Author's Note: Oh my god. I'm alive and this story is actually being updated. I won't get in to the details about where I've been. I'll leave that at the very bottom of this chapter if anybody cares. All you gotta know is that this story isn't over.
By far, this is my new favorite chapter. I say that essentially with each chapter I release, but I think that's because I've become a better writing with each chapter I put out.
With how long I've been gone, I hope people are still interested in this story. My biggest fear right now, as I post this, is that the readers have left this story behind.
Only 3 chapters left after this.
:Author Response To Reviews:
Cbassattack: Yes, that last chapter erm...7 months ago, took so many rewrites that I nearly threw the story out haha. I'm glad that I didn't thought. I will keep your area suggestions in mind (considering you were the only one to suggest them LOL). Thank you so much for your review, Cbass.
Guest #1: I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter. While it was a filler of sorts, it was a chapter long planned out to serve as a reminder that this story takes place in the past and is being told to the crowd of listeners. I'm actually really upset when you said 'I don't stop checking for updates,' because of how long it took me to get this out. I hope you're still around to read this chapter, lol.
DaFlameDF: Now this review is an example of why I won't give up on this story. While I care that people are reading this odd story I've come up with, it's so much better knowing people are really enjoying it.
Rinku: Yeah FFN has something weird going on with reviews. While I don't review stories on this account, I have an account meant just for reviewing stories, and its something I've noticed myself. I'm happy you're excited for this story's end. I can't wait to write the final chapter, haha.
Guest #2: Sorry! Lmao. I really tried to get this chapter up as fast as possible. But, ya know. Life happens :P
Redwolfless: Yet another review that makes me so happy to read that words fail me. You want more? Here ya go! Haha.
:The Nest — Three Years Prior:
-o-
:The Servant:
-o-
Tik-tak-tak-tak—
Tik-tak-tak-tak—
Tik-tak-tak-tak—
Tik-tak-tak-tak—
The only sound accompanying us through the narrow hallway of the Nest was the continual percussion of talons making contact with the cave's cold floor. I turned, glancing behind me to see my two wayward companions as they followed at a...rather slow pace, largely due to the abomination behind me and in front of my Nest-mate—stationed directly in the middle of us.
I snorted as I watched him clambering and crawling over the debris within the hallway, his wings sprawled out and dragging behind him, before turning to face forward with a groan.
My Nest-mate and I had offered to carry him out of the Guardian's Tomb, but he declined, choosing instead to walk on his own four legs and going on about how he despised being carried like the fledgling he refused to admit he was.
We would already be out of this hole in the ground if the Hybrid just allowed himself to be carried! But no! Instead, he chose to continue forward on legs he was anything but accustomed to walking on, which only made my life somehow more difficult than it had already become in the short span of the rise and fall of the moon.
I have nobody to blame but myself however. I could have chosen to carry him out of here whether he liked it or not, but decided against it. Allowing him to walk presented both myself and my Nest-mate something we both needed, but what I needed far more.
Silence.
Time to plan. Time to think. And, against my own desire, time to reflect...
Like a sick, churning feeling in the pit of my gut, my last words with the Hybrid sat like a heavy stone in my stomach.
When I'd put my mind to the more pressing matter of delivering him to my Master, his thanking me for saving his life would whisk away any planning I'd put in to finding a way to bring him to the Master's Spire.
— 'Th-thank you, Trico...' —
— 'Thank you for saving me...from earlier...' —
— 'I thought you were going to let me die.' —
I didn't want his appreciation. I didn't want his thanking me. I didn't want his trust! Not when I was knowingly either delivering him or dragging him to his death.
The moment that thought wormed its way into my mind I violently shook my head to and fro, trying to rid myself of the very thought.
'He is the enemy!' I thought to myself. 'He is my species prey!' I berated myself, twisting my neck around to glare at the Hybrid. I watched as he tried to slide down a small mound of rubble blocking his path, only to lose his balance and topple head over tail. I gave the scene a heavy eye-roll.
This entire ordeal was pointless! This would have all been so much simpler if I hadn't spit him up. If he hadn't taken the Guardian's Shield. If he had simply died instead of becoming what he was. This journey was only prolonging the inevitable! Regardless of the Master's interest in him, my leader would no doubt demand his extermination. He was, after all, a human. Perhaps not in body, but instead, in mind.
