follows the trail of burnt trees, determined to find whoever the hell has been kidnapping children. He pauses when he sees a blonde, hiding a ways off to watch him.

sitting cross legged in front of a tree, too much in a foul mood to really be paying attention. He'd been testing how far from the apartment he could go before he felt too ill, and burning himself a trail of

trees from the inside out for the hell of it. Currently he's sitting in front of a new tree, tracing dark, burnt lines through the bark and watching the insects go running.

stares. Okay...okay, he obviously had to go. But what was he? Fire demon? Okay...okay, intel, right? He pats down his pocket to see what he has, and...why the fuck does he have a water pistol? Oh! Oh, holy _

_water. He peeks out from behind the tree, and shoots the other in the leg, waiting for the smoke and the screaming.

draws himself a skull and crossbones into the tree bark, when suddenly the water hits his leg. He startles and jumps to his feet, turning his skin hot enough to evaporate it in an instant nd looking around for

the source with a scowl. "Shaliza!!" he shouts, more scolding than scared yet.

sticks her head out of the window. "Shut up! I'm in the middle of something!"

peers, realising it doesn't burn, it's just...gone. He's a fire something. A fire something...Think think think. Not a...a god. Gods had shorter tempers. He squirted the man again, wondering if he would explode

_at whoever Shaliza was.

frowns when the voice comes from the window, bristling as the water spritzes him a second time. "What the hell have you done now!" he shouts back, whipping around towards the source of the water stream,

assuming it was an enchantment of some sort just to mess with him.

sticks her head out again. "If you don't shut up, I'm going to clip off your damn wings!" Oh, and she thought she'd have a best friend in her new familiar. How wrong she was.

's eyes light up. Wings...a phoenix! An actual...holy shit. Think think...iron! He had iron. But he needed...to be crafty. Gott, all he could imagine was a giant bird cage, but that wouldn't work. uhmm...

turns back to her, flipping off the general vicinity she was in. He could have told her that it was a bad idea from the start, but nooooo. He scowls, turning back aroud and looking for the enchanted... whatever

it was, and getting further frustrated when he doesn't see anything. So instead he puts both hands on the closest tree and sets it ablaze.

bites his lip, glancing around. Okay...uhm. Oh! Oh. Gilbert snuck around towards the other side of the building prying the poles out of the stair railings. Iron! He'd gathered quite a few, heading back around_

_-the long way- and went about setting a trap for his phoenix.

keeps his amusement going as he makes sure the tree burns up to a smoldering stick, tall, black and pointed at the top. It was almost like sculpting, in a way. He sighs, dustign his clothes off as he looks

around, wondering if he just heard something, or if he was imagining it.

came back to the phoenix, and squirted him a few more times. Childish, but it got his attention.

bristles, much more like a cat than a bird, twirling to see if he can catch the water. "Who keeps doing that!" he shouts, frowning deeply and heading in the direction it had come in.

hiding behind the trees, working to lure him into the iron...erm, well it's more like a giant octagon, than a circle. But it'll trap him, so...

storms in the direction he was being lead, fire in his eyes and skin hot to the touch. "Alright, who's out there? If that's you Gregory, I'm never sleeping with you again!" he proclaims, stopming through

the forest.

tries to hide a snicker. He waits until the phoenix is in the right place, before cutting the wire, the iron trap falling on him. Before he has time to waste, he goes to to try and quickly chain him to the _

_trap.

pauses when he hears the faint sound of wire sliding over something, only looking up in time to be able to avoid getting hit on the head with the framework. He cries out in pain as the iron hits his skin,

writhing beneath it and trying to push it off despite the way it made his skin sizzle in a way very much not under his control. He starts swearing up a storm when he spots Gilbert coming running

, struggles increasing despite how weak his limbs felt.

chains the other to the gate fast. "Okay, That worked better than expected."

yelps in pain, her skin searing hot. "Shit, shit..." She looks outside the window, not spotting Francis. She only manages to grab a knife though, running down the fire escape, and following the burned up trees.

gasps and bucks, not making it easy for Gilbert but eventually settling down and panting once he's completely restrained. "What the fuck is your problem? I haven't done anything!" he protests loudly.

looks at him like he's crazy. "You could easy burn down...everything." He grins, pulling the knife, and holds it to Francis' jaw, making a small incision as he traces down to his chin.

scowls at him. "I wasn't going to burn down everything," he protests, unafraid of the knife until it hits his skin and sears as bad as the restraints. He swears again, trying to pull away from the cut

enough to cry out for Shaliza.

glares at him. "Well now you'll burn down nothing." He drags the other deeper into the forest, by the bars he's chained to, towards a small river. "I've always wanted to see what would happen. A phoenix in _

_water."

can hear Francis call out for her, and she breaks into a sprint, trying to follow that voice.

turns his head enough to glare at the man dragging him, though at the mention of where they were headed, it was like all colour drained from his face. His struggling returns doublefold, swearing again.

