A Silence Broken

The crowd sat in silence, staring at the stage in shock.

"What did you just say, boy?" Lord Malnice hissed, his eyes wide and bulging.

"I said my name is Verte. That's the name my parents gave to me seven years before you sent them to their deaths. But now I'm free, I've rediscovered my name, and you don't have any control over me!" Verte yelled and threw his wings open, buffeting Lord Malnice hard in the chest.

Lord Malnice was knocked backwards, and he slammed into the throne, collapsing to the floor. The generals jumped to their feet and ran over to him, and the crowd started yelling and chanting in a confused uproar. Verte used the chaos to his advantage and jumped off of the stage, running to where Kitsune was hiding. Without a word he picked her up and threw her onto his back, opening his wings and rocketing into the sky.

"AIIIEEEEEEE!" Kitsune screamed loudly, clinging to Verte's back for dear life and doing her best not to look down.

"Please don't scream in my ear, Kit, I need to be able to hear." Verte yelled over his shoulder at her, flying as fast as his wings would carry him away from the amphitheater.

"Sorry, but I'm terrified of heights."

"That's something you'll have to get over, because we're going to be doing a lot of flying."

"Not if they catch us, we won't!"

Verte looked over his shoulder and felt his heart sink to his toes at what he saw. At least two dozen avian soldiers were flying furiously after them, flashing swords and waving bows angrily. The ones with the bows began to shoot arrows at them, and he growled as the wooden shafts whizzed past him.

"Damn, I didn't think of them sending people after us." he hissed, looking around for some way to escape.

"I thought you said you knew what you were doing!" Kitsune yelped, her eyes widening in fear.

"Eh, I didn't expect this to actually work. Hold on, I'm going to have to do some evasive maneuvers."

"Wait, what do you mean by TTHHHHHHAAAAAAATTTTTT!" the sentence became a shrill cry of fear when Verte did a sharp nose dive.

"85-21, you idiot, we're going to crash!" Kitsune cried desperately, burying her face in the back of his shirt.

"My name isn't 85-21, it's Verte! And no we won't. Just hold on!" Verte yelled back, squinting down at the ground as they quickly approached it.

Verte smirked to himself as he heard the avians behind him pursuing them. At the last moment, he opened his wings and stopped mid-air, then rocketed back into the sky. Some of the avians managed to pull away, but most of them were not so lucky. They smashed into the ground with a combination of strangled shouts, dense thuds, and sickening crunching sounds. Verte barked a laugh and continued flying, headed toward the nearby forest of Cǣrbanog, a large, thick blanket of trees that ran for miles.

"How many are still on our tail?" Verte yelled, focusing on dodging arrows that flew by him.

"Six." Kitsune replied, looking back at them.

Verte nodded, looking around for some way to shake them. He knew they wouldn't fall for the nose-dive trick again after seeing where it got their comrades. All he could see for miles was the carpet of giant green trees, which didn't help him much. He was no better at forest flying than anyone else.

Suddenly, a sharp, repetitive pain in his right wing shattered his train of thought. He hissed in pain and looked back to see several arrows stuck in his wing. Blood dripped and was blown back from the tiny wounds.

"Well, that doesn't feel good. Kitsune, I'm afraid that if we don't think of some way to shake them, we'll become a throw rug and feather boa for sure." he growled at her, trying to avoid taking more hits.

Kitsune didn't respond, looking around thoughtfully. She noticed an area of the forest where the trees were darker, and saw several pairs of curious green eyes watching them. A flash of recognition went off in her mind; those bright green eyes were very familiar. She grinned and leaned up to Verte's ear.

"See those dark trees over there? A bunch of bat hybrids are there, old friends of mine who I thought died in the attack of Aiñor. Fly over there, maybe they'll help us." she whispered.

Verte looked over at the trees, then nodded and arced over toward them. He grimaced at the pain in his wing, trying to ignore it as he powered desperately toward the cluster of dark trees. The green eyes narrowed at him, and hissing could be heard coming from the trees. Kitsune leaned to the left, nearly throwing Verte off balance, and waved at them.

"Heeeeyyy! We could use some help, could you lend us a hand?" she yelled at them, ducking just in time to avoid taking an arrow in the back of her head.

The hissing turned to confused chirping, then the trees seemed to explode as the hybrids flew up to answer her call. They varied in height, weight, and appearance, but all had the same large brown ears, glowing green eyes, and leathery brown wings. They screeched and flew hard at the avians chasing Kitsune and Verte, baring needle-like teeth and swinging heavy clubs and hand made spears. The avians scattered, yelling out in surprise as the bats fell upon them. They outnumbered them greatly, surrounding them and beating them with the clubs, then stabbing with their spears. Soon, only one of the avians escaped, racing back toward the Knights camp hurriedly. The bats jeered at him as he fled, some pulling arrows out of their wings with a wince of pain.

One of them, a young woman looking to be close to Kitsune's age, flew over to where Verte and Kitsune hung in mid-air, watching the avian vanish into the sky. She was rather short, with wavy blonde hair and sun-burned pink patches on her fair white skin. She wore a tattered pair of light brown shorts and a hot pink shirt.

"Kitsune, what is going on? We thought you had died!" she asked in a soft, sweet voice.

"I thought the same of all of you, but I'll have to explain after we land. Verte is hurt, I need to patch his wounds." Kitsune smiled softly at her friends, then nudged Verte gently.

Verte nodded and flew down slowly, opening his wings carefully to keep from meeting the same grisly fate of the avian warriors. He landed lightly, and Kitsune immediately climbed off of his back, happy to have her feet planted firmly on the ground again. Verte smiled softly at her, then sighed and sat down, leaning against a huge tree. He reached back to yank an arrow from his wing, but Kitsune grabbed his wrist.