I continued glaring at the fledgling as he righted himself and happened to glance slightly upward to meet my Nest-mate's inquisitive eyes boring in to my own.
'Damn it,' I thought, twisting my head back around to face forward. 'Knowing her, she's going to—'
"Brother?"
'...Bother me...'
I could hear the sound of her talon's clicking against the cave floor as she trotted her way to the front of our little precession.
"Brother?" She asked again, lightly bumping me aside as to give herself enough room to walk beside me on my right. I bit back my reproachful comment but could feel myself becoming increasingly more agitated. This passageway isn't even big enough for the two of us to walk side-by-side. When I heard her take another breath to speak, I snapped.
"Sister!" I barked in annoyance, my ears pinning themselves against my skull, "Don't break our formation! We need to make sure the Hybrid doesn't—"
"Doesn't what?" She retorted, cutting me off before I could press on. "Run from us?"
I twisted my head to the left to glare at her and was instead introduced to the corner of her wing slapping the side of my muzzle as she snapped the two of them out, spreading them as wide as she could without striking the cave's wall.
"Oh stop it, Brother," she said with an eye roll. "The creature is behaving. He hasn't spoken since we recovered the shield."
"But—" I tried, but was cut off again when her wing pressed up against my muzzle as if to shush me.
"And—what is he going to do? Run back to the dead end room before? Try running past the two of us?"
I let out an annoyed growl, bringing a paw up to push her wing away from my face. "Fine!" I conceded. "He won't! Now what do you want?" She gave a short hum in pleasure at my admission before going on.
"Why so quiet? You haven't spoken since leaving the Guardian's Tomb."
I paused in my steps, mulling over her question. I couldn't tell her of my damn near treasonous thoughts, even as brief as they were, so instead decided on telling her not only the half-truth, but also what I should have been thinking of this entire time.
I let out a sigh. "How exactly are we going to get that thing behind us to the Master's Spire?" I asked, deciding that maybe she would have a suggestion. I absolutely refused to admit it, but talking to her helped ease my mind at just what we were doing to the Hybrid.
She herself paused at this, possibly mulling it over for the first time.
"Can't you just carry me? Just—fly me up there?" Came the despondent voice of our less desired traveling companion. It was the first time he'd even spoken since recovering the shield. He was being unusually quiet.
My Nest-mate and I halted in our tracks and turned to face him, giving the whelp an irritated stare.
"No." I said, flatly. "Neither my wings, or my Nest-mate's, are strong enough to carry you all the way to the top of the Spire." I paused at that to think, but my thoughts were stolen from me by my female companion.
"At best, one of us could glide while carrying you, but flapping with your weight would put too much strain on our wings," she finished.
I hummed in agreement. Gliding was an option. It was only a matter of finding a place high enough to glide off.
The fledgling looked up at us, his attention being drawn from the small incline he'd been trying to walk down before his eyes trained on me.
"H-how am I too heavy?" He asked, genuinely confused. "You had all that armor on before you came back for me."
I eyed him for a moment, ready to berate him for the stupid question before remembering he'd only had wings for a quarter of a day at best.
Speaking of which...
"Wings..." I said plainly, staring at the Human-turned-Servant.
His eyes seemed to gloss over at my seemingly random choice of words. I shook my head, becoming increasingly more annoyed with having to remind him after having just showed him. "Wings!" I snapped. "Fold them for Sky's sake, Human! Master forbid you have to use them; they'll be useless if you keep dragging them across the ground like a dead carcass." He glanced down at them before taking on a look of surprise, as if just remembering he had wings to begin with. I pondered that for a moment before realizing that was likely the case.
I felt my eye twitch and spasm in irritation as he painstakingly raised his wings off the floor and spread them wide, squinting his eyes shut as if the simple action took all the concentration in the world. I watched as he did as I had told him earlier; folding and furling his two wings until they were...somewhat neatly pressed against his sides. Once he finished the Hybrid looked up to me, seemingly waiting for a 'congratulations'.
I chuffed, warbling something unintelligible before turning on him and motioning for my Nest-mate to follow.
