I’m going to use this opportunity to explain phoenixes a little bit and tell y’all about Cole~!
Phoenixes are immortal but it’s a tricky kind of immortal. They age to about their mid twenties and then stop aging and live on and on and on, the only catch is they can die just as easily as any human and when they die their ashes drift off someplace safe and then they’re super-heated and solidify into an egg which hatches and bing bang bong you got yourself a bouncing baby bird brain. Aww~! The thing about phoenixes and rebirth is that they don’t remember any of their past lives except for their first life; because of this Cole has kept journals so he can go back and read them and know where he’s been, what he’s done, and who he’s known.
Phoenix feathers contain a supernatural element that causes rapid healing and regeneration (so do their nails and hair but to a lesser extent) and they produce a very mild form of something called “Ichor” in their tears and saliva ((why is saliva such a gross sounding word???)). Over many centuries witches found a way to use phoenix feathers to make an extremely potent healing potion called Ichor that can heal any wound, regrow limbs, and even bring back the recently deceased.
Making Ichor is very difficult and considering there are only about 100 phoenixes in existence phoenix feathers are kind of hard to come by. Combined with the difficulty it is to make and rarity of it’s most basic ingredient, Ichor is the most valuable substance in The Underworld.
Which is why Cole got kidnapped, womp womp.
One more thing about phoenixes: they’re ancient and are therefore controlled by certain ancient magical laws, blah blah blah. Basically, if you call on them by their true name they’ll hear you and come to you, also if you give them a command by their true name they have to do whatever you say (this doesn’t bode well for Cole because apparently he pissed someone off in a past life who’s immortal and knows his true name. And she’s awful. I hate her.)
Now onto Cole!
Cole is nineteen and tiny. At about 5′2″ he’s kinda short for a person but he was originally created a few thousand years ago and back then he was average height.
Cole has two modes: exuberant, bubbly, very outgoing and talkative and loves to meet new people; and moody, sarcastic and borderline self-destructive. He’s also a deep thinker and prone to getting lost in his own thoughts. After getting taken he develops strong trust issues and becomes much more pessimistic and after...some more stuff happens....bad stuff, he begins to suffer from sever PTSD and gets this rad new fear of getting close to others. Super duper~!
He also used to have long hair (a lot of phoenixes do, see “supernatural element” up top) but his kidnappers found it annoying and shaved it off.
