Together they sorted through the bodies. They stacked all the evil creatures into several piles, lighting them on fire when they felt they could not stack them any higher. There seemed to be no end to these creatures. Whenever they thought they had found them all a new set of bodies would appear out of nowhere. There must have been over one hundred thousand total.

As they sorted through they did find a great number of STEEL children. There were several times that Athvor would recognize them and shed a tear. He created a burial plot on the edge of the battlefield next to a green patch of forest where everything had not died. A small stream ran through the area. It would have been beautiful if it had not been for all the destruction next to it.

He buried the STEEL children one by one, memorializing them the same way he memorialized Junis. If he knew their name he would write it in the hardened stone top. If he didn’t know the STEEL child, he still wrote “Blessed Child of STEEL” on the stone.

“I’m not sure what to think.” Athvor scratched his head the edge of his wing. “Did we win?”

“Eeno think… nobody win” Eeno stepped forward towards the closest dead bodies.

Together they looked around. The more they searched, the more they realized that there were a whole lot more of dead evil creatures than there were dead STEEL children.

“Eeno think…. Eeno think we need give proper burial. Eeno no like all this death.” He grabbed the ankle of the closest creature and dragged it to another, stacking them in no particular order. He grabbed another and continued to stack. Evil creature after evil creature was added to the pile. After he got a good hundred foot area cleared of bodies, he let out a small burst of flame, setting the bodies on fire.

Athvor was knocked out of his amazement by Eeno’s little burst of fire. It hadn’t occurred to him that Eeno was a dragon, therefore, could breathe fire.

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He tried to count the dead from where they stood; even a rough guestimate would be enough to tell others he came in contact with. The only problem was that he had no clue if Verlor had been killed. He figured he would be able to find that small information out pretty easily. All he had to do was ask a few of the locals. If they were followers of the STEEL children they would most likely be spreading the news of Verlor’s death as fast and the spoken word could travel. The opposite would also be true. If they were followers of Verlor, they would be overjoyed by the defeat of the STEEL children.

Athvor continued to look down at the hundreds of thousands of bodies. They were mounded up in places. There were huge scorch marks where he had fought side by side with his friend. The most unusual thing about the battlefield was the two giant craters in the center of the field. It was almost as if this battle was put to an end by two meteors flying through the atmosphere and landing on ground zero of this battle. The bodies stopped at the edges of these craters and the inside of each of them were covered in ash.

Athvor and Eeno walked together through the woods towards the rising smoke in the distance. They didn’t have a sense of urgency to get to the battle zone. Athvor had done his share of fighting and he didn’t know if he would be able to fight, not to the point where he would not allow himself to get killed. If they were in any kind of hurry Athvor would have flown.

It took them several hours to reach the battle zone. There was a little talking, talking about Junis and stories of their life together. They talked about Eeno and his experiences with death and how he lost his beautiful wife. Most of the trip was quiet, the two new friends listening to the sounds of the forest.

Several hours passed and the sun began to set. The sky shone in multiple shades of yellows, red, and orange through the branches of the canopy. The sun had met the horizon when the two dragons came to the edge of the forest. The battlefield opened up to them. Both of them stood silent for a long while, their mouthed hung open with shock. What they saw was heart wrenching.

There was a low grunt from Athvor. It was obvious that he didn’t want to talk. He just wanted to remember his friend. Eeno didn’t push the subject any further.

Athvor stood up on all fours and took in a deep breath. Eeno stepped back a bit. He knew that there was going to be some great gesture and he didn’t want to be caught in the crossfire. Athvor breathed a extra hot flame against the clay packed soil. Within moments the ground melted and melded together glowing red. He pointed with one claw and wrote several words into the molten clay.

After writing a few heart felt words, he wiped his claw against the scales on his hip, knocking off the cooling stone from his talon. The scales around his claw was singed and would probably hurt for several days, but that was a small price to pay to memorialize his friend.

The glow of the hot clay subsided slowly. There were several cracks that shot across the newly formed stone because it didn’t cool evenly, but the words were still clearly visible. Eeno read what his new partner wrote about the great warrior. This is what it said:

“Junis is around here somewhere. He needs a proper burial.” Eeno agreed in silence. He knew that there was no need to share any kind of sympathy/. It would not have helped. He just wanted to help his new friend. He stood on the big dragon’s back and started looking around. By this time he had picked up the rotting stench of the body. It was close, very close.

“Up there.” Eeno pointed. Athvor looked back at Eeno for a moment then up into the trees. He was hanging upside down, his ankle caught between a couple of branches. There was a buzzard perched on a nearby branch. One of its talons were gripping into his side while it gorged itself on Junis’ guts. Several other buzzards were looking for a way to get in on the feast.

An anger filled rawr came from deep within Athvor. Eeno was forced to jump to the nearest tree as Athvor’s wings opened and he flew at the buzzards. They scattered quickly as Athvor’s talons grabbed hold of the tree trunk. He grabbed hold of the branches that entrapped his friend, then lowered him gently to the ground.

“Where you going?” Enno followed, nearly running trying to keep up with Athvor’;s long stride. “Eeno enjoy talk. Come back, talk more”

“It’s been nice speaking with you, but I have to go.” Athvor said without turning back to even glance and the half phoenix. “I have to find out what happened at the battle. I have to know if Verlor was destroyed”

“Verlor. Verlor? Oooooh… Evil name. Me no like Verlor.” Eeno hopped over some logs and onto the branches of some low lying trees. He bounced from limb to limb till he was able to hop onto Athvor’s back. “Eeno curious. Eeno come with you?”

Athvor rolled his eyes (Eeno didn’t see this gesture because he was on Athvor’s back and Athvor didn’t turn to show off the gesture), not sure if this creature was going to be a friend or a pest. “If you must” he said in a put out tone of voice. Eeno just smiled. He was glad to have a new comrade, a new partner, someone to hang out with.

While they talked, Athvor continues to make slow movements, stretching each part of his body looking for other wounds that may need attending to. He found that he was mostly sore, but over all, every broken bone, open wound, and even scale abrasion where healed for the most part. The only wound that was not completely healed over was the one in his chest. It was a deep one and it would take more time to heal.

It was obvious to Athvor that his friend had given him some kind of gift. He had heard stories of something like this; Of STEEL children being able to give away their strength to friends and family. He just didn’t know how it was done of if those legends were true. Usually, STEEL children take their STEEL with them to the grave and return it to the ground they were created from.

The STEEL continued to grow inside of him and take over for the damage that was done when he fell from the sky. It was making him stronger and he felt the power growing within him. He knew that there was something happening to him and he would be able to use that strength to help others in the future, just like his friend Junis did.

“He pass something to you I think.” The creature bent over and looked closer at the STEEL. “Wound heal in one night. I be watching it. It heal very fast.”

Athvor stared at him for a few moments in silence. Then he spoke again, “Who are you?”

“Yes, yes. Introductions important. I Eeno.” He touched his chest with his three fingered hand. “You?”

“Athvor. Now what are you? I mean I have never seen a creature of the likes of you before.” He pointed at the feathers on Eeno’s head.

“I be only one of my kind” He looked down at himself, “I think. They call me phoenix.”

“Phoenix? A phoenix is a bird and is made of flames and feathers. You are not a phoenix?” Athvor grunted as he got comfortable.

“Only half phoenix. Father was topo dragon”

“Does that mean if I roast you, you will come back to life as a baby dragon phoenix?”

“Don’t know, never tried. Don’t want to try. Want to live.”