"And to answer your last question; yes. You—" I said, pausing for a moment to think of how best to explain something to someone who wasn't born with the ability of flight in the first place. "Our armor's weight is evenly spread out across our bodies. Trying to fly with you—who likely weighs as much, or possibly more than the armor—would weigh me down too much. All the weight would be too concentrated in one spot." I finished.
"Imagine walking around with a bolder chained to the top of your head," my Nest-mate helpfully supplied. "Your head would be dragged down and your body would be unbalanced from the weight alone."
"Exactly," I agreed as we made our way over the cliffside and around the pots I had blown apart in my haste to reach the Master— nearing the flooded area where my Nest-mate and I had found the Hybrid earlier. "Now, imagine trying to fly like that."
I waited for some sort of response or acknowledgement from the Human—hell, even another stupid question! Yet, none came.
Silence.
I turned, glancing over and behind my nest-mate—who had chosen to walk behind me as we crossed along the narrow catwalk—to see the fledgling padding forward, shoulders hunched and head low as if he was...afraid?
I stopped at the entryway leading to the flooded cavern to stare at him as the Female went around me. The Hybrid's eyes were downcast, staring intently at the floor but seeing nothing as he made his way forward at a subdued pace. The closer he got, the easier it was to pick up on the small details. His shoulders and wings shuddering. His pupils slowly contracting, and his tail beginning to lower to the cave floor.
I opened my mouth to question him, when a thought crossed my mind...
'Did I have to even ask?'
I examined him, taking in all his features: his tail, feathers and talons, all the way to the crown of his head where his two small horns rested. He was a human in mind, but appeared to be a Servant, through and through. Just how much of him truly was a Servant? Did he possess some of my specie's abilities, despite how few we had? Could he fire bolts from his tail just as my Nest-mate and I could? I glanced at the small pair of horns atop his head.
'Did he have a sixth-sense..?'
I focused my attention to my two damaged horns, and felt them gently hum in response. My own sixth-sense worked, but I could feel it was terribly muffled—my own sence's range was horribly crippled from the damage my horns sustained.
He was only a few body-lengths from me now. If my sense's range was crippled...could I try and establish a link from this small distance?
Throwing caution to the wind, I focused on the horns atop my head and they soon began to glow a soft cyan before I began reaching out to the distracted Hybrid. It was something difficult to describe; feeling as though roots from a great tree were reaching out to entwine around another's.
Before long, his too began glowing a soft green hue, and against my better judgement, I pressed forward with my little experiment—and succeeded...
I immediately reared back the moment our minds entwined. As expected, with my sense in their current condition, I couldn't 'see' what he was feeling as much as I could 'experience' whatever he was feeling. In spite of that, what I felt was, in a word, 'painful'.
He was overwhelmed, and it felt like a crushing amount of weight had been thrown on to me; as if the weight alone was causing me to sink into the very ground.
He felt doubt. Doubt in what exactly—I couldn't tell. Doubt in what lay ahead? Doubt in what could or couldn't be? Either way, it felt as if I was being pulled so violently in two separate directions that, for a moment, I feared the feeling of it alone would cause my body to tear itself asunder.
He felt an overwhelming amount of fear at what was ahead of us. It felt as if a snake, thrice my own size, had coiled itself around me and was slowly squeezing the very will to live from me.
And lastly, he felt longing—likely at what he'd lost, but I couldn't discern it with how inaccurate my senses were. The sensation the emotion brought was something difficult to describe. It was as if my very surroundings were growing; swelling, while I began to feel small. I felt insignificant, dwarfed by even the most infinitesimally small thing.
I had enough of the feeling, and cut the link between us. The smallest amount of guilt seemed to seep into me for a fraction of a moment. I shook myself so violently to the point where it would have appeared as if I were shaking water free from my feathers in a desperate attempt to escape the connection. The link alone made me feel like I was living out a nightmare.
Wa—was this how he'd been feeling? I questioned.
In my moment of weakness, when I looked down at the creature I had made, pacing towards me, I saw not a Human-turned-Servant, but rather a fellow Nest-mate that needed my assistance. I was nearly about to console him when luckily—thankfully; thank the Sky, Master, and Guardians of the past—my companion cut my treasonous line of thought off.
