The huge bird-like creature swirled above his head numerous times before it flew down and stood in front of Brad with its huge body. Brad craned his neck to look at it. Brad asked the creature politely, "Can you shorten in size? I can't see you properly." The enormous creature s.h.i.+vered slightly before shrinking down. Now, it was on eye-level with Brad. It opened its beak and said in a mocking tone, "So, you are the brat who became my Master?"

"What do you mean?" Brad asked as he carefully scrutinized the beast in front of him. The beast had a body of a fire-phoenix, but had the claws and tail of an ice-dragon. It had red feathers covered in bluish-green scales. But he a.s.sumed the wings to be very light as it flapped fast with almost little effort. It had heterochromatic eyes. The left eye was blue in color and the right eye was reddish. Brad had never seen something so beautiful in his whole life. He went a little forward and caressed its head gently. It had a short beak unlike that of a regular phoenix. It looked magnificent. Brad caressed for a while more. Shorty noticed that, and was dumbfounded to see 'that monster' getting caressed by Brad. What was most unimaginable was that 'the monster' did not seem to mind the caress. It almost seemed that it was enjoying the caress. The little one was sighing in this mind, as he did not dare to make a sound. He peeked his small head out of Brad's s.h.i.+rt's pocket as he took in the exchange. It made him emotional too. 'That monster' was too alone. It had no one except for him and his previous Master. He heaved another sigh.

After a round of caressing the creature in front of him, Brad asked, "What's your name?"

"Olympia." It answered.

"You are a female!" Brad exclaimed out loud.

"Yes." It opened it beak to reply again. The voice seemed so desolate. Brad caressed it again and said, "You are not alone. We are with you."

Olympia zoned out as she thought back to her days. She heaved a sigh, and a droplet of tear fell from her left eye. It froze and fell down as a chunk of ice. Brad did not know why it could understand her feeling of desolation so well. It was as if his own pain. He slowly patted her on the back, and rea.s.sured, "Don't worry. We are here. Nothing will happen to you."

Olympia nodded her head at Brad's word and said, "Is Deablo here?"

"Deablo? What is that?" Brad was puzzled, but he did not notice that Shorty was trying to lessen his presence. Shorty went deep inside Brad's pocket as was even afraid to peek out.

"I can sense him. He is somewhere here. Deablo, are you going to come out on your own or do you prefer a thras.h.i.+ng?" When Brad heard Olympia, he had an inkling who she was referring to. He looked at his s.h.i.+rt's pocket and sighed. So, Shorty is trying to hide. Hehe. Let me see till when he continues to hide. Brad had an urge to laugh out loud, but he controlled himself. Rather, he tried to distract Olympia by saying, "Can you tell me what is wrong with my body? I cannot move."