Trust me: The Tale of Phoenix the Ashen 3 Meeting With a Friend

As Phoenix returned home, he phase from the bark of the old tree he'd grown in the basement, it required a lot of nourishment and attention but it was worth it. He headed upstairs to consult with his assistant, James, the person who he'd grown to trust and was now his manager of everything business related. James was sitting in an upstairs room with a cup of tea and a newspaper. He was a stockholder in Pear, the company that created such things as the uPad, until the previous month, the company had lost two hundred dollars worth for each stock.

James looked up at Phoenix when he walked in. James didn't know about who Phoenix really was, but of course he'd had theories and questions of why he'd not aged even a year, at least he didn't look to have.

James was the first to speak. "First time you leave in the entire time I've worked here, and you don't look so good coming back." Phoenix look weary and a little jaded.
"The world has not changed for the better, no." Phoenix hadnt only gone out to meet Grimm, but also to see what the world had become, and it was so overwhelmingly horrible for his eyes.
"What about it? I understand that the world isn't what it used to be, but things must progress in order to get better. The world must change to suit its inhabitants."
Phoenix's eyes straightened at that in a small scowl. "It is not the world that must change. Humanity has forced it to change, but humanity must change itself to suit itself to a doomed world. They've wrecked this one. Another ice age at least."
James laughed to himself. "We'll all have to live like Eskimos. Except you I suppose, you'll get along just fine wouldn't you?"
"Yes. And I would do it quite excellently too."

"What do you plan now? You've shown you face to the world. It may have been subtle but people must have seen you."
"I plan to stay in my home and maybe take one last trip out. The world has changed but that doesn't mean I can't understand it."
James smiled and laughed to himself, "how is it that young, but you act so damn old?"
Phoenix chuckled a bit to himself, if only he knew the truth. "Make sure the basement is locked James. I'm going to look around the immediate area now." Phoenix said getting up and going downstairs and out into the city streets, the once cloistered area at the edge of town, the monastery facing the wilderness.

The cars were bolting past. He wasn't entirely sure what they were, or his they were made. But they weren't a part of nature, and they made a lot of noise. Much of what he saw was foreign.