"Brother, I have an idea as to get the creature to the Spire." She said cheerfully. I turned away from the Human, shaking the previous line of thought from my head and scolding myself for having even thought of it. I instead chose to follow her and hear her out, silently berating myself for pitying not a fellow nest-mate, but my enemy!
She glanced over the cliff's ledge to the sickly green water below, as if preparing to jump in. "We might be able to bring him to one of the Great Bridges. The one leads directly to the Spire's lower level, and we could simply take the lift to the top."
I pondered that for a moment. It could work. Though, I'm not too sure of trusting the fledgling to make a leap-of-faith would be in our best interest. If I recall, there's a rather large gap just before it. Worst case scenario; I carry him and leap across it with him hanging from my mouth. Not only that, but that route may not require too much gliding.
I padded over to her and stood by her side, the Hybrid finally reaching us and seating himself beside me.
"You know," I said, flicking her with my wing, "I actually agree with that." She gave a nod in acknowledgement before her demeanor changed to that of a serious one. She twisted to peer over me and glanced at the Human.
"Well," she said, giving him a wry, almost sinister, grin, "Lets get moving."
And with that she hunched down before propelling herself off the small ledge into the water below. She entered it with a large splash, causing a spout of water to nearly reach the ceiling of the cave and momentarily flood whatever landmass was exposed in her wake. She soon resurfaced, shaking the water from her head and paddling herself around as to face our direction and stare up at us. She still wore that grin she had before jumping in.
"Alright, Brother!" she called out. "Toss the Hybrid down here! I'll catch him! …Unless he wants to jump in himself!"
At those words, the reason for her somewhat-evil grin made sense. My own expression mirrored hers, just as a sound—difficult to explain—came from just behind me and off to my right in a tangle of unintelligible sounds. It was something between a squeak, sputter, and stutter.
I gave my Nest-mate a crooked grin before turning to the hu—...he's gone?
I twisted my neck so that my head was facing behind me to see the Hybrid was backpaddling like he'd seen me for the first time. His wings were splayed out—again...—and his tail was limply dragging underneath him in his desperate attempt to put as much space between the two of us as feasibly possible. The entire time, his eyes were trained on me as if I was a predator stalking him. I turned to him, lumbering towards him in an almost-lazy fashion.
"We're not doing this again, Human. You will—" I began, but was cut off by his frantic reply just as the few words left my mouth.
"You CAN'T be serious, Trico!" he said in a panicked tone, his feathers all over his body puffing up. "I—I drowned, literally drowned earlier, and you want to throw me in the water?!"
His arguing didn't make me slow my pace. "We've already spoken of this, Human." I ground out. "You're safety is part of this 'mission' I've been given along with my Nest-mate. I don't plan on throwing you to you're demise. Now get over here! I will not be playing this game of cat and mouse with you as I did before."
He continued his backpedaling until, in an almost comical fashion, he stepped on his wing that was dragging close to his one leg. He let out a high-pitched YELP when he placed his full weight on to the aforementioned appendage before stumbling and falling on to his back.
Even with that, I continued forward at a lazy pace. There was nowhere for him to run. This cave was nothing more than a dead-end for him. One direction lead to, quite literally, a dead end, while the opposite direction lead to just what he was afrai—
I momentarily paused in my steps when the realization struck me. The 'Overwhelming fear' he'd been experiencing, was just this: the water. He'd developed a sort of...aquaphobia after having all but drowned before. My assumption was only further proven when I continued making my way towards him, soon looming over him. I began leaning my head forward to pick him up, when he threw a not-too-unexpected swipe at me with his talons.
"W-wait! Waitwaitwaitwaitwait!" he said franticly, holding his paws out in front of himself as if they'd actually stop me. HA!
I halted, still looming overtop of him to let him speak. His chest was rising and falling franticly in time with his words.
"Th-there's gotta be another way, Trico. What if—" he began, but I cut off his delusionary train of thought.
"No!" I growled, already beginning to lose my patience with the creature. "There is no other way, Human. You should already know that by now. You've explored this cave both when you were a Human, and after I'd transformed you. There is no other way across other than—"
"I know that, Trico!" he yelled back equally annoyed as I was. "I already know the only way across is through that swamp. But what if—what if you carr—uuh, wait, no. I don't want to be carried. What if you let me..." He paused for a moment in thought. "—what if you let me climb on your back, and you—"
"ABSOLUTALLY not!" I bellowed. "What do you take me for, Human? One of your specie's domesticated horses?!"
