Heir to the Phoenix Clan

My family has always seemed strange to me. As I grew up, I could get the sense that there was something being hidden from me. Not necessarily anything bad, just a secret that I didn’t seem to understand. Another strange thing is that everyone seemed to be born on one of two days. Everyone older than me had June 21st as their birthday, while myself and everyone younger than me had December 21st as their birthday. As I got older, I saw more and more of my cousins born on my birthday and just saw it as normal until I was in school. Apparently my family is the only one that this phenomenon happens to.

I started to question it and my family just said that our family was special but they would never tell me why. That was part of the secret I felt was being kept from me. Any question that I asked always came with the answer of “that is just how we are.” I was always pretty intuitive as a child and could tell that they wanted to say more but something was restricting them from doing so. In my teenage years I dropped it, but not after trying to trick everyone into telling me. I would hang out around adult family parties, hoping to find a drunk uncle that would loosen their lips on these secrets to no avail.

I almost forgot that my family was so different until my life changed forever. The distractions of high school and thinking about my future took over my mind. Then, on my eighteenth birthday, I died. I know what you’re thinking, how could I be writing this? Am I a ghost? No, not even close. It is actually far more interesting than that, which is why I am writing this down. It helps me process some thoughts I have been having.

I remember dying. More specifically I remember death. On the darkest day of the year, my soul just left my body. I thought it was all a dream at first. Looking down at my sleeping body while I was floating in my room. Then I noticed I wasn’t breathing anymore and my face began to grow more and more pale. Some birthday gift. As I was staring at my lifeless body, a bright red bird flew into my room and landed on my stomach. It told me that I could come back to life if I passed a couple tests. I was shocked but didn’t seem to have any other options so I accepted this chance.

The bird led me into another land where I would face many challenges. As you could guess, I defeated them. The longer I was dead, the less of that world I remember. I think it has something to do with how close to my body I was. Shortly after I died, and before I revived is where my most clear memories are. I do have a sense that the challenges were hard and that I took a few multiple times. When I cast my thoughts to that time period, it is just filled with the feelings of anguish and strife.

After the challenges, the bird led me back to my body and flew into it, causing my body to light on fire. I do remember that it was strange that my body hadn’t been moved, nor did it decompose. Too many strange things happened for me to pay too much attention to it though. Plus I had many answers soon after anyway. While my body was on fire, my soul was pulled back into my body like a vacuum and I woke up.

My parents were already walking in the door as I woke up, welcoming me back. They told me that we were actually part of an ancient clan of ninjas called the Phoenix clan. That we were all born on the winter solstice to live exactly eighteen years as a normal human. After six months in the afterlife, we would be reborn on the summer solstice as new beings. Not truly human anymore. We all have various skills that most would call magic. We are also far stronger than normal people.

For a few months I was taught much about this new world. In the shadows of the world, we kept peace between the nations. We followed strict rules and regulations amongst the clan to keep us in check. We had the power to take over the world but our founders made rules to make sure that never happened. There have been multiple hidden wars to stop those that rebelled in the past. I also learned that my parents were the current leaders and that I would one day become the heir to the Phoenix clan.

Apparently I am going to go away for a while to train and learn all about my new society. I feel strangely comfortable about it all. Even after writing this out, I feel as if this has always been my path. I though that I would struggle more with accepting a life that sounds as crazy as this all does, but I am at peace. I don’t believe that anyone will find my journal, but on the off chance that they do, know that I truly feel peaceful about this life thrusted upon me. Being a leader still sounds slightly impossible, but according to everyone else, that won’t be for quite some time. I don’t know the full extent, but apparently my parents are the strongest leaders to exist since the beginning of our clan. So I have plenty of time to learn everything I need to. As long as nothing crazy happens, that is.