Part A: Wounds

A deep, alerting warning horn from the city blared, echoing in the small cavern where Howard and Nike ate their lunch. Not good. There were intruders in Regalia, possibly ones with malicious intent.

"Shall we?" Howard asked his new bond, an edge of worry in his voice. The striped bat nodded her head, and flared her wings in preparation for the takeoff. All food was abandoned at it's spot.

"What could it be?" Nike mused aloud. Howard didn't respond to this; he was preoccupied with worry and fear. The horn hadn't been used in several months, during the war.

The flight was excruciatingly long, Regalia seeming to be staying the same distance away. There was a series loud cracks, louder than anything Howard had ever heard before, even though he was a several minute flight from the source of the noise. Regalia. Nike flicked her ears in irritation, and twitched her nose.

"It smells of smoke," she said, puzzled, "but different than any smoke I have ever smelled."

Howard could smell nothing, but was only twice as worried. Nike seemed to sense his urgency, maybe even felt the same, and tried to fly even faster.

Immediately, Nike recognized the Arena as the sense of the smoky smell. The pair cautiously entered, somewhat surprised and shocked at what they found.

One Overland male stood off at one end, holding an oddly shaped tube-like metal device. Four Underlanders and two fliers lay in a bloody heap on the ground. The Overlander looked menacingly over at Howard, stroking his black gotee. He pointed the thing at the confused Underlander, who had instinctively drawn his sword.

"Put it down," the Overlander's gruff voice warned, gesturing to the sword with the contraption. "I don't want to have to hurt you.

While Howard was considering whether or not he should comply, a bat and its bond came hurtling down at the Overlander from the ceiling of the Arena. The Overlander reflexively pulled up and aimed the metal device at the flier, producing a deafening crack similar to the ones heard earlier, with an accompanying burst of blinding light. The bat crumpled to the ground, blood spewing from its unmoving chest. The human got off shakily, staring at their bond in stunned silence, while the Overlander turned back to Howard.

"Put the sword down," he grunted forcefully to Howard, "or the same happens to you."

Eyes wide, Howard slowly lowered his weapon in the direction of the ground. As the Overlander turned to the downed Underlander, who had flung their arms around the golden neck of their dead bond, Howard struck. He brought his sword up in an arc, slicing the Overlander's wrists. At the same time, the Overlander started turning toward Howard, and made the device go off with three loud cracks and more bright flashes of light. Howard felt a sharp stinging in his right shoulder, but ignored it as he went in to strike again.

He succesfully drove his sword through the Overlander's throat, who collapsed backward in a heap. Howard glanced downward at his right arm. His shirt sleeve had been dyed scarlet with his blood, which was spewing from a new wound in his shoulder. As he collapsed backward, getting close to losing the loose grip he had on consciousness, he saw a few bats flying in, lifting himself and the two others who had been wounded in the last explosion; both of whom were related to him.

Nike had a large hole in her left wing, near her body, and was being flown out by another flier, though seemed to be conscious. And the other, though Howard had not noticed her presence until that moment in time, was his cousin, the queen, with a vacant, pained look in her open eyes, which stared off into the distance. Blood blossomed like a crimson flower across the white shirt she wore, staining her whole torso red from a central location on her stomach, her breathing appeared short and labored.