I twisted around to face the waters below, where I could hear my Nest-mate laughing her ass off. "You'd be more like one of those rat-creatures, Servant! What are they called?" she pondered from down below for a moment. "Possums?"
I ignored her the best I could, but the image alone made me—admittedly—having to bite back a laugh before turning to face the Human. "What difference does it make, Human? I throw you down there, she catches you, and we—"
"Because I don't trust her, Trico!" he yelled before taking a breath to calm himself. "I trust you. Or, I trust you more than I trust her."
That—that made a chill run from the crown of my head, down my spine, and to the end of my tail. I'd just pondered this not long ago. I didn't want his appreciation. I didn't want his thanking me.
...I didn't want his trust...
I had to rid his trust in me, even if it meant being truthful and spilling some secrets to some degree.
I shook my head to clear my thoughts before leveling him with a leer. "Your trust is as delusional as it is misplaced, Human. I've only had your best interests in mind for my own best interest. My Master was clear with me; if you die, I die." His eyes didn't widen as much as his pupils did. It wasn't exactly the reaction I was going for, so I pressed the point by lowering my head close enough to stare in to his eyes. "I've kept you alive for my own safety, not for your own. Now, how could you trust me knowing that?"
The Human's mouth moved up and down for a few moments, his eyes remain slightly widened in shock before he gathered himself and rolled over on to his side to more easily stand once again. He stared at me, almost distantly for a few moments, before answering my question...with an answer I didn't want.
"Isn't...Isn't that all the more reason to trust you, Trico?" He asked. "You told me, not long ago, that I didn't care for my own 'self-preservation.' With what you told me just now, If you care anything for your own self-preservation than I think it's safe to trust you."
Well, that backfired gloriously...
"Not only that," he murmured, "but before, something...happened...with my horns..."
Now my eyes widened at that. Dear Master above, please, no!
I held a paw up to stop him from further explaining. "I don't care to hear your dilutions, Human." I said. "But your horns? Explain. Leave out the details and just tell it like it is."
His mouth hung open for a few moments before shutting with a POP. "After we went back and found that shield—just as we were leaving, I felt...I don't know. I felt something. And that 'something' is what makes me believe I can trust you over the other Trico."
My paw, which was once held in front of me to give the Human direction, instead slapped my muzzle in a sort of Face-paw. That feeling from earlier wasn't the female's Sixth-Sense. It was this Master-damned Human's! I could lie to my peers all I wanted. But I couldn't lie to myself.
My appreciation for his thanking me, as brief and misplaced as it was, including my genuine relief for his safety was nothing short of treasonous. It COULDN'T be spoken of to any other Servant. Whether or not I brought the Human to the Master unscathed or not, the thoughts I had, even as brief as they were, were nothing short of treasonous. That tit-bit of information had to remain reclusive.
I dragged my paw down my face before placing it back on the ground and staring at the Human once more. "Alright, Human. I'll bring you into the water with me," The Human's features light up like the starry night at that, "but," I paused, leaning in close to him, as threateningly as possible. It had the desired effect as his ears seemed to pin themselves to his skull. "You take what you just told me to your grave, or I'll introduce you to yours, my own punishment be damned...are we clear?"
The Hybrid gave me a very energetic nod, and with that—oh Master, Sky, and my distant ancestors, this was fucking mortifying—lied myself down to let the Human...climb aboard...AAARRRGGGG! Why!? What did I do to deserve this sort of mockery? Not to my surprise; he was as heavy as I expected him to be.
"Thank you, Trico," he said as he scrabbled up my left side, somehow managing to find traction with his talons without injuring me, and dragged himself up so that he was sprawled out along the length of my body with his head resting somewhere near my shoulder blades. I'm sure it was...a sight to behold...
I let out a long, miserable groan. "Stop calling me 'Tor-iko', Human—lest you want me to start calling you 'Wings' to remind you that you have them to begin with." Once I felt he was...situated, I rose up from where I lay, standing to my full height once more and making my way towards the ledge overlooking the body of water.
