Authors Note: HAHA! I did not get sick again so I was able to get this chapter up a lot faster than before. Again I just want to thank all who have read and/or reviewed the first two chapters of "Nightmares of a Songbird" you guys are incredible and I love you so much!! So let chapter three begin!!!!
"I can hear them, they've come for me at last, and I can come up from this hell that I've been trapped in. Let them remain safe; let their will's stay strong against any alluring siren call that may arise. Let me be saved at last."
Finn looked astonished "That girl is your sister? But you look nothing alike." He was looking at Croft; the astonishment in his voice was as noticeable in his expression.
Piper, who had been sitting directly across from Finn, attempted to aim a sharp kick in his direction but ended up only clipping Finn, Stork got the bulk of it. He jumped in his seat from the sudden blow, stood up and said something about some kind of leach biting his leg, and went to wait for the rest of the group outside diner, hoping that the "leaches" wouldn't follow him outside.
Croft didn't seem to mind Finn's lack of subtly on the issue however "Well we're not blood relatives so to speak, but my parents took her in when she was just an infant. She was raised as my sister but was not born as such."
Aerrow looked over at the spot that Silence had so abruptly vacated just moments before. The waiter who had brought the group their food was on hands and knees sweeping up the glass fragments on the floor. Aerrow then looked back at Croft "Is she alright? I mean should you go and check to make sure she isn't hurt, she ran out kind of fast."
Croft only smiled and softly shook his head from side to side "Silence is a very dear girl, but she's always been rather delicate, she becomes ill sometimes and it always leaves her rather frazzled for a week or so until she regains full health. She's just very frail and easily broken, which is why she's never traveled away from this Terra after she was brought here."
"She's never left Terra Marks? But she has to be at least seventeen years old, that's a very long time to stay on one Terra." Aerrow said, there was a look of bewilderment on his face. For he, knew just how unbearable staying stationary for so long could be, and not only that but, Terra Marks wasn't exactly the size of Terra Atmosia, like Croft had said, it was barley passable as a refueling station.
"Yes I know, she in fact just turned eighteen last month, and all but two of those years she has spent on this Terra. I wish with all my heart that for at least one day, I could show her that there are other places in the Atmos besides Terra Marks." Croft lowered his head slightly and closed his eyes as if imagining all the places in the Atmos he could show his sister.
The moment of silence was interrupted when they heard the door of the diner fling open and a sopping Stork walked in, a look of utter annoyance on his face as he returned to his seat by Finn.
"So I take it you got rained on a little, huh Stork?" Aerrow said trying and failing to keep the amusement out of his voice.
"Yeah, just a little." Stork replied, his voice livid.
The sound of the rain pounding upon the roof was now very audible to anyone still inside of the diner. The rain was continuous, leaving no breach of sound unfilled by the beat of the rain.
Croft swiftly rose to his feet "We need to get you all to the inn, this storm is hitting pretty hard and we'll all get trapped in here for the night if we don't leave soon. I'll make arrangements for your ship to be inspected in the morning, until then there isn't much we can do." Croft then hurried them all towards the door.
Stork then decided that the inn was most likely not protected against mindworms so he sprinted off in the direction of the Condor saying he would meet them for breakfast in the morning.
Croft had borrowed two umbrellas from the diner and gave them to the Strom Hawks. Finn and Junko shared one, as did Aerrow and Piper but all four were huddled closely together. Because of the suddenness of their landing on Terra Marks, the team had not had a chance to bring any spare cloths off of the Condor, leaving them shivering in their uniforms. Croft of course was dressed for the weather and simply pulled up the hood of is coat, shielding his head from the rain, and seemed content.
After a few moments scurrying along in the rain, the Storm Hawks were guided into the main lobby of Croft's inn. The design was nothing to be greatly admired a few assorted couches and chairs here and there, a small fireplace could be seen burning comfortably on the far side of the room, and of course there was a check in desk with slots behind that presumably held the keys to all the rooms.
