To be born a phoenix is to be born into a cursed life.

Her mother said that once when she was young, born to Daniel and Mei Silvermoon, Freyja was the only daughter of the pair who lived life on the run. From the moment she was born, the young girl understood that she was in danger, it was why her parents would always point out the best places to hide and always had their things packed so they could get away at a moment’s notice. Life lived on the run was all the young girl ever knew.

Given that her only constant company was her parents, Freyja had a very close and meaningful relationship with them, her mothers a phoenix and her father an Initia who had gone on the run together amidst a war between their factions. Daniel had protected Mei and helped her escape after their tribe had turned on them and before they even had the chance to say goodbye, they were fleeing across the country. Freyja grew up a smart and diligent child, she noticed things others didn’t because she always needed to look over her shoulder, look out for the next danger.

She was also curious and intelligent, from a young age she was always learning new things, picking up books on their travels, learning things from the locals they met in the small towns they went to and then applying that newly learned knowledge to life, she had interests in medicine and art. Unlike her parents who were very secretive and secluded though, Freyja liked the company of others, often getting herself into trouble because she spent too long talking to those who were supposed to see them as ghosts.

And living a ghost-like lifestyle definitely took its toll. There was only so much patience the young girl held for being home and staying safe, she was always questioning why she couldn’t play with the other children and needed to stay and practice wielding weapons instead. She had a desire to be normal but the problem is that she wasn’t normal. And by her 7th birthday when the tribal red marks appeared on her arms and legs she would understand why. She was a phoenix, just like her mother.

The secretism and training only intensified from there. Mei was strict with her daughter, always making sure that she understood the dangers which could happen if people found out what she was. Her mother was practically paranoid of being caught after she lost her sister many years before after Initia tribe members had discovered there was a secret phoenix within their midst. It shaped Freyja into becoming a guarded person too, one practiced the words which were preached to her, she mustn’t reveal her identity for they would punish her.

It was easier said than done to keep a young phoenix secret though, she would often wake up in the middle of the night to the smell of burning only to discover her nightmare had manifested her to set a fire or whenever she was scared her wings would make an appearance and she would quickly need to cover them up. Her father trained her well and as best he could but that wasn’t to say there weren’t some close calls.

As she grew older she still reached for every learning opportunity that would come to her, she wanted to know more, to understand the world, she started doing research on the supernatural and keeping journals about the people she came across, she learned all about other species there were as well as the Initia, she wanted to understand what it was they hated about her kind so much. It wasn’t like she had chosen to be the way she was after all, and despite some difficulties getting her powers under control, she didn’t see the things people like her did any more monstrous than what they had done.

As Freyja grew elder she became more restless with the life her and her family were living, she wanted to be able to settle down and have friends, to learn things and perhaps eventually find a career but all of that was hindered by one thing she couldn’t change. She spent months researching other ways until she found tale of a phoenix clan up in the mountains, powerful and smart. No Initia tribe had dared to face them. She presented her research to her parents and they agreed to take her there.

As Freyja grew elder she became more restless with the life her and her family were living, she wanted to be able to settle down and have friends, to learn things and perhaps eventually find a career but all of that was hindered by one thing she couldn’t change. She spent months researching other ways until she found tale of a phoenix clan up in the mountains, powerful and smart. No Initia tribe had dared to face them. She presented her research to her parents and they agreed to take her there.

Perhaps they too had grown tired of running and as much as they were a close knit family, never staying in one place had taken it’s toll. It took a long time to finally make it to the rumored place where the phoenixes resided and even longer to make contact with them. By now Freyja was a young woman, versed in fighting as well as evading, she could come and go without a sound. She did what she needed to do to keep her family safe, including fighting off anyone who came after them. She grew strong and devious, often able to turn an opponent’s strength against them.

They had called a meeting with the leader of the phoenix clan who had almost immediately dismissed their ask for sanctuary the moment his eyes fell upon her father. He was an Initia, one who practiced fire much like all of them. She could understand their reservations but it frustrated her that they wouldn’t listen to reason. When the clan leader turned his back on her, the before quiet Freyja had stepped out to plead her case, explaining how she was both her mother’s and father’s daughter, how they had sacrificed everything for safety and to be accept as they are.

It seemed as though the clan leader was going to dismiss her but there was a pause and then turned around. He still had his doubts but he sensed the desperation and resolve in Freyja’s voice, he sensed someone who had been through hell and back to keep her family together and then he nodded slowly, warning that she shouldn’t make him regret this decisions and warning her father he would be watching him closely.