I felt him give a sort of shrug along with an audible snort. "I don't really care...Toriko." I cringed a bit at that name. "It'd be nice to actually have a name. We Humans have to wait years just to receive one."
I rose a brow at that. I'd thought, with his excitement from earlier to even consider giving me a name, that the Human race would have a name for anything and everything—which would no doubt include themselves.
For a moment, I considered asking him about it, but the very idea was stripped away from me when I—along with the Human perched on my back—stepped close enough to the ledge as to let my Nest-mate see my...traveling..companion..perched on my back. She immediately began clucking in laughter, rolling over in the water on her back as her insufferable laughing persisted.
Somewhere in between breaths I heard her manage to get out "My Nest-mate, the Possum!"
I felt my face heat up enough that it could have turned rock to molten. "Shut up, Sister." I said as flatly as possible, which only caused her to laugh all the harder. I shook my head at her antics before turning my head to see the Hybrid perched on my back from my peripheral.
"Try and hold on, Human. Don't...do anything stupid." As an afterthought, I added; "Or rather, don't do anything at all. Just...stay there." He gave me a single, albeit stiff nod, before I turned to face the waters once again.
I stared at where my Nest-mate was, still floating on her back, laughing, and...decided against warning her. Instead, I took several large steps backwards before breaking in to a full sprint with the little ground I was given before the ledge. I'd reached it in as little time as my heart took to beat once, and threw myself from the ledge haphazardly towards my Nest-mate. Several things happened...
My Nest-mate went wide-eyed at my sudden, descending approach, my dim shadow casting her in even more darkness as I loomed closer. She let out something between a startled 'EEP' and a high-pitched shriek before rolling over in the water, back on to her stomach, and frantically paddled away for all she was worth. Just as I'd reached the apex of my leap, just before gravity began pulling me down to the water below, there was the sound of wings opening behind me as they suddenly caught the air. I felt several of my feathers be pulled out, root and all, just as the Human's startled 'YELP' caught my ear. And just like that, the large amount of weight that had once been centered on my back vanished.
I knew exactly what had just happened. I didn't even have to imagine it. I should have expected it!
I smashed into the water below, stomach first, before becoming fully submerged. While underwater, I heard the muffled sound of something—no, not something...it was clearly the child—as he struck the water moments after me. I resurfaced to the sound of the Human frantically splashing about behind me. When I turned, to my relief, he hadn't sank into the water as he had before. He must have had enough common sense this time to realize that all it took to remain above the water's surface was to hold your breath. Despite this, he was still whipping around in the water in a tangle of limbs.
I paddled over to him quickly, reaching him in no time at all and leaned forward to pluck him from the water as I'd done once before, but had to reconsider.
As I leaned forward, his paw came slashing downward in his frantic flailing about. His talon came a feather's length from cleaving out my left eye, and I reared backwards suddenly at having nearly lost one of my eyes. I decided on the safer approach, instead paddling right up to him so that my left flank bumped in to him. His flailing ceased for a moment, and he began trying to dig his claws into my side in his panic to escape his, what he thought was, drowning.
"Hey! Heyheyhey! Calm down, Human. You're going to tear up my entire left side if you try to climb on me now." His struggling lessened once he'd latched on to my side. His breaths were short, coming in and out in a panic. "I didn't let you drown before, and I'm not going to now. So, relax."
At that, his breaths began to steady, though he said absolutely nothing. He just remained wide-eyed. I twisted around slowly in the water, facing the direction I'd been when I'd jumped in the water to begin with, only to be snout-to-snout with the Female Servant.
Her eye's were narrowed, ears pinned, and hackles slightly raised. I reared back a bit at her suddenly being so close.
"What in the name of the Master, Brother?! Were you trying to crush me?!" she growled. I gave her a lopsided grin.
"My apologies, Sister." I said in a flourish, beginning to swim around her. "I didn't see you down there."
She let out a snort and began swimming behind me as the three of us made our way to the ledge, just to the left of the room which I already knew served as this pit-in-the-ground's only exit.
I positioned my left side to the small surface of land, which the Hybrid all too eagerly clambered on top of. My Nest-mate climbed up the small wall without waiting for the two of us before disappearing around the hallway's corner. I too climbed atop the small surface, shaking the water free from my body and staring down at the Human, who was shuddering a bit.
