Our Poison Tales

Phoenix’s Family (4): Phoenix has an older sister, Angelina, who is married to a man, Spyros, who has a son, Duane, Phoenix’s best friend and step-brother. Angelina and Spyros have a daughter named Arianna, who’s 2. Phoenix’s mom, Alectra, died when he was 7 and their aunt Avra took care of them until a year ago, when she died.

Cyrus’s Family (2): Cyrus had 4 older brothers who all served in the Roman Army and died. His dad, Kallen, and his mom, Suayna, are his only family now. His mom does everything his dad wants her to do, and never stands up to him.

Part 1:

One boy, Cyrus Vangelis, (17, tall, mortal, dark brown hair, brown-skinned ) is a general of a small group of soldiers from the Roman Army. Another boy, Phoenix Andino, (17, short, son of Apollo, light brown, almost shoulder-length hair, brown-skinned) is a very good healer for the Greek Army. Cyrus raids a village. Phoenix heals the people wounded. They meet each other in a tavern on peaceful grounds. Cyrus is alone, and Phoenix is with his older friends from the hospital he works at. Everyone in the taverns is disguised as common people, so no one can tell what side they are on. He and Phoenix meet and start talking and quickly become friends. They hold back from telling each other what side of the armies they are on, in case it breaks up their friendship. Cyrus happens to raid Phoenix’s village. He severely wounds Phoenix’s best friend, Duane. Before and during this time Phoenix and Cyrus continue meeting, and they become close friends. Phoenix heals Duane and later takes him to meet Cyrus. Duane recognizes the person who wounded him, and Phoenix finds out who Cyrus is and what he did. They obviously are not friends anymore. Some days later, Cyrus leaves the army. In an attempt to apologize, Cyrus tracks Phoenix to a clearing on a cliff where Phoenix is gathering herbs for healing. Surprised and a bit afraid when he sees Cyrus, Phoenix backs away, and his feet go over the edge of the cliff. Cyrus lunges forward to try to get a hold of him, but he slips and falls to his death along with Phoenix.

Part 2:

When they died their blood mixed together, so Cyrus and Phoenix could not be separated in the Underworld. They came before the judges of the dead, and the judges decided to grant them both a second life because Cyrus was a brave fighter, and Phoenix healed a lot of people. The judges do not care what side of the war you are on. When they emerged back into the living world, they saw that in their absence Rome had started winning the war. Cyrus left the army illegally since he promised he would stay longer, and the army was hunting for him until they realized he was dead. When the Roman Army found Cyrus and Phoenix’s bodies, they thought that Cyrus died to kill an important greek figure, and honored him. Now Romans and Greeks all believe that story. So sad. When Phoenix and Cyrus hear that story, they grow even more apart. Rome is starting to take over the parts of Greece where Phoenix’s village and the taverns lie. They decide to leave Greece, but first, go to get Phoenix’s family. Cyrus doesn’t really have that much love for his parents, so he doesn’t go to get them. Anyway, when they arrive at Phoenix’s home, they find that the Roman soldiers had been there and had killed all of Phoenix’s family, except his niece, Arianna, whom they had missed. Phoenix is stricken with grief. So is Cyrus. He had heard of how nice they were. They start out in the general direction of Turkey, figuring they’ll separate somewhere there. During the journey, which was about 2 weeks, the frost began to melt between Cyrus and Phoenix. When they finally reached Turkey, they decided to separate, though it was hard because of Arianna’s decision to cry as soon as Cyrus walked away. They ignored Arianna’s crying and separated. After Phoenix walked about an hour along his separate path with Arianna, bandits attacked. They get saved by Cyrus, who had met some people on his own path and heard that there were bandits in Phoenix’s path. After that, they decide not to separate again. They continue traveling and settle down in a city in Turkey.