On The Wings Of A Nightingale

Chapter 20       “Hey,” Coal said as he landed.       “Hey,” I said, I was in the middle of a field, sitting on an old log, lost in my own thoughts. Commander Nightingale? What’s that about? Who was this partner of mine…Jacob Sparrow? Was he like me? What dungeons where there? What is this Resistance? Why are we fighting them? Where is the base that I mentioned? What happened to my memory? I thought       “Elsa…You okay? You’re making faces at that tree.” Coal gestured to a tree about 20 yards away.       “I don’t know. I only have a small portion of my memory and what I have I can’t make a lick of sense out of.   Apparently from that message that we found, I was tracking Wolfe, who was a spy. I don’t know what is going on anymore. I thought that Wolfe was my friend, but now…” I trailed off.       “I don’t know how to answer your questions, ...

Chapter 19 “What happened?” I asked, shocked at the destruction before me. The inside of the cave was charred, a thick layer of soot on everything. In the center was a fire pit that looked like it hadn’t been used in a long time. I inspected the walls and walked around. There was some kind of inscription on one portion. I used my thumb to rub away a small portion of soot. Underneath the soot I found the word ‘escaped’ etched into the stone wall. “Guys check this out.” I said. I continued to rub away at the soot with my forearm. Engraved into the stone, I found this message. A Resistance Spy, by the name of Cormorant, has escaped our dungeons, We are trying to recapture her before the location of the base is known to the enemy. ~Commander Nightingale.       I stumbled back, grabbing at Wolfe. I turned to look at her, and pushed myself away.       “You! You were the sp...

Chapter 18 “We should go, it’s getting late.” Wolfe said. It was the following morning and Solaris had stayed the night in the cave. Wolfe and I were just finishing up getting ready and it was already almost noon. The cave that Coal had picked out for Solaris was about three miles away from the family’s cabin. He had explained that this was far enough that Solaris wouldn’t scare off all of the smaller animals for when they wanted to go hunting, yet close enough for if they needed her for anything. It had taken about ten minutes to fly there and another to fly back, so almost everything that we had thought that we had needed was packed by Miss Betty by the time that we got back. Dinner had been quiet as we were preparing to leave, although now, when we were actually going, we couldn’t seem to get out the door.       “Here you go, some food for the trip.” Miss Betty said in tears. She had repacked our bags and had given us another each that was easy to c...

Chapter 17       “Now, I have something outside that might scare you, based on our most recent close encounter, but I want you to stay calm.”   I told everyone the next morning. “Whatever you do, don’t scream or draw weapons.” The warning got confused looks, which I had expected. I thought that showing them Solaris first would help to explain things.       I exited the cabin, glancing around and looking for Solaris. I didn’t see her, so I motioned for the rest of the group to join me. Solaris? I asked in my thoughts.   Can you please come here? I have some friends for you to meet. Don’t do anything, just land on the edge of the meadow. While I was focused on bringing Solaris back, the others gave me strange looks as I was staring off into space, quite literally.       I will be there shortly. She said. As if on cue, as soon as everyone emerged from the cabin and the door closed and they st...

Chapter 16 “Unnh, what happened?” I moaned as I awoke. I was in a field, near a lake. I sat up, then regretted it immediately as my head pounded. I was against the side of the dragon that I had been fighting.       I scrambled to my feet, swayed as my vision swam, and took a fighting stance. I crumpled to one knee and, but still stared at the dragon, weapons poised. The dragon moved its great head, as if it was wondering what I was doing. I fired a stare of daggers at the beast’s eye.       “What am I doing here?” I asked, standing back up and swaying again. “Where is Coal? What happened to the others?” I demanded.       Relax, young Kiidarung, the humans are safe. The shape shifter has injuries, but will survive. The voice of Lucianous, as apparently, he called himself, was in my head, just like before. The shape shifter that he referred to must have been Coal. The voice made me almost pass out a...

Chapter 15 Climbing almost vertically in altitude, I saw the mighty beast. Shimmering in the morning sun, the dragon emerged from the clouds. It was a bright gold and silver. It was as big as two of the Lightlance’s cabins. A much smaller figure was falling from the giant. Coal! I’m coming! I screamed in my head. Racing towards the falling figure, I aimed below him to be able to catch him. I reached out, and I missed. My hands brushed his, as he fell past. Scrambling, he caught my foot. He grabbed at my bare ankles for a couple seconds then let go again. He fell for a short bit and I heard someone scream from below.       “Coal!” Miss Betty screamed. Obviously, she had come outside to watch us fight the beast. But there was nothing to worry about, because Coal grew his wings quickly. We could now fight the mighty beast that threatened this family. I looked for Coal, but, he had gone down to his mother. I flew down beside him to help explain.  ...