I rolled my eyes, bringing a paw up to my face to wipe the remaining water from my eyes. "You can relax, Human. You're fine." He still said nothin, likely somewhat in shock at falling into the water once more. If this journey to the Master's Spire would require me to—Master forbid—carry him atop my back any more, I'd have to give him a stern lecture about not flaring his wings open when I was jumping about with him on my back. I decided to postpone the little talk though. I wanted out of this cave, and I was sure he wanted to leave it behind just as much as I did.
I leaned down to the Human, picking him up by his scruff—which he didn't argue against—and leapt up on to the ledge above, placing him down once we were atop it. I trotted forward to the hallway's end, where I saw my Sister, who was currently staring up at the half-crumpled wall in thought. I walked to stand at her side as we both looked up at the damaged wall before she turned to me.
"So, how are we going to do this? You going to," she stifled a small laugh, "let him climb on your back again and then climb out of the gap?"
I leered at her before turning my gaze back up to the crumbled wall. The hole was much, much larger than it was before—when I'd perched atop it, only to have a quarter of the wall crumble away.
I shook my head. "No. The wall was structurally unsafe before I caused it to collapse. And that collapse could have killed me. Not only that," I added, rolling my shoulders, "but he's as heavy as I had thought. I doubt the wall could take our combined weight."
I let out a sigh, still mulling over our options even though I knew there was only one option left. I twisted to my right and stared down at where the Hybrid was standing and opened my wing, lightly buffeting him with it a few times as he took a few stumbling steps backwards.
"Stand back, Human. I'd rather not see you get crushed with what my Nest-mate and I are about to do." I took several steps back myself, and the Female followed.
"What are you going to do, Brother?" She asked.
When we were a save distance away, I brought my tail around and began letting energy pool at its tip, hoping that this little plan of mine wouldn't end disastrously. "We're not climbing over it. We're not jumping it or going around it. We'll have to go through it."
She turned back to the wall with a raised brow. "You don't think it'll bury us in here though, do you?" She questioned.
I shook my head. "No. Most of the wall I'd collapsed fell outside of the cave, on to the other side. I don't think there's enough of the wall left to truly bury us. However, I'm more worried about the ceiling caving in if too much of the wall is destroyed." I stared up at the walls on either side of us. They looked relatively sturdy. Not only that, but it was solid rock.
'It'll be fine,' I reassured myself, bring my tail around which was now crackling with stored energy. I turned back to my Nest-mate once more. "Make sure the blast is strong enough. We don't want to just scald the wall. And aim for the center of what's left of the wall with me. I'm confident we can blast our way out if anything."
She nodded once, bringing her own tail around which began crackling as well, small arcs of energy shooting off in random directions. We stood there for a moment, taking aim before I finally gave the signal.
"Now!" I yelled, and two very thick arcs of energy left our tails simultaneously. They struck the center of the wall with enough force to rival several fully armored Servants charging headlong in to it. The blast caused my ears to ring, and both my Nest-mate and I covered ourselves with a wing as glowing-red shrapnel flew out in random directions, several pieces pelting me and singed my feathers. I could hear the wall collapse from behind my wing, which was followed by a relieving sight, and my relieved sigh...
Light...
-o-
:The Boy:
-o-
When the large, neon-white arc of lightning left the tail of the Female Trico and...well, Toriko, I spun about, facing the opposite direction of the wall in the hopes that whatever could go wrong, wouldn't go wrong. I hunched my shoulders and somewhat curled into myself when something split the very air like a bolt of lightning, which was followed by the sound of something large and heavy collapsing. I cracked my two eyes open, feeling somewhat hesitant for no particular reason. All I could see, having turned around and faced away from what the two Trico believed was our exit, was a small cloud of dust as it wisped around, curling and churning in the air as it passed me by.
For several long seconds the sound persisted as the wall, as I could only imagine, crumbled in to dust. When all sound ceased, there came the relieved sigh from Toriko, and a blinding amount of something filtering in from behind me. Something I feared I would never have the opportunity to see again: Light.
