Spooktober 2024: Mutated

Gwyn remembered the old days. She remembered when the smaller pods of the Janishbu ships were still used to communicate between colonies. She remembered the story her parents told her of watching her spontaneously combust as a child, only to reappear as a a tiny baby bird, chirping happily at them. She remembered when she first heard the words magical mutation  and Phoenix. She remembered the day her parents sent her away in fear that someone might hunt for her feathers. And she rememebered the day she met Adar.
He had crashed one of the pods, and was living high in a tree, still too young to fully control his transformations. He was skittish and flighty, and a damn good climber. 
"Stop!" She had called. "I think I'm like you." And she cut herself on the tree, only to heal her hand in a blaze of fire.
He was the first blue phoenix she had met. He had fled from Linakra, where they didn't find his healing or his transformations miraculous. But what should have given to be less than a miracle. In Linakra they killed blindly, but in Nefrale, they wanted her feathers, her fire. And they didn't care what they had to do to get it.
He burned hotter than she did, so he died first. She cared for his egg, and tried to tend to the hatchling, but she grew old and it was her turn to be reborn. When she grew old enough, she went looking for him. Only he found her first. This time, he was older. And annoying about it too.
They timed their rebirths when they could--found ways to stay together. And life after life, watched humanity.
They helped rebels escape the slaughter of humans at the hands of sprites, and then sprites at the hands of humans. They took apart old janishbu ships in Diamondheart to build the binding rings meant to protect them from otherworldly invasions. They helped hide Airrin Underwood in a time when magic was outlawed and stood with refugees in Antarand, Suxad, and Saas. They contributed to the first designs for @shaggibin and healed the sick during the Southern Fever. They sought peace during the Southern Conflict and the Alajan Conflict and The Great War of Nideon.
And by the time they saw the ships again on the horizon, they were weary to their bones.