Firestorm

"Duke...?"

"Y-Yeah bro?"

"Was daddy actually right about the bird?"

The two young pandas crouched under a fallen tree, propped up against a large rock that looked to be forced in the ground. Their black-and-white pelts were brown with soil and bits of rock. Their bodies were low to the ground, bellies flat against the dirt. They were in one of the dark corners of Sarepia Forest, shivering in fear.

"Duke, why didn't we go get help?" the smaller panda asked his brother. "I'm scared..."

"I know," Duke said. "Max, we'll be ok."

"B-But the black bird hasn't came!" Max cried out, planting his large paws over his face. "He's not here! He always comes to see us!"

"Max, please calm-" Duke was interrupted by a crashing sound. He began to realize that this was in fact true, and it was more terrifying than he imagined.

''"Dad, there's no such thing as a fire bird! It's all a myth," Duke said, pouting. His dad chuckled lightly, nodding.

"I will tell you the story," his father said, who was a large panda. In Jamaa, pandas that big were considered "Giant Pandas," a rare sight to come across. He let out another light chuckle, sitting up on the bamboo chair. His two sons sat on a leaf rug in the bamboo hut they lived in while their mother went to find the kitty that ran out of the hut.

"The great fire bird Embirus is the opposite of Mira," he said. "She is not a good spirit. Embirus and Mira were at war for many years until the fire bird was sealed in a tomb of ruby, a gem thought to seal dark spirits inside it and rid of their demented souls."''