Chapter 1: The Horrible Capture

(3rd Person P.O.V.)

Two brown bolts of feathers shot away from the Parliament hallow, and flew towards the cry for Tyler's head. While the two grew closer and closer, you could easily identify the two owls by their fighting apparel and that is what reflected their personalities. One was brown with a white underside, who had battle claws on his talons, with two swords under each wing, with his entire topside of his wings holding modified weapons; known as guns. This owl had adorned armor that covered his head and chest, and this owl was known as Wolf. The other owl was brown with black spots on his wings, with a white line moving down the center of his body. He had a modified combat knife that was meant to be used the same way as a sword, with a single piece of protection covering his chest, and this owl was known as Tyler.

As they circled around the tree trunk that had been in the way, the two friends came face to face with twenty or so heavily armed owls, with glowing red eyes. Unfazed by the superior force of owls, the two flew towards the center, with Tyler to the lower right, with Wolf in the lead, above Tyler to the right.

Tyler flew off at an astonishing fast speed, and brought his knife across the chest plate of one of the owls, releasing a flurry of yellow-white sparks. At the same time, Wolf was barreling through the many owls in his way, quickly pulling strings attached to his talons, and multiple gunshots went off, instantly wounding, and killing a few of the dark owls. A single owl with an even darker mask, with red feathers on his back and a lacking of the viscous red eyes, made him seem all the more fearful.

Tyler shouted to his partner, Wolf, "THEIR ARMOR IS HARDER TO BREAK! AIM FOR THEIR EXPOSED BODY WITH YOUR WEAPONS!

While spinning and letting out the rest of his ammunition and mortally wounding five owls in the process, and shouted back, "ROGER THAT!"

With a grunt, Wolf angled his wings and tail feathers and spot back into the thick of battle, and caught a glimpse of a dozen fully armed guardians flying to aid them in the fighting. Wolf turned his attention back to the fray and as he flew by an owl who's back was to him, he brought his battle claws to bear and yelled, "YAARRRR!" and sliced them down the length of both its wings, pulling out a few feathers in the process. The owl screeched and faced its assailant, and sliced at Wolf's chest with some battle claws, but had no effect due to his chest armor.

Tyler was faring worse, since he hadn't armed up quite as much, and had less than moderate armor to protect him. He had downed more than six owls, and wounded a few more, but they didn't die, or go down without inflicting their own inflictions back. Tyler brought his Knife down on the closest owl, and dismembered its wing, causing it to fall out of the air like a brick. Before the owl had descended to its death, it defiantly threw its weapon, a short sword, at Tyler, and cut off a few primaries in its deadly ark.

Just as the heavily armed and armored Guardians could assist their best owls, a loud, ear splitting scream cut the air; and a powerful and commanding voice shouted, "STAND DOWN, TYLER! OR THIS GAURDAIN SHALL DIE!"

All of the owls turned to face the voice, and all fighting ceased, if momentarily. The owl that had slipped by earlier was hovering in midair, and holding an owl that had brown feathers, with white feathers under the wings, and this caused both Tyler and Wolf to gasp. The latter murmured, "Spot…"

Tyler sighed, and threw his knife down, where it landed perfectly in the ground with its handle sticking up, and Wolf did the same with his battle claws, and flicked his talons; they landed next to Tyler's weapon, and then Tyler removed his chest plate, and dropped it, and when it hit, it bounced over to the area his knife was. As the malicious owl flew down, still holding Spot, he stated, "Good…" he snapped his head to the six remaining owls and said, "Pure ones secure him. We will be taking this one," he looked down at Spot, "as coverage for our victory."

Wolf flew towards the owl, but two of the wounded, but still battle ready owls stopped him, and the Pure One leader said, "tsk tsk tsk… we wouldn't want anything to happen," and he squeezed his talons into Spots wings, causing her to cry out, "to this young owl, now would we?"

When Wolf looked down into Spot's eyes, he could see the tears brimming in her eyes, and he shrugged his shoulders. A few moments later, the spent gun armaments on his wings slid off and fell down, and he pulled off his helmet and dropped it as well, not caring to what happened to it, and said with a trembling voice, that contained both hatred and fear, "Take me instead."

The Pure one leader said, "And why should I accept this… request?"