Croft walked briskly towards the desk, quickly wrote something in a log book that was sitting ajar on top, and then reached to a room key. "We have a room set up on the top floor that we only rent out to sky knight squadrons, the elevator is just down that hall there." He said pointing to his right, then handed Aerrow the key. He thanked him before he began leading the team towards the area he had specified.
As the group walked silently through the lobby Finn looked around the room, he spotted a door just to the left of Croft's desk; he assumed this was the entrance to his room or office. Finn wasn't entirely sure if Croft lived here or in one of the small home's they had seen earlier. There were also a large set of double doors that were tightly locked, but at the moment, Finn didn't really care what was behind them. He had hardly gotten any sleep the previous night before and his grogginess was starting to catch up with him.
When the team stepped aboard the elevator a loud beeping sound momentarily cut through the sleepiness of the group.
"Sorry, sorry!" Junko said embarrassedly as he stepped out of the elevator, the beeping quickly subsided. "I'll wait for the next one." Junko said giving a wave to his teammates before the doors closed shielding them from view.
The three remaining Storm Hawks and Radarr were all leaning against each other for support as they rode up the elevator, the alarm that Junko had set off had injected an unneeded amount of adrenalin and now they had begun crashing worse than they had a few moments ago. When the doors opened the teenagers cautiously stepped out, trying with all their might not to bump into anything. They waited patiently for Junko to arrive before Aerrow, after a few shaky attempts, inserted the key into the lock and opened the door.
The room was very spacious; three doors led to three separate bedrooms each of which had two separate beds in them, along with a private bathroom and a dresser. There was also a small kitchen and living room in the suit as well. Finn and Junko shared a room and so did Aerrow and Radarr, Radarr being thrilled at having his own bed and there would be one extra since Stork had decided to sleep aboard the Condor. Aerrow had given Piper the liberty of having her own room; she was as pleased as Radarr at being able to have her own bathroom for the first time in about four years.
Without more than a few words said, the team retreated to their rooms and drifted into a well deserved sleep.
After hours of sleep, Finn awoke to a large booming sound coming from outside. It was pitch black out so he figured he must have slept for at least ten or so hours. He saw the distinct flash of lighting and heard another loud boom of thunder that followed no more than a few seconds later.
He let out a sigh and then pulled off the blanket that had been covering him before making his way to the door. He didn't bother trying to be quiet for Junko's loud snores told him that it would be a waste of time.
Finn walked out into the living room area and sat down on the window sill looking out over the Terra, watching the rain pound against the window. Even though they'd gotten a warm welcome something about this place just made him uneasy, he got the same feeling around Croft; it was like he had been holding something back, and that girl. Finn wanted so much to be able to get to know her, when he saw her something inside of him just clicked, but the problem was Finn didn't know exactly what clicked.
Not only that but he felt sorry for her as well, being trapped on the same Terra for sixteen years, sounded like hell to Finn. He'd been alone for only two years before he had met Aerrow and then Piper and Junko not long after, then together they'd set off on the adventure of a lifetime.
As Finn's mind began to settle he caught sight of a small figure outside of the inn, slowly walking through mud that now carpeted the Terra. Finn pressed his nose against the glass trying to get a better look at who was out in this dangerous weather, he squinted his eyes and thought he caught sight of a few wisps of long blond hair that were dark at the tips. But before he could be sure a large lightning bolt struck the ground relatively close to the inn and caused Finn to jolt back and fall, rather ungracefully, off of the window sill and onto the cold carpeting of the hotel room.
"Oww damn it." Finn said sitting up, his back against the wall, as he rubbed his now throbbing head. He could already feel the beginnings of a rather large bump in the spot where his head had connected with the floor.
Finn remembered that he thought he might have seen Silence out in that storm and immediately jumped back to his feet and once again crawled onto the window sill. But even if she had been out there she had disappeared from view, all Finn could see now was a small scorched area on the grass below and a few small flames that where swiftly extinguished by the rain. That last strike had only been a couple hundred yards from the inn. "I guess this place really does get some bad storms." Finn thought out loud to himself.
