Chapter 20

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, but maybe Wolfe can, I’m sure that she is pacing the cave back there and hoping that you come back with me. She’s your friend, and you have to go back there and listen to her.” He said.

      “But the message,”

      “Might mean nothing,” Coal interrupted, “It could be a prank, I don’t know, but if you hadn’t found it then you would still be friends, right? No message that you may or may not have written can change how you are right now. Wolfe needs to talk to you.” He held out his hand to help me up. I grabbed it and pulled myself up.

      “Thanks for the pep-talk. I really have no idea what is going on.” I said shaking my head, as if that simple action would make all of this make sense.

      “Don’t worry about it. Let’s go.” Coal said. He then turned and jumped to take off, buffeting me with the wind coming off of his wings. Smiling, I followed him, them remembered what I was going to do, and dropped the smile, planning my next step.

      “Elsa, come look at this,” Wolfe said once I landed. “I’ve been staring at this awhile, and I have to say that it looks really old. I don’t think that you could have written it.

      “That’s good, because,” I sighed, “I’ve come to apologize. I shouldn’t have reacted like that, sorry.”

      “That’s really okay, with all that has happened, with losing your memory and all, that’s to be accepted.” She started to turn back to look at the engraving some more, but hesitated. “Wait one minute, Coal made you say that didn’t he.” She stared pointedly at Coal, then smiled.

      “Yeah, he did.” I laughed, glad that the mood was light again. I gave her a hug.

      “Seriously, come look at this. It looks too old to be written by you.” She said and I released her to go look at it. I walked over and lifted my hand to touch the word ‘Resistance’. It glowed and I gasped. Other words started to glow and appear around it into a new message.

Wolfe has gone by herself on a dangerous mission against orders.

I, Commander Elsa Nightingale of the Second Flock, have been given a mission.

To find Wolfe and bring her safely home.

My associate, Jacob Sparrow, and I are dear friends with her and find her before she gets into trouble.

Commander Nightingale

Of the Second Flock

      “Well at least we know that the other one was a fake.” Wolfe said after reading the message.

      “Yes, but does that mean that the first one was a decoy, or an afterthought, written later.” I replied. I was more than a little shocked at what we had found once again.

      “I for one, think that this is crazy.” Coal said from the entrance of the cave. “First you find one message that says that Wolfe is evil, now you touch one word in the message, and it says that Wolfe is perfectly fine and you are best friends. That makes no sense! Plus, they were both written by the girl with no memory and she’s a commander in some army. Tell me how you don’t have questions about that. Then there’s this guy that Elsa kind-of remembers, he happens to be missing and he’s mentioned here. What do we do about it?” Coal exclaimed, and moved farther inside the cave.

      “We don’t have a clue about any of those things, and I do have questions, but the most important thing to do right now is finding the truth.” I said. I moved over and placed my hands on Coal’s shoulders. “First things first. When you first saw me, did you recognize me Wolfe?” I asked. Wolfe sighed.

      “I…yes I did. I remember everything. All the time with you that I had before you came out of the woods I remember. I just didn’t want to bombard you with information. I didn’t know if you could handle it. If you remember, you were very confused already, and more information would probably only make it worse. I truly am sorry that I didn’t tell you sooner.” Wolfe admitted.

      “Please,” I begged, “Tell me everything. All about the time I had with you before. Start with the most important parts.”

      “Okaaaay,” Wolfe said, and sighed. “You might want to sit down first.” She advised, she took a breath, and joined me on the floor. Coal sat against a wall a little way away to still listen, but to give us some privacy. “You and I are part of the Wing Corps. You were raised there once your family died protecting you. I met you when we were both teenagers. I had been part of the Resistance, but came to the Corps once I realized their true purpose. I have worked with you to gain the trust of the Wing Corps ever since. My final test was to get the plans of the Resistance so that I could be a real Falcon, a member of the Corps’ army. While I was on this mission, you popped out of the woods without a memory, so now I have to go back and explain the entire thing. What I don’t know is who this Jacob Sparrow is, but I’m guessing that you were partners trying to find me. I didn’t tell you about my final mission so you could have thought I…I…” she trailed off.

      “You ran away. I remember a little now. I think that Jacob and I stopped to look through the villages for you.” I said.

      “Wait, Hold up.” Coal said. “Let me think out loud here.” He moved closer from his position against the wall. “I did here a rumor about some giant bird. I thought that it was you Wolfe, but now I think that it was this ‘Sparrow’ dude. That same day that I first heard the rumor, I saw a homeless guy down by the river. He looked pretty rough to me. I had been fishing, and gave him my only catch of the day. He smiled at me and asked if I had seen the ‘Gale’. I thought that he was either nuts or talking about some storm. Now, however, I think that it could be you Elsa.” Coal said.

      “Elsa…are you okay?” I heard Wolfe say as the room about me spun and I blacked out.

      “Elsa…Elsa wake up!” Coal seemed to shout, although the words seemed to be coming from really far away.

      “Uuuunnnnhhhh,” I groaned, and sat up gently, holding my head. “What happened?” I asked.

      “When I mentioned how I might have met Jacob Sparrow, you passed out.” Coal explained.

      “Well, I just remembered something that might help us.” I said. “Jacob and I might have been captured. I don’t know if it really happened or not, because it seems like it was a dream, but it could have been real.”

      “Well, I have something to add to my story.” Coal said. “After he asked me if I had seen you, he told me that when I did see you, to tell you a message. ‘The bird doesn’t fly back to a broken nest.’ He said that you would understand. I asked who this ‘Gale’ was, and he said that I’d know her when I saw her. He then got up and left, leaving the fish that I gave him on the bench. He disappeared through the buildings, and I haven’t seen or heard from him since.” Coal said. I sat back, stunned.

      “I remember that code.” I said. “It was a safety code telling anyone that wasn’t at base at the time that the location had been compromised.” The others looked at me, then sat back and thought. “Are you sure that those were his exact words?” I asked Coal. “Even one word difference can change the entire meaning.” I said.

      “I’m sure, ever since I met him, I’ve been trying to figure out what it means. Then when I met you, the small memory of it started nagging at the back of my brain, but I couldn’t figure it out until now.” Coal said.

      “Well,” I sighed, “it looks like we have a detour in front of us. I think that that phrase means that we have to go to the River of Plachtonenn. I don’t know where it is, but I do know that it is where the new base is.” Coal’s eyes widened.

      “That place is only a fairy tale, a myth even. They say that it lies beyond the horizon to the north. But I don’t understand. There is an ocean to the north. How could a river be in an ocean? The only possibility is that it is across the ocean, and no ship has ever come back from there. They do call it the Ocean of Souls for a reason, you know.” He said.

      “It might be a good thing that I don’t know.” I said and received a puzzled look from Coal. I explained. “I don’t have any previous knowledge to scare me off of going there. Also, we don’t need a ship. We have wings.” I turned my attention to Wolfe. “Do you know of any islands to the north?” I asked.

      “I don’t know of any, we’d have to get some maps.” Wolfe looked at the ceiling of the roof to think. “We do have to remember though, if there aren’t, we won’t be able to go.” She turned those blue-green eyes on me, holding me until I promised that I would look out for them, and not just for myself and my quest.

      “I guess that we’ll be explorers then.” I said. “Except this time, we’ll come back.”