<em></em>Brendan's eyes went wide as saucers as he took a half-step back, raising up his arms defensively. He could feel the intense heat radiating from the form of the brilliantly-colored bird in front of him and his first thought was that he would be burned to a crisp. But as a few moments passed, he realized Fiametta was merely giving a display. He was, after all, talking about her abilities.<br/><br/>There was something strangely familiar about the bird in front of him.<em>"Such a brilliantly-colored bird..."</em>he thought to himself,<em>"And all wreathed in fire...."</em>His jaw went slack as he had a stroke of recognition. He had seen various depictions in many of the occult bestiaries he had read.<br/><br/>"Oh my God! You - You're a PHOENIX!" He exclaimed, hardly able to believe his own words. Though at the same time, in light of recent events, pretty much anything and everything was starting to become believeable.<br/><br/>A sense of awe and wonder overtook him.<em>"I summoned... a phoenix?!"</em>He rubbed the side of his head with one hand, staring off into space. "This is a dream.." he said, more to himself than to her. "It has to be. There's just no way I..."<br/><br/>He stopped suddenly as a thought occured to him: the memory of what he had thought to himself earlier when preparing for his second summoning attempt.<em>"I should definitely make sure to ask that she be hot. Yeah! That's it, a total hottie! She should burn for me... "</em><br/><br/>"HOLY CRAP!" He exclaimed aloud, slapping a hand to his forehead. "It was in my wording! He immediately felt incredibly embarrassed. He had been fascinated with magic and the occult since he was a small child and had begun practicing seriously in the middle of highschool. It was a rather novice mistake to be unmindful about the exact and literal nature of wording when making an incantation. Then again, as he had confessed to Fiametta and Alex earlier, he didn't expect the summoning to work. And, because of that, he had allowed himself to get sloppy.<br/><br/>"Oh man.. What a mess."  He said, shaking his head. "But... look on the bright side..." He continued, a goofy smile spreading across his face. "It could've been worse.. Yeah, a lot worse. I could've asked for a girl who's a real devil in the sack." And then, remembering that he was not alone in the basement, he straightened up, squared his shoulders and looked directly at Fiametta. "I'm afraid I owe you yet another apology...I think you got called here...."  he hesitated and swallowed hard. "because I was careless with the wording of my incantation." He bowed his head and winced.<br/><br/>The painful redness in the hand he had laid upon herwas a stark reminder of what had happened when he had carelessly shown disrespect when first meeting her. He was now preparing himself for Fiametta to blow up even worse at him. "Please forgive me?" His voice was tiny and quavering.