The Last Phoenix Read Online Free PDF

duckling!” Fenella chuckled. “I’m not entirely sure what’s happened to him since he bade you au revoir , but I bumped into him in Morocco.”
    â€œMorocco?” Jason echoed. “Wow! What was he doing there?”
    â€œWell,” said Fenella, rustling her feathers with the air of someone who has a story to tell. “Just picture it. There I was, perched in a tree in the Souss-Massa National Park one beautiful summer’s evening, just a few weeks back, when I heard these angry voices overhead. It was two humans in a hot air balloon! Rough fellers they were—proper hooligans—fighting over a magic lamp!” She shook her head disapprovingly. “They tussled and the lamp fell out of the basket. Just like that! It came tumbling past my beak and ended up on the forest floor.” Fenella smiled. “I picked it up, rubbed the side, and out popped Skribble.”
    Jess was full of curiosity. “So what did he say ?”
    â€œWell, I took him back to my nest for a lovely cup of green tea and it turned out he knew a prophecy about my egg! He’d read it while locked up in the Great Genie Library all that time ago.” Fenella cooed proudly. “Just think, meand my little egg in a prophecy in the Genie Library! How grand is that?”
    â€œWhat did the prophecy say?” Michael asked.
    Fenella shook her feathers proudly. “That any egg I lay contains ‘power unheard of in all the realms,’ and that if it is to hatch properly I have to build a very special nest and get hold of four extra-rare ingredients.”
    â€œWhat are they?” asked Jason eagerly.
    Fenella’s voice grew grander, more theatrical. “‘To hatch a phoenix egg, one needs four wondrous things. First, a…’” She paused and then looked crestfallen. “Actually, lovies, I’ve forgotten. Have you got my map there?”
    â€œHold on…” Jason pulled it out from his back pocket—and gasped. “It’s changed!” he squeaked. “The map doesn’t show our house and Moreways Meet anymore.”
    â€œOf course not,” chuckled Fenella as Michael, Milly, and Jess crowded around to see. “It’s a magic map, remember? And since I’ve found you, it doesn’t need to lead me here any longer—so it’s showing what I’ve got to find next. Remind me, Michael, pet, would you?”
    Michael stared. The yellowed paper now displayed four intricate line drawings—one depicting the sun with a strange pattern scratched all over it; one showing an old Egyptian pyramid topped with a bundle of sticks; one illustrating a mountain peak topped with a leaf-shaped raincloud; and the final image describing a kind of deformed stick of celery with leaves like hands and a heart perched on top. A few lines of exotic, slanted handwriting accompanied each of the cryptic scenes.
    He read aloud:
    â€œIf the hatching of a phoenix egg is to be properly achieved…1. You must capture a shaft of tomorrow’s sunshine and spin that glorious light into golden thread; said thread to be thrice-woven between the sticks and fibers of the birthing nest to ensure the hatchling’s fine fortune.
    2. You must acquire the ashes of the last phoenix nest from old Cairo, which when scattered in the new nest shall impart wisdom and experience to the hatchling.
    3. You must harvest a stalk of silphium, a fine rare herb that can be found deep in the rain forests of Peru. Polish the shell with said stalk to aid balance, grace, and precision of movement in the hatchling.
    4. You must gather the first dewdrop from the summit of the sacred Mount of Quamquangle at the Hour of Sun-Arise, and daub the drop upon the eggshell so as to ensure the hatchling sings in tones the sweetest…”
    Michael put down the map and sighed. “Something tells me this is going to take more than a quick trip to the store.”
    Fenella nodded