_ Ch. 2 _
Onua was just finishing cooking the meal for Flynn and herself when Flynn came running from the direction of the spring, where he had been washing. He was clearly distraught, and could only gasp in exhaustion when he got to Onua.
Onua, alarmed, stared at him.
"Goddess, Flynn, what's wrong with you?"
Flynn gasped a few more times, glanced back at the forest, then opened his mouth to tell his tale.
"Ma'am, I know that I've led you wrong several times this past week, but you must believe me now! There I was, washing up in the spring like you told me to, then all of the sudden, a whole lot of huge shapes made a shadow over me, so I looked up, and there were stormwings flying above me! There must've been thirty of them!"
Onua gave an exasperated sigh.
"Flynn, if I have to tell you again to stop imagining things..."
At this moment, a black hawk burst from the trees, swaying madly as it tried to regain its balance.
Onua paled.
"Oh no. No, no, no, no, NO!"
Flynn glanced at Onua, his eyes wide.
"Mistress Onua! What's the mat-?"
His words were cut off by a metallic screech as twenty large, bird-like creatures shot out of the forest canopy. They seemed to be hunting the hawk, streaking after it with great speed. Suddenly the bird dropped. The stormwings flew around in circles several times, trying to find their quarry, but with no luck. Wearing disgusted looks, they flew off.
Onua was shaking.
"Flynn, we've got to find that bird. Let's go to the forest and split up to look for it."
Flynn stared at Onua like she was crazy.
"No ma'am. Sorry, but I ain't going into no place with wolves."
Now it was Onua's turn to look at Flynn crazily.
"There are no wolves here, boy. Now get your dagger and let's go find that bird!"
As if in answer to her statement, an eerie howl arose from the trees. It wasn't like any howl either of them had ever heard before. It sounded almost, almost human.
Onua looked at Flynn and visibly braced herself.
"C'mon. Let's get this over with. We can't waste any more time."
And with that, the two of them trudged into the forest to split up and find the bird.
On Daine wandered, smelling around for the bird and the other things, whatever they were. What Daine didn't pick up on was that there were other monsters searching for the bird too. Human monsters, like the ones that killed her family.
Something tugged at her shreds of clothing. With a snarl, Daine turned around, only to find that a branch had snagged her shred of a shirt and had torn a piece off. She sighed and moved on.
She wandered on for a bit more, and then suddenly a scent came at her. It wasn't like anything she had smelled before. It smelled like a bird, and yet... not. She followed her nose, lacking as it was, and came across a fallen tree. She knew that the bird was around here somewhere, but where? She sniffed around, and yes! There it was, inside of the fallen tree! She eased her way over to the bird, planning to present it to Brokefang as a meal, when suddenly-
"Oh! Um, hi?"
Flynn had stumbled upon Daine. The girl couldn't believe her eyes. It was Flynn, the son of her village's hunter.
The hunter who had almost shot her.
