The Phoenix and the Thunderbird

“C’mon, Flame!” Gray nudged his brother. “Time for training!”

“Not yet…” Flame moaned, his talon still sore from the day before.

“You don’t want Shining Stone to get mad at you again, do you?”

Flame gradually arose. He yawned, and scratched his face with his talon. He could feel the feathers growing in around his cheek, yet they were still too stubby to really notice.

“All right, lets go!”

Flame followed Gray out of their cavern. They were both two young flyers (training to be firebirds) just off the verge of being chicks. They shared an advisor, Shining Stone, one of the best pre-firebirds in the Crew of Burning Ash. The place where they trained was just behind where they slept.

After they had trudged down the hill, they had already arrived at the training cleft. But Shining Stone was no where to be seen. “Shining Stone!” Flame called. “Where could she be?”

Just then, they heard a cry from above the treetops. The scene was darkened by a huge, looming shadow. They looked up, and saw a bird about 10x the size of them put together. Its shiny, bright yellow feathers were lit up by the sunlight, and so was the eager that shown on its face. Shining Stone dangled from its beak, squirming and yelping. “Flame!” she screamed. “Gray!”

But the birds mind was set on something other than releasing its prey. It swooped down over them, in a taunting manner, and flew away.

“Did you see that bird?” Gray asked, astonished. “It was gigantic! And his feathers… wow!”

“Gray!” Flame screeched. “That bird had Shining Stone! What are we supposed to tell the crew?”

Gray just shrugged. “You know what,” Flame said, sitting up a bit straighter. “We can’t just sit here, and we can’t just go running to the crew, either. We need to save her.”

His brother‘s jaw dropped. “What? Are you crazy? That thing would rip us to pieces!”

“I know, but it has our advisor, the one who is teaching us to be firebirds, remember?”

“We can just get a new one…”

“Do you hear yourself? This is a crewmate we’re talking about! We have to find that bird!”

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Considering it's 12 in the morning, I'll finish it later.

Oh, and here's some definitions of the words/places that were mentioned so far.

** I edit this as the story goes on

advisor - a teacher that trains and instructs flyers
crew(s) - group(s) of birds living in the same area
firebirds - crew leaders
flyers - birds training to become firebirds
pre-firebirds - have completed training, almost ready to become firebirds
training cleft - place where flyers get trained by advisors

"Heehee, thank you, Taomi," the woman said, stroking the bird's feathered head. "This will do."

Moments later, Shining Stone awoke, dizzy and confused. "Oh, look, it's awoken," the woman said, twirling her hair around in her finger. "Taomi, fetch the muzzle."

Shining Stone blinked sleepily, finally getting a good look at where the strange voice was coming from. A strange lady she was with her stringy, red-blonde hair, glasses hanging off her nose, and a shirt that'd be too small for even an infant.

She soon realized she was in an iron-bar cage, guarded by the same huge bird who fetched her off the ground. Before she could make any sort of move, the woman put a small, black fabricated object around her beak, making it so she couldn't squawk or even peep.

"No use trying, little one," the woman said, a sinister look on her face. "You're mine now."