"Shaliza!" he shouts, wondering what the heck he did to deserve this. He hadn't even killed anyone lately! This just wasn't his week, it seemed.

manages to get the other to the river, , dropping the contraption in. He didn't even have to do much, the iron would weigh him to the bottom. "She doesn't sound fond of you. But I'll kill her too, don't worry."

struggles against his bonds in panic. Even though he knew this wouldn't kill him, the feeling of constant drowning mixed with not being able to die or use the powers he was so fond of was a thing he never

wanted to experience. He only manages to gasp before he's suddenly submerged, tugging weakly at the shakles now as he sinks to the bottom with the words of the hunter haunting him. The contraption

lands upright at least, trapping him much like a bug on a spider web as it still seared at his skin. He looks up warily towards the waters surface, hoping Shaliza could at least defend for

herself... the thought of feeling death on top of all of this was hardly a pleasant one.

places a foot on the iron, making sure to push him down and keep him under.

stumbles, almost dropping as she gasps. It feels like she's drowning, and no matter how much she coughs, and retches, the feeling only increases. Stumbling through, she finally spots a man there, and with a _

_jerk of her arm, he goes flying back into a tree. She rushes over, finally dropping to her knees, but manages to heave the trap upright. Closing her hands around he bars, she tries her very hardest to...melt_

_through them. It should work. Probably. Right?

can feel the iron dig deper in, looking up hazily at the hunter as he feels his body shutting down with the lack of oxygen. His eyes open a little wider in surprise as the hunter's suddenly out of view and

Shaliza comes in. He never thought he'd be glad to see her. When he realizes what she's doing though and starts to feel the blistering heat of boiling water in their area though he thrashes anew to try

and warn her, though he's sure she can feel it too.

yelps at the pain, and pauses. She tries for the chains instead, heating them up, and managing to break them instead. One down...She grins a little at Francis. "Looks like you're my damsel, huh?"

staggers up, swaying a little. He hit his head pretty hard, but he knows enough to pull out a gun. This one couldn't possibly be a phoenix too...He shoots her in the shoulder anyways. "Get the fuck away from_

_my kill."

pulls his wrist away when she snaps the chains, glaring at the comment. He's unable to reply just yet though, the steam from burning the water out of his lungs taking longer than he wanted. He does make a

garbled cry as he tries to warn Shaliza, and again as the bullet hits and he feels the rip through his shoulder too.

cries out, falling forward against the metal. She manages to break another chain, before throwing Gilbert back again. She's furious, and in pain, and the fire comes easy now as Gilbert's clothes catch aflame.

swears loudly at that, immediately jumping into the river to snuff it out. She must be a phoenix! But...that wouldn't explain how she could smash him against a tree with a wave of her arm. He stares, and it_

_click. "Witch. You're the worst fucking kind, aren't you?"

yanks his other wrists free when she snaps the chain, coughing and sputtering and folding in on himself a bit as the last of the water burns out. He takes a deep breath, celebrating the avaliability of

fresh air, hurrying to take care of the last two shackles but having difficulties thanks to his weakness to the iron. "G-give him hell, Shaliza," he breathes out.

advances on him quickly, despite the fact that he's pulling a gun. Knocking him down with another wave of her hand, she closes her hand around his throat. "You hurt my familiar, you piece of shit. Now you get_

_to die." She shoves a tiny hex bag into his mouth, clamps a hand over and starts to chant.

immediately starts to choke, body jerking as he coughs and stains her hand and his lips with blood. The pain is unbearable, and the strength to toss her off is leaving him quickly. All he can manage is to _

_point the gun against her chest.

stumbles out of the water now, not even having the time to shake off the moisture before he sees the struggle. He panics, dashing forward fast as he can and tackling Shaliza to get her out of the way

before the gun can go off.

a little winded, but falls to the side, and hears the shot go off. There's no immediate pain, so she assumes both her and Francis got out of that ordeal unscathed. For now.

startles, and the gun goes off. He's missed them both, but he doesn't even care at this point. He spits out the hex bag, retching blood into the grass, fingers digging into the earth. He fucking hated witches.

gasps as the shot goes off, half expecting the feel the searing pain as they fall to the side. He's panting, hearing his heartbeat in his ears as he checks himself, relieved to feel nothing. He swears

softly, instead focusing on healing the burn marks the iron had left him with, now that he'd dried off enough.

grabs Francis' hand firmly and stumbles a little as she tugs him as far away from the hunter as they can get. She leaves him retching blood into the grass, pleased with herself. But for now, they just need to_