Freyja and her family settled into life in the clan well, with a community surrounding them, she was finally able to build on her learning, to become powerful and control her fire in a way she never imagined before. They had a few threats here and there from Initia tribes but their position on the mountain and the nature of their mountain residence kept them safe from harm. They were able to thrive, to make friends with people like them, learn new hobbies and express themselves, they put on plays, read books, taught one another skills from their travels.

Freyja found herself close with the phoenix chief, Coldren, she would learn many of her leadership skills from him as she trained under him. He took a shine to her and the charisma she radiated, how she seemed to be able to reach even the most secluded members of the clan and connect with them. She understood people, she was empathetic but strong, she knew when to tell people enough was enough but also when to listen and to try and made changes for the better. He saw the makings of an aspiring leader in her.

After a few blissful years in the community, it became evident that her father was growing older and more frail, she stayed by his bedside as he got sicker, taking care of him. He had come into his own in the community, the phoenixes had grown to love and trust him like one of their own and everyone felt the looming pain that was coming.

She remembered not wanting to go into the room, not wanting to see him so broken and weak, she almost didn’t walk in but she remembered the voice of someone. He told her she needed to go in, that she would regret it forever if she didn’t say goodbye because he never got the chance to do so for his. She remembered the man as Daehyun, though he had never spoken to her before then, he said the words so casually but they stuck with her. It gave her the strength to walk in the door and say her goodbyes before her father passed peacefully in his sleep.

Her 18th birthday came and went and she graduated from her high school. She was glad to finally get out of there, fed up of seeing Daniel and Olivia drool over one another or hearing what the other girls said about her as she walked through the halls. She was ready to find her own path in life without the influence of others. The one positive Dakota had taken from her time in school was the support from her teachers which had helped her to get a placement in college, one far from her parents and the life she had come to want to leave behind here.

Freyja’s mother was completely broken by the news, causing her to become secluded and cold, she rarely left her room and the younger phoenix had to go through her grief alone. It was hard, losing one of the only two people she had spent her entire life with. She found herself in training and throwing herself into every distraction she could. But also, in her new found friendship with the quiet male who never said a word to anyone. Daehyun wasn’t a man of many words but he did understand what it was like to lose a parent, something not many phoenixes in the clan had to experience.

Things continued for a while, Freyja did her best to try and hold together the community despite more and more incoming attacks from the Initia, they were getting smarter and they now knew where the clan resided. She sat down with Coldren many times to suggest they leave the mountains and find a new home. As someone who spent her entire life on the run from the Initia, she was sad about the prospect of leaving her first real home behind but as she reminded the leader, their safety came first. Coldren however, didn’t want to leave.

He refused to, in fact. Insisting that he wasn’t going to let anyone scare him away from the place he called his. It was admirable but in the end tragic, because one night when they least expected it, an Initia assassin snuck in during the night and killed Coldren’s wife. It was a warning and it had the desired effect, shocking the entire community to the core and making them terrified for the first time. Freyja blamed herself for what happened, wondering if she had been more insistent about leaving then maybe things would have been different.

They packed up in the middle of the night and left. They flew for hours looking for a place to go and they were exhausted by the time they reached a deserted island in the middle of the cold ocean. It was cold, deathly cold, but anything had to be better than being slaughtered by the invasive Initia tribe. She assured everyone they would be safe here and they started to build shelter from the storms in the caves. Freyja did her best to keep everyone level-headed but things took a turn for the worst when Coldren fell ill. They didn’t even know it was possible for a phoenix to turn ill and yet he couldn’t move.

They huddled around him for warmth, using their fiery abilities to maintain his body heat as best they could but it was no use. After losing her father and then the matriarch of their clan, it seemed they may lose their leader too. When Coldren died, they waited, he hadn’t been killed by gold so they were waiting for him to be reborn as a new self, a rebirth, something many of their clan members had experienced over the past few years. And he did return to them, but not as a he was, his tattoos were now spiralled blue and he could no longer control fire.

But he could control the ice. It took them a few weeks to figure out the changes that came to Coldren, Freyja sensed a shift in him, he had become obsessed with his new abilities and what they could do. Spouting about how they could take revenge for his wife’s death and create a new clan strong enough that they would never need to fear death again. Freyja tried to tell him how scary the way he was talking sounded, how it made him out to be just like the people who attacked him but he wouldn’t listen to reason. For the first time, she felt scared about what he might do with the power he owned.

