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.  ...

Chapter 14       Just as we landed outside the cabin, Coal’s wings were shrinking. We parted there, me going into the cabin, while he slunk to the shadows to finish the transformation. I slid my socks across the wooden panels of the floor so that my feet wouldn’t make a sound.       Creeping past Wolfe, I slid into the bathroom for a shower. I heard the woman stir, mumbling in her sleep. I figured that I didn’t have to be quiet anymore, so I closed the door normally.       Emerging from the steamed room, I had borrowed some of the clothes that Miss Betty had altered for me. I thought it kind of her, giving me her own clothes and making them special for me. I let a grin slide across my face. I then exited the bathroom and walked into the living room, waking Wolfe as I did so.       “Well you look happy this morning,”...

Chapter 13       I slept fitfully that night. My dreams were filled with explosions and people running and screaming.   I tossed and turned, flashing from one half memory to the next. I finally found the dreams settling and I was flying through the mountains. I was scared, something that I wasn’t used to. I was being chased. The thing was, I couldn’t remember what was chasing me. Ear piercing screeches were the only thing that I could here. I kept flying for hours, trying to find cover in the mountains without trees.       In the dream, something brushed he wings and I was spinning downward inside of a metal box. I tried to scream but my mouth wouldn’t work. My wings were strapped down and the lid on the box fell off. I heard laughter, and I was sucked out of the box. I continued to fall through the trees and I spotted a village nearby. Searing pain tore through my wing and I hit the ground as I blacked out in the dream. I...

Chapter 12 We landed behind the cabin. I dropped to the ground from about ten feet. Coal followed, and soon the wings folded into his back once more. Even his hair returned to the light sunshine color that he originally had.   He grunted and winced as it happened and mumbled something about not knowing that it would hurt so much. I chuckled to myself as we snuck back around to the side and back into the cabin.       “Coal! I was so worried about you.” Came Miss Betty’s voice. I had shut my eyes as we entered and heard her squeal. I opened my eyes and saw them at the low table playing with cards. Wolfe now had a splint with two straight boards bracing her leg. She smiled at Coal, then turned and shot a questioning glance at me. She got up and walked over to Coal, giving him a hug, then turned it on me.       “Can’t… breathe…” Coal squeaked, even though she wasn’t hugging that hard.       “Sorr...

“Elsa, how nice of you to join us.” Came Miss Betty’s voice. I had just shut the door behind me and entered the room.       “Hey Miss Betty, can I get some dinner to go? I like eating outside.” I tried not to sound suspicious about the food. I had promised Coal that I would bring him some for him.       “Sure, it’s not windy outside, I think that you could eat outside, why don’t we bring some lanterns and all go out?” she suggested.       “No, that’s okay, Wolfe probably shouldn’t do a lot of walking around.” I fixed Wolfe with a look, and she nodded. I hope that she knew that I was talking about Coal.       “Oh alright, I’ll pack some food in a basket for you. Do you know where Coal went off to? I should probably pack him some dinner as well.” And she walked back into the kitchen to go pack the food. I sighed, thanking God that I wasn’t found out. I wasn’t really lying, I...