3. The test

At the restaurant Mariel was served with Fried tuna which he enjoyed happily with smiles on his face.

After dinner at the restaurant, Mariel made his way back home, thinking that the elders were gone by now as it was quite late.

On getting home he put his ear on the door to hear if the elders we're still here, and strangely he didn't hear any sound from inside the house, as if nobody was home.

*sigh* he sighed as he opened the door and went in. When he got to the living room he was shocked. Everyone was there, the elders and his mom all stared at him with expectant looks.

He didn't notice it before but the elders have different hair, the oldest has golden hair and the two others had red hair, but his mom has purple hair. "Where were you" his mom asked. "Sorry Mom, I went to the store down the street to get something" he explained.

"Hello Mariel. We are from the council of elders in the family. I am Renol and these are my assistants and we are here today to test your bloodline" the golden haired man said.

"I understand" Mariel replied as he knew this already.

Mariel's family 'chen' has a tradition that each individual will become a phoenix at 16 as they will be tested. This test will awaken their bloodline and today was Mariel's turn to be awakened.

"Are you ready?" the elder asked. "yes!" Mariel replied as he strengthened his will. He remembered his father and his dreams to be strong.

"Mary! Bring it " as the elder called her she came in with that weird red soup.

'I hope that I'm not going to drink that' he thought inwardly as he felt like crying right now.

"In this test all you have to do is to drink every drop of this soup" the younger female elder said as she gave him the soup.

They didn't want him to drink little since Mary prepared the right proportions.

"That's it?. I heard that the awakening is painful, what's this soup supposed to do, sounds like you want to torture me" Mariel exclaimed, trying to find out if this really was how it was supposed to be.

"AHAHAHA....." they all laughed .

" The hotness and inner taste of this soup is going to trigger your inner fire and allow you to transform, allow me to demonstrate" after he said that he closed his eyes.

"What's he doing?" Mariel asked his mom as the elder closed his eyes. "Be patient" his mom told him.

When the elder opened his eyes they were glowing gold and turned straight like a cat or more of a reptile. The next moment two bright majestic golden coloured wings sprouted out from his back. "Although I won't be able to demonstrate fully because of the area we are in, I think that this is enough for you to know how you will be". And after that he turned back to a human.

"I have a question though" Mariel said, "Go on" the elder gestured for him to ask away. "Why is your hair golden yellow and others are mostly red and orange" he asked.

"Oh, your hair colour mostly determines a phoenix rank" the elder explained. "What's a phoenix rank?" Mariel asked with a full and tired face.

'Sigh... there's so much I don't know' he sighed.

"You don't know about the ranks" the elder's eyebrows furrowed as he turned to look at Mary.

"what?! I didn't have time to tell him" Mary said in defence.

"Fine let me explain it to you the rank from the lowest to the highest" as the elder said that Mariel sat down in an attentive manner "A Phoenix's rank from the lowest to highest starts from orange, red, gold and white hairs"

"The hair colour determines the talent of the person as orange and red hair is considered normal and fairly talented while gold and white are considered extreme and rare talents" he explained.

"Those who pass a level in strength will have the opportunity to ascend to the next realm" 'mom also said something about dad ascending to the next realm' he thought inwardly. "So as you progress you will be getting stronger" the elder concluded.

"I thought awakening is supposed to be painful or something like that".

"it was originally painful so if this doesn't work then...mm" the elder said in reply.

"Anyways let's get on with it" the elder said as he handed over the soup to Mariel. He frowned as the soup released a peppering smell that shocked his eyes a bit and made them tear up.. *gulp* he gulped a mouthful of spit before he started drinking the soup. He drank the soup quickly as he didn't want to make his tongue suffer.

The soup was not as hot as when he tasted it before but it was burning his insides. Immediately after drinking the soup his body started heating up as he was sweating. "AHHHHHH" Mariel shouted as an immediate pain swept through his body. "What's going on" Mary asked. "I don't know, it's not supposed to be painful" the elder said seemingly surprised too. 'Damn it. It hurts so much,why does it hurt' he thought as a drop of tear ran down his face. It was as if his heart wanted to come out of his chest.

After a few moments there was visible changes in his body. "What is this?" the elder said as he saw what was happening to Mariel.