And then he asked her if she would turn too.

Freyja felt torn about it because on the one side, Coldren was the person who had taken her in and given her a peaceful life with her family. Because of him she finally knew what it felt like to be free to live her life the way she wanted to. She understood his pain of losing someone close to him and perhaps she could empathize with why he wanted to be stronger, so that he could protect his people from those who sought to hurt him.

So she agreed to change.

It was painful, exposing herself to the cold, she felt the way the fire slowly died inside of her and it was excruciating, it went against everything that a phoenix naturally felt empowered, she felt so weak and cold. She knew she was dying. Coldren stayed with her throughout it, she supposed she was the test for their kind, then Coldren would lead the tribe and she could be his right hand, helping the others to understand they would be okay.

When she died, it felt bitterly cold, her veins freezing over, it was dark. And when she awoke, she opened her eyes to find herself alone in a dark room. Her eyes fluttered open to find the smallest source of light, a figure, holding a torch. It was Coldren. He kept saying he was sorry, repeating it over and over like a mad man, she widened her eyes wondering what happened before looking down at herself. Her tattoos were everywhere, they didn’t look like Coldren’s on his arms and legs, they were all over her torso and upper body.

“You can’t be the leader” he spoke softly under his breath “They can’t follow you” the words he was speaking were erratic and short, she could tell something was wrong with him and she pleaded for him to let her go and they could talk about this but he turned his back on her and walked away. And that was the last time that she saw Coldren.

She couldn’t really tell how much time passed because she was always kept in darkness. She tried to fight her way out but she was left with no food or water in the cell, she was sure Coldren expected her to die and honestly some days she wished she would have. Laying there paralyzed she kept wondering how long it would take for her to stave and fade out but it never happened. She felt weak and she couldn’t move, eventually, she found she couldn’t even scream for help anymore, not that anyone heard her in the underground bunker. She felt lonely and scared and then eventually she just faded into the darkness.

She had no idea how much time passed. She awoke to a cold feeling of snow on her body, chill against her fingers but it didn’t feel uncomfortable, in fact, it felt nice, like she had made a connection with her element, finally. Before long she noticed someone was digging through the snow and they offered out their hand, weakly she reached to take it and she was pulled to the surface. She was weak and collapsed the moment she was standing but her rescuer stopped her from falling. They didn’t speak the same language but the travelled gave her food and a bed, giving her time to get her bearings and figure out what happened. She had no idea how long it had been or where Coldren was but the island was empty now, just like it had been when they first came.

When she regained her strength she thanked the kind stranger and went on her way. She re-taught herself how to use her wings and flew over the ocean until she landed somewhere warmer. It was here she found others who spoke the same language as her. She found out that over 100 years had passed since Coldren first trapped her in the ice. She had no idea if anyone had survived his rampage. But she did know she needed to figure out these new abilities she had been given. She learned about the control over ice, how she must now be frozen in time because her face hadn’t changed in the years she was asleep.

She trained alone for some time, learning to master full control over herself while she travelled from place to place, familiarizing herself with the modern era and how the world had changed since she had been trapped. She was naturally adaptive but she sought help from the locals to teach her things, like how they got their food and how they made money. Luckily she was savvy enough to get herself a job as a waitress and quickly showed her skills which got her promoted to a managerial roles. Meanwhile she spent her time trying to find more people like her, to little avail.

Freyja started learning baking and cooking in the evenings from the chef, she enjoyed it very much and working with ovens reminded her of a time when she could cook food with her own hands. She realized she could use her powers the other way, to perfectly control making frozen and chilled desserts and the cakes she made were quickly added to the restaurant’s menu. She decided she wanted to further her study into the culinary arts and began searching for courses. The best program recommended to her by the chef was hosted in a city many states away but she put her name forward regardless and after several weeks of interviews and samples she managed to get a place with a full scholarship.

And so she uprooted her life to head to Evermore City where she would begin her studies alongside working in a little dessert and ice cream store who were impressed with her work. A couple of months in and she had settled well into her new life in the modern world, it was easier for her to adapt because adapting was all she ever did when she was with her parents. In her free time she kept searching, for Coldren, for Daehyun, for her mother. Until one day she finally ran into a member of her old tribe and the cycle finally ended.