I turned to see —sure enough—the wall was only half of what it was before. The top of what was left of the wall glowed red like the setting Sun where the two Trico's bolt of lightning struck the wall. Left behind, at the base of the once large wall, was a mound of rubble that lead to its new highest point.
I felt drawn to the light and to all that it meant. I was—somewhat—free. I could leave this hole in the ground. I just might be able to go home after all that had happened.
I was the first to take steps towards the exit. To my surprise, Toriko didn't complain about me taking the lead as I scaled the make-shift stairs towards the light before me. When I'd reached the top, to my slight disappointment, I was still in the cave to a degree. Ahead was like somebody took an object in the shape of a steep triangle and carved out the very stone around me.
The light at the end of the tunnel was so blinding after having been stuck down here for so long that I couldn't exactly see what lay beyond the light. All I knew was that whatever lay beyond it would take me closer to everything that had gotten me in a funk since the Female Trico had recovered that shield: My father. My friends. My village. And lastly, my real body.
I jumped from the top of the destroyed wall to the ground below, not caring when my legs failed me and I momentarily collapsed to the ground. I righted myself and began walking down what was hopefully the last cave I would ever have to be in. Behind me came the sound of two large bodies slamming against the ground as well.
My walk soon turned in to a trot, that trot turning in to run, and that run quickly turning in to the best sprint I could manage. Nothing at this particular moment mattered more that one thing: the exit.
I reached the end of the cavern walls, coming to a sliding halt when my eyes were assaulted by the bright afternoon sun. I forced them to stay open, finally having the my first opportunity to glimpse at my surroundings.
My jaw practically hit the floor.
The first thing I could see, directly in front of me was a sort of tower. I had to crane my head all the way back to see its peek. It looked to all but reach up and touch the heavens with how tall it was.
I was at a loss for words. The sight alone of the tower stripped me of my small voice. I continued forward before realizing the very ground beneath me fell away, and I creeped forward with one of the two Trico close behind, and peered over the ledge. It was...unreal. The cliff dropped off into what could only be the endless abyss. Stupefied, and now beginning to feel slightly dizzy from the height alone, I tore my gaze away to look at everything else this 'Nest' had to offer—and became all the more speechless.
Under and all around me was tall, lush-green grass with several large trees sprouting out of what I was beginning to realize was another large cliff. The grass and leaves swayed in time with the wind as it whipped by, ruffling my tattooed feathers. Across from me, coming out of the stone cliffs to the left of the great tower was a waterfall that was exiting the wall with enough pressure to strip bark from a tree. Everything had a calming, foggy appearance to it. As if I was in the center of a thin cloud.
It was all too much to take in, and I felt my eyes beginning to well up from the shock of it all. From the shock of everything.
My abduction. My transformation. My abandonment. My rescue. And finally, my escape.
I said the only thing that happened to come to mind, and said in a hushed tone that was only audible to the Trico who were standing behind me with their large ears.
"Wow..." I said. "It's beautiful..."
A small chuckle came from behind me, then the feeling of something clamping down on my tail before it began tugging me backwards and away from the cliff. I stiffened immediately at the feeling before twisting my head around to see it was Toriko, likely dragging me a safe distance away from what could lead to my death. I couldn't argue with him. Half because I was still somewhat in shock, and half because I couldn't argue with the facts: I'd already essentially fallen to my death twice in the span of less than a day.
He gave a low chuckle, and he said only four words:
"Welcome to the Nest."
Author's Note #2: And there you have it. I hope some people are still interested enough as to revisit this story and check this chapter out.
So, where in the name of God have I been? I'll sum it up real quick.
Early January of last year I was working a dead-end job at a grocery store. A month or so later I landed a promotion at my main job. Before, I'd been writing this story at my job while I shoulda been actually working...oh well haha.
Now comes April'ish where I get a call from my State telling me they want to put me through a bunch of tests for a job. I focused and studied for these tests which cut heavily into my writing. Shortly after that I was contacted again and sent to a sort of Bootcamp for a few months. Now I have not a 'job' but a career I've been wanting my entire life.
I tell you all this for one big realization I had throughout all of this: Never stop pushing forward.
In the small span of a year I've found myself in such a good place, and it only took a year. Never give up on what you want. Keep pushing forward, and once you achieve that, start pushing for the next big thing. Changes take time, but they can happen quickly.