"She's my mate," he glanced down towards her eyes, and saw her eyes take a look of shock, and she started crying, "and I would be of more use than her…"

The Pure one leader chuckled, said in a menacing voice, "Very well…" and he released his grip on Spot, who fell towards the ground, and at last moment opened her wings, and glided roughly to the ground. She looked up and saw the leader swoop and grab Wolf by his wings.

After a brief few words, The Pure One vanguard flew over towards the sea of Hoolemore, and back towards St. Aegoluis, with three of the leader's troops securing each prisoner. Spot watched them fly away until they were mere specks in the distance, and looked back down, and saw she was beak to beak with Wolf's mask. She grabbed it in her wings, and pulled it to her chest, and started sobbing loudly. The one she loved had just been taken, and had done so willingly, that he lied about them being mates. What made her cry even harder was he loved her enough to call her his mate…

(Tyler's P.O.V.)

We had been being dragged along by the Pure ones for hours. As I looked over at Wolf, I could see him looking at me, and I saw him pull his wing back ever so slightly, and I saw a silver veil of a sword… the same sword he always took in a pair that was strapped under each wing. He tilted his beak down, and when I looked down, I saw him point a single talon at his wing, and then at me. Ok, great going Wolf. You got a plan already…"

I nodded, and I saw him reach up with both his talons, and grasp each hilt with his claws. When he pulled his wings to his body, the two owls on the edge of his wings lost their grip due to his sudden movement, and the 4 holding his inner wings loosened their grips. As Wolf spun right, he brought his sword up to the ones on his left side first, and cut one directly under the gizzard, and the other had a few of his primaries cut off. The Pure ones holding me loosened their grips as they watched the scene unfold, and their leader spun around and barked at the top of his voice, "GRAB HIM, DON'T LET HIM ESCAPE!"

I used this moment to pull my wings to, and I came completely free, but the Pure one troop closest to my wing was wearing his battle claws still, so it cut my wing and caused some of my feathers to be yanked out. As soon as I felt I was safe, I flapped my wings, trying to ignore the throb in my shoulder, and flew towards Wolf, and he flew toward me also. When we had reached a few feet of each other, he flipped his wing, so his talons were up, and I reached my claw out as he let go of a short sword, and I grabbed it. We both arched in an 'S' and me in the middle in our circles. I yelled out, "SIERRIA TANGO ROMEO INDAINA KILO ECHO!" (For those that don't know the phonetic alphabet of the military, -STRIKE!-

Wolf nodded, and we both swooped in and took the wings off a Pure troop each, leaving four, five including the leader, alive. What I failed to see however was the leader to fly out and sink its claws into my wing, and I yelled out in agony, "ROMEO ECHO CHARLIE OSCAR VICTOR ECHO ROMEO!" (-RECOVER!-)

I swooped up the best as I could as he let go of my wing, and I arched to Wolf, looked at me and saw my bleeding wing, and zoomed towards me. I made a move like I was throwing my sword down, and so did Wolf, except he did throw his, I flapped my wings and angled my tail, and so did wolf, and we flew belly to belly, and I quickly sheathed his sword as I heard a plop as his sword his the water. I brought my wings in close to my body, and Wolf flew over me and grabbed each side of my body with his claws carefully and gasped out, "I'm… sorry t-that… we could-dn't w-win…. Tyler! W-W-We have… finally… lost." I felt him fluff all his feathers up, and I knew he was concealing his now, single gift from Spot, beneath his feathers.

When Wolf turned us around, we saw the angered face of The leader, with his last four troops hovering behind him, "Seeing as you are finally incapable of fighting, we can resume our journey…" his voice dripped with rage, but he remained calm, and sounded even more ominous as he said, "I will have some things planned out for you when we return to St. Aegoluis."

I felt my feathers tighten around my body, as we followed the last of the strike force back to wherever we were going.

(Nyra's P.O.V.)

I remember when I didn't need to preen my feathers… well I still don't, but it is the best thing to do to pass time… I silently mused as I was preening my feathers so that their regular sheen of beauty was transformed into a glossy white glow. I was expecting to hear the hymn of Kludd and his returning troops any moment know, but all I heard were a few unfamiliar Screeches in the air, and my sensitive ears picked up the sound of six wings beating towards the opening to the throne room. I gasped when I saw Kludd fly in, with two severely wounded owls flying behind him, and 4 of the honor guards fly in behind them. I looked behind them, trying to see the rest of the honor troops, but saw none, so I looked towards Kludd and saw the fire in his eyes as he looked at the two wounded owls. He ordered, "Secure those two to the ground, one on each wing. Stand on them if you have TOO!"