Finn heard a small yawn come from behind him and turned to see Aerrow emerging from his room, no doubt awoken because of the thunder like Finn had been. "You okay Finn? You're usually able to sleep through anything, something bothering you?" He asked.
Finn moved aside slightly giving Aerrow room to sit down "I don't really know, just this Terra doesn't feel right. I don't think we should be sticking around any longer than we have to." Finn quickly thought back to Silence, the Storm Hawks could leave as soon as the Condor was fully functional again but she was stuck, he had a feeling that if she was just able to get off this Terra then maybe her condition would stabilize and she wouldn't get sick as often, he wanted so badly just to help her.
"I know what you mean; just being here puts me on edge, like the first time we got stuck in the Black Gorge (Since the first time there had been two other occasions where the Storm Hawks had had the displeasure of finding themselves stuck in the gorge.) Stork had told us all about the creatures that lived down there so we all kind of lost it for a bit. Aerrow smiled at Finn, reminding him of the case of "Gorge Madness" that he had picked up during their first visit.
Finn smiled back and even laughed a bit at the memory. His expression slowly returned to one of concern however "You know that girl we saw? Croft's little sister Silence? What do you think about her?" Finn asked.
"I'm not really sure; the way she just kind of freaked out at the diner was kind of odd, it was like she went into a trace or something." Aerrow said "I just want to get off this Terra; I don't want to take any risks that we can avoid. Aerrow joined Finn as his concern began to steadily rise.
Finn knew that Aerrow was worried for the team's safety, they were all a family and each of their pasts was scarred from loosing loved ones, and none of them ever wanted to see that happen prematurely ever again. Finn also knew that Aerrow very often was worried for Piper's safety above all else, they had a special bond that Finn knew neither wanted broken. Finn had seen when Aerrow had put himself between her and Croft before they had known who he was, and would have sent some snappy remark their way if he hadn't been worried also. All that the team had been through a great deal together let them understand each other on different levels, and the way that Aerrow and Piper had come to see each other was unique.
Finn often found himself jealous of what the two had, neither one were ready to completely put it out there yet but in time, Finn was sure they would. That was the kind of bond that he wanted to have also, chasing after girls just for the hell of it was a habit he had picked up years ago.
His parents had had that bond as well; being together was all they ever needed. They had met by chance, much like Aerrow and Piper; they had both become a part of a sky knight squadron and fell in love. Finn always wanted to experience it for himself as well, and since his parents had met by chance, he thought putting himself in the path of a lot of girls would give him a better chance at finding someone. And after Finn had seen the way that Aerrow had begun doing anything to protect Piper, he only continued in his pursuits at greater lengths. After about another year he gave up and only continued chasing girls as an act of boredom.
The two continued to stare out the widow "I think she needs help, like help with getting off this Terra, maybe she'd get better if she got out you know?" Finn said looking at Aerrow once again.
"Maybe it would, but it's not up to us to decide though, Silence is Croft's little sister not ours." Aerrow said returning his gaze.
"But if we just suggested it to Croft then maybe he'd consider it. I just don't like seeing people trapped like that you know? That was me, you and Piper sixteen years ago and it's not fair just sitting and watching while someone else suffers." Finn looked solemn now, they all went through a great deal and it was never easy for Finn to see the same happening to others while he escaped with his friends on the Condor.
"Life hasn't been fair for a long time Finn, but right now, one of the best things we can do for Silence and everyone else is to find a way to bring Cyclonis down and end this damn war." Aerrow said.
Finn only nodded slightly before letting out a yawn and standing up to retreat back to bed. "I'm tired again." Aerrow nodded understandingly and Finn began walking to the door of his room. Before he had taken no more than five steps however, he turned back to Aerrow, suddenly remembering something else he had wanted to discuss with him, a look of complete seriousness on his face "I don't trust that Croft guy by the way."
Authors Note: Well there you have it, are Finn's thoughts about Terra Marks as bad as he thinks? What's Silence's story? And will the Storm Hawks ever see the Condor flying agian? Keep reading for the answers to these questions and more (And hopefuly I wont be a loser and get sick or die or anything like that XD) LUVS YALL!