wings, Suzaku started to shape shift back into his human form. Suzaku's anatomy had changed from an enormous bird to a small human shape. The man stood in the clearing and smiled. His stature looked lean and toned. His body was rather naked. Besides, clothes don't magically appear when he shifts forms.
His hair was dark red with black streaks. The beast quietly went behind and tree and went for his stash of clothes. He dressed into a outfit with a green vest and beige hakama. Suzaku sighed to himself and stretched his arms out. "Another day...another pain..." he said while cracking the bones in his neck. Suzaku sat the base of a giant tree and fell into a light sleep to pass the rest of the day away.
~End~
