A/N: Erabex apologises for all the mistakes that I try not to make on the grounds that I just 'get on with the story already'...

Me: "hey! HEY! Stop it!" *pulls feathers out of hair, straightens imaginary tie* "ARGH! I'm writing! I'm writing!"

Chapter Two- Helpless

Bex's running feet crunched on the snow-covered ground, the bright rays of dawn just peeking above the clouds.

Screech! Girl shadow became hawk shadow and running feet became flapping wings, propelling Bex towards the edge of the forest, dark trees soon engulfing her. Screech! Scree! Desperately, she called for her twin; any hint of his presence would mean the world to her.

She knew, deep down, that he wasn't dead, that he couldn't be dead, it just wasn't possible.

And she was right. Moments later, a muffled groan caught her attention, and swerving towards the sound, Bex found her brother lying in heap, half unconscious, but still alive.

Landing awkwardly beside him, she nudged him with her head. He didn't even acknowledge her. After several unsuccessful attempts to return Era to the land of the living, Bex resorted to hopping around to his head and smacking it with her wing. That worked.

A muffled groan came from the body. Lifting his head just slightly to look at his twin, Era mumbled, "Why'd you hit'n me?"

Okay… thought Bex, we may have a problem. She nudged his face with her wing, burbling to him reassuringly. Okay, okay, calm, Bex, calm, we'll figure this out. She then proceeded to continue poking and pestering him until he sat up, wincing in pain as he did.

"Urgh," Era said after he'd pushed himself into a sitting position with his back against a tree. "Everything hurts."

Bex looked at him worriedly, hopping up onto his leg to look at him better. "Ah!" Era cried, sending her flapping away. "I think it's broken." He said through gritted teeth, and his sister looked at him like 'no duh. You lucky duck,' he knew exactly what the look conveyed.

Choosing to ignore her for the time being, he murmured, "So… how do we get out of this? For that matter where are we?"

Bex resisted the urge to roll her eyes. They were in Mirkwood, that's where. Era just had to crash-land in the middle of the whole bloody forest!

And without hands, she couldn't even do anything! She was helpless! Her frustrated screech echoed through the forest just before she realised what she'd done.

The woods around them went silent. The only sound being a scratchy clicking that was getting louder by the second.

Era stared at her in horror. He was not afraid of many things, but spiders, any sane person would be afraid of spiders. Especially in Mirkwood.

:::

Bex moved first, craning her head around to scan their surroundings, there! A hollow in the base of a tree, just big enough. She swung around again and pecked Era's hand, getting his attention. She bobbed her head at the tree.

Looking at it, Era understood right away. So, despite the pain he was in due to his injured leg, he dragged himself towards the tree, hoping his ragged breathing hadn't already given him away.

Bex hopped along behind him, using her wings to muddle the tracks and attempting to replace human scent with bird scent. Before long, Era tucked himself into the hollow in the tree, grunting in pain as he did so.

Bex looked over him and his hiding place. That wouldn't confuse a fly, was her only thought as she launched off the ground, with just a few beats of her wings, reaching the top of the hollow. Still flapping, she ignored her brothers hissed cries to stop whatever she was doing and find cover, and the incessant clicking that was getting louder by the second. Scraping her claws across the rotting bark of the tree, she managed to drop huge chunks of it down of her brother, who still didn't seem to realise that she was doing for him.

Finally, she backed up to examine her work. It probably wouldn't fool a human, or a elf, considering where they were, but she had no intentions of even letting a spider get close to it.

Without another look at her twin, Bex spun on a wing tip and flew off through the trees, trusting her brother to stay where he was, scree, screech, once she judged herself a safe distance away from her brother, she let loose a few piercing screeches. The sound had drawn the spiders to them before, she had faith that it could draw them away, if they hadn't found her brother first.

A/N: And a cliffhanger! But don't worry, I'll try to have the next chapter out by a least this saturday.

Please review! Questions, Comments, Concerns and Criticisms are welcome, please do not hesitate to tell me if you have a problem with something I wrote, or if you just like my story! Thanks!

-PageKat