_put some distance...or a lot of distance between them.

startles as she grabs his hand starts pulling, frowning as he stumbles to his feet to run with her. He quickly shakes off her hand, transforming mid run to fly along instead. He was much better in the air than

on the ground.

frowns at him. She wouldn't admit it, but having him physically there, calmed her quite a lot. She blamed the bond, and figured it probably was. But Francis would be more likely to get away like this, and_

_she kept going, running deeper into the woods.

definitely not sharing that mindset, just wanting to get the hell out. He flies up ahead of her faster, pausing on a treebranch now and then to wait, since he didn't want to find out

what happens if he strays too far at the moment.

getting kinda tired. "You can fly a little slower...I don't think he's following us." She didn't even know if he'd live at this point.

pauses in his near re-flight, fluttering his wings a bit and staying in the tree. "...he was kinda cute," he says, mostly to rile her up again now that it seemed calm, and returning to attending

to his poor singed feathers.

stares at him, before hurling a branch in his direction. "He almost killed you, you dotish...augh! If I hadn't showed up, he would have had barbequed phoenix for dinner!"

gasps as he looks up only in time to be smacked by the branch, losing his footing and half falling, half fluttering to the ground. "You can hardly barbeque a phoenix, and if he ate me, his stomach would

burst into flames,"he hums, transforming back to human.

glares at him. "Then you would have been stuck to that iron trap forever."

hums, brushing a hand throgh his hair. "Yeah that part would suck. Maybe a beautiful mermaid would come save me though."

rolls her eyes. "Or some eat you. It would probably eat you."

laughs, thinking of Gregory. "He could eat me in the best of ways," he grins.

him a look. "You had sex with a mermaid, didn't you?"

grin grows a bit wider. "Mayyyybee."

doesn't know whether to scold or congratulate him. "You did. Francis, how did you end up sleeping with a mermaid?"

laughs. "He was looking for a meal and found something better," he hums, concern from the hunter ebbing away as he remembers Gregory.

eventually comes to a stop, sinking down to catch her breath. Geez. "You're ridiculous."

hums at her, fluttering down to a branch around face height. "I am not. I simply know how to have fun."

can't help but smile a little at him, pushing her hair out of her face. "Wanna send some of that fun my way? I could probably use it right now."

pausses momentarily at that, grinning down at her. "You do realize you just asked a bird to fuck you, you know," he teases.

glares at him. "I meant set me up with someone, you ass." She huffed. "It's forbidden for a witch and her familiar to be together, anyways." Not that she paid attention to petty rules like that.

arches a brow. "Since when do you follow any rules."

him a look. "How would you know what I do, and don't do?" All they did was argue, anyways. She might be a little bitter about that, even if it was her fault.

rolls his eyes. "I know you certainly didn't follow the rule of making someone your damn familiar," he huffs. And he'll remind her of it every day for the rest of her life.

rolls her eyes. "Congrats, you know officially one thing about me."

ruffles his feathers. "I don't want to know anything about you. I already regret not letting the hunter shoot you."

him the finger. Oh, she'd get her revenge. He was asking for it.

returns the crude gesture, although a bird flipping her the bird is more a mockery than anything.

glares at him. "You're an asshole. I probably would have thought twice about making you familiar if I knew that." Probably not.

shakes his head. "Well you probably should have, geezes. Who makes a stranger bonded to them for life anyways?"

stares at him. "How many people actually run into a phoenix? I don't regret that part, I regret you being a jackass."

her a look back. "Maybe if you hadn't chained me to you I wouldn't be a jackass to you."

he's being overdramatic. "This will wear off, you know that right? You can fly back to France, and have all the kinky sex you want" In a few years...

groans. "You don't seem to understand that I don't want any attachment to anyone. Ever."

shrugs. "Well then it's a good thing you're immortal, and I'm not."

hums. "Exactly. So hurry up and die, will you?" he answers rudely.

smiles at him. "I'm going to brew every elixir I know, perform every spell, drain the life force of as many people as I need to. I'm going to live a long and healthy life, past my hundreds, just to spite you."

groans. "There's a reason people hate witches, you hag."

shrugs happily. "And I hate them right back. At least there are no voodoo dolls of me lying around."

frowns. "It'd be easier if there were. "

him the finger. "Thanks to you, they'd burst into flame upon completion."

siiiiiighs. "Well that just ruins it, doesn't it."

rolls her eyes. "Here, I'll give you the materials, and you can give it a try."

hums. "Why bother if it's not going to work anyways. If I want to inflict harm on you I'll just do it myself."

hoping he'd burst into flame, but that wouldn't really do anything. "And hurt yourself in the process."

shrugs. "Maybe it'd be worth it."

scowls. "Then you should definitely try. Please do."