I cleared my throat, and when he looked at me with those fiery eyes, I wilted back a few inches, and I instantly saw his gaze turn to one of remorse. I tilted my head to one side and asked, "Where are the rest of the troops? I thought you took a few dozen."

He store into my eyes, and I saw the fire return ever so slightly, "We ran into unexpected trouble… the rest are dead."

My eyes widened in shock, and I asked, "How many guardians attacked you? And how did they do it."

As I heard Kludd open his beak, one of the other two owls said, "We killed them, just the two of us, against how many did you say… a few dozen? More like a few dozen rooste- AHHHH!" Before he finished, both the honor troops squeezed his wings with their talons.

After their outburst, I felt myself grow hot in the face, and I stood up and was about to inflict pain on them for such a humiliation, but the pain flared up in my wing again, and I groaned, and I asked, "What will be their punishment?"

"That is for you to decide dear." Kludd said as he walked towards me, and stopped when he was a few feet from me. We both looked at the two owls again, and I saw the one with brown feathers all over his back, his eyes flashed gold for a few moments, and I could see his form start to tremble, and his body seemed to fold and move about like a reflection in moving water.

"Not yet Wolf! Don't do it!" Tyler hissed at his companion. I barely saw it, but for a brief second, he looked like the pictures that depicted how an Other would appear. When I looked over at Kludd, he seemed to have not seen what had happened.

"You, Tyler, what did he just attempt?" Kludd asked, venom dripping from his beak, metaphorically speaking.

"…" He spoke not a word as he glared at us. When I shifted gaze to the strange one, I caught his gaze as his eyes were narrow, with his irises a deep gold; giving me the feeling of a stalked animal.

(Outillisa's P.O.V.)

Spot and I had been sitting by the spot that held our loved ones gear, and after Spot had told me the story of the capture, I had broken down just as Spot had. Both the king and queen had come to counsel and calm us each down until we had subsided to small sobbing fits, but it did nothing to quench the aching in our hearts. Our friends, Soren, Gylfie, Digger, Twilight, Romone, Sarillia, and a few other of Spot's friends had come by to keep us company, but the rising sun threatened to end our silent mourning. We had a few moments before first light, and then we would be at risk of being mobbed by crows.

"I still remember Wolf saying how we were mates… if only I h-had been more c-c-careful… he w-w-would still b-be here…" Spot then let out a mournful moan of grief and I pulled her into a hug and said after I had stifled my own sobs, "we should be getting back to our hallows… we will get t-them back… one night."

When I pulled away, I grabbed Tyler's chest plate, and his knife like sword, and started to fly back to the hallow that Tyler and I had spent so many days in. I wouldn't have anyone to keep me warm today, and I wouldn't have anybody to lull me to sleep with their voice or warmth. When I thought of how brave and sure he was of everything, a few drops of tears fell down my face; but a spark of hope ignited when I remembered how well Tyler and Wolf fought when with each other…

During the arrival at my hallow, I set both Tyler's armor and knife down near the entrance, and trudged over to the nest that was now twice to big. When I looked down into it, I say the smooth green rock that Tyler had brought back from one of his missions; he called it a jade. He had showed me how you could make a rainbow when he held it up to the moon, and when he had said, 'when you hold this stone, I will always be with you, in here,' and when he touched were my heart was, a few green sparks danced across my feathers, tickling me.

I hopped into the nest, and picked up the jade jewel, and tucked it under my wing as I slowly fell asleep, and strangely, the stone had comforted me with that memory enough to coax me towards slumber. Please be safe Tyler… return safely… and then I felt myself drifting off to either nightmares, or relaxing dreams…

A.N.: tell me what you all think. And sorry about those Wolf and Spot being rushed romantically… that's another thing that happened in the 'several months' part, also, I kind of don't have a beta reader, so I'm doing this myself… got tired. And yes… I know how to find a beta reader, my old one kinda switched archives and deleted her LOTG stories, so I don't want to bug her when she's writing either.

-I'm also saving most my motivation to write a long as HELL essay to try and win a scholarship contest…s…