The closer he got to her location, the more clearly he felt her presence. It was a gift, having another phoenix close again. He'd been so long without the communion of another like himself. Most thought he had remained sane through the centuries. The truth was that he was honor-bound to certain things, and those things more than anything had seen him through the long stretch of maddening silence in his mind.
But now there was a fire within his thoughts that was not his own. A voice that rose above the buzz of his own mind and grounded him. He loved her. She couldn't know it, and he'd honor her well enough not to let her know, but he loved her - not only for her presence, which was gift enough, but also because of her generous heart and her ability to laugh. It'd been too long since he'd felt laughter like hers. She lifted him up - and he couldn't tell her any of that.
When he found her, he didn't wake her. Instead, he sat down close to her and waited, doing his best not to stare. In the sunlight, she was magnificent. Her skin gleamed, and her hair turned to burnished copper.