when he descended to Quartzal. He wasn't sure if it was because she actually expected him, or had merely seen him approaching. As soon as he came within a certain proximity, he felt Prince begin to flare. He allowed it -- there was nothing else for it -- Leg and Pins merely hid at his shoulders. When he landed on the ground, it was with a slight jump which dislodged charred bits of stick and soot that he occasionally poked at the salamanders.

The elementalist's brows raised.

"Here has he come," the elementalist said. "The Phoenix of Quartzal."

The elementalist was a human. He eyed her. The human had black lines around its eyes, gold speckles, a large breast -- a female. She was uncommonly dark-skinned, which led him to assume that she was from Anthem High -- certainly not Low, skin couldn't be tanned like that in Low. Certainly not in Quartzal either, though Quartzal received the most light from the sun than anywhere else.

But when he came near her, he saw that the dark skin glimmered, and he realized. She wasn't a denizen of High at all -- just somehow tanned by salamanders. Come to think of it, he had never seen a human fire elementalist before, so perhaps this is what they all looked like. If his own skin weren't so dark, perhaps he would notice something unusual himself. Then again, hadn't his feathers been darkening? Was it something more than age?

In any case.

"I'm Skaff," he told her, feathers ruffling. She came here and called him by some dumb nickname?

"Skaff," she said after a moment, unfazed. Skaff clicked his beak in annoyance. So she didn't care, did she? Who was she to come here with her squishy human skin on his grounds, where the fire knew his name?

"I'm Agni," she said, holding out a hand. The corners of her mouth turned up at the edges -- a smile. "Of Pyreksoma."

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