"No, let me get them for you. You just rest, I'll go get something to stop the bleeding and help heal them. Borea, is there a stream nearby? I need to gather some sweet moss." Kitsune turned to look back at the blonde hybrid who had landed behind her.

"Yes, I was going to go pick some for the others wounds as well. Follow me." Borea started walking away, and Kitsune gave Verte a quick nod before following her.

The other hybrids landed and gathered around Verte, who shifted uncomfortably under their hard glares.

"Why are you here, avian? Why is Kitsune with you?" one of them, a rather large man with messy light brown hair asked in a burly tone, his green eyes staring hard at him.

"I remembered my name, I'm free from those horrible Knights. I saved Kitsune, too. That's why she's with me." Verte answered, returning the man's hard glare with an icy look of his own.

"I don't like the look of him any more than you do, Lenox. He looks like a spy to me. Probably using Kitsune to win our trust, has her under a spell of some sort." a voice said, and the others parted to let another man through.

He was tall and lean, with skin the color of deep mahogany and a head of messy black hair that fell to his shoulders. He wasn't a bat hybrid, but a raccoon instead, with bright brown eyes, large black raccoons ears, and a long black and brown striped tail. He carried a huge brown bow in one black-gloved hand, and had a brown leather quiver strung across his back. He wore a pair of black pants, a purple tank-top, and a purple cap atop his unruly head of hair.

"Spell? As in magic? There's no such thing!" Verte said in surprise, watching the young man walk over to him.

"Of course there is! Why do you think stealing a person's name makes them your slave? Your Lord Malnice figured that out over thirty-five years ago, and put it to use, didn't he, pigeon?" the raccoon man sneered at him, grinning to expose fiercely sharp teeth.

"I hate Malnice and the Knights just as much as you do. I'm not your enemy!"

The raccoon man bent over him and looked him over carefully, then stood and turned away from him.

"That's funny, because you sure as hell look like one. So, pigeon, what kind of spell have you put Kit under, eh? What have you done to her?" he growled and whirled around on his heel, pointing an accusatory finger at him.

"I've done no such thing. Kitsune helped me figure out my name, I owe her everything for helping me get my freedom back." Verte growled back, his feathers puffing up a little.

"Whatever, pigeon. I don't trust you. After all that your ilk have done to us, how can you expect us to trust you? The only reason you're alive right now is because you had Kitsune with you. If it weren't for her, I wouldn't hesitate to kill you right now."

"I'm not here to fight you. We'll leave as soon as we can, and you won't have to deal with me anymore."

"We? You think I'm going to let you take Kit with you to where ever you're going? You must be just as crazy as Malnice!"

Verte snapped, unable to contain his anger any longer. He jumped to his feet and grabbed the raccoon man by the throat, shoving him against the tree.

"Don't compare me to Malnice. Ever. Got it, stripey?" Verte growled angrily.

"Don't try to intimidate me, I'm not scared of you." he hissed back, swinging his leg and kicking Verte hard in the side.

Verte grunted and dropped him, and he immediately shoved him to the ground and pulled a dagger from under his loose tank-top. He knelt over Verte with a grin and held the blade to his throat, glaring at him victoriously.

"Say goodnight, bird." he whispered.

"Torin, get off of him right now!"

The group turned to see Kitsune and Borea running toward them, each carrying a bundle of vibrant green moss in their arms. Torin shot Verte a harsh glare before standing up, putting his knife back in the holster strapped to his waist. Verte sat up and returned the glare, leaning back against the tree as Kitsune knelt down next to him.

"Torin, I'm glad to see you alive, but what the heck were you doing?" she asked angrily, looking up at the startled man.

"Don't look at me like that, he started it." he said defensively. Kitsune turned to give Verte a quizzical look.

"He provoked me." Verte explained lamely, shrugging.

Kitsune sighed and pulled his right wing open, ignoring his flinches of pain as she carefully began pulling the arrows out.

"Torin, Verte saved me from the Knights, and he hated having to work for them. He's been struggling to remember his name for ages to get away, and now we're free. He's my friend, and I forbid you from hurting him. And Verte, control your anger. You're going to be questioned and provoked where ever we go, so you had best learn to hold yourself back." she explained quietly, concentrating on her work.

Both men stared hard at one another, then nodded.

"Fine, but I don't like it. So, where are you two going?" Torin sat down a few feet away from them, and the other hybrids sat as Borea began to put moss on their wounds.

"I've heard a rumor of a city somewhere where the power grid has been restored. Heading there is our first objective. From there, I don't really know. All I know is that now that I'm free, I have to find a way to stop the Knights of the Sky. I have to find a way to shatter whatever weird power Malnice has over the Knights, then destroy the organization." Verte said, wincing as Kitsune put moss on his wounds.

"I've heard of that city, but it's just a rumor. It's called the City of Many Truths, or something like that." Borea said softly, sitting down next to Kitsune.

"Does anyone know where it's supposed to be?" Verte asked slowly, giving them a sheepish smile.

"You want us to go there, but don't even know where it's supposed to be? Verte, I thought you knew what you were doing!" Kitsune sighed and shook her head, and some of the other hybrids laughed.

"It's supposed to be near the sea, over to the east. If you travel through this forest, and go through the Cave of Mazes, it's rumored to be a few days walk from the cave's exit. But it's really tough to get through the caves, because a bunch of reptilian hybrids who don't take kindly to travelers live there." Torin answered, pulling blades of grass from the ground absentmindedly.

"Reptilians, eh? Well then, we'll have to be extra careful. We'll leave tomorrow morning, then. I'm sure those warriors aren't the last we're going to hear from the Knights." Kitsune said firmly.

"Sounds like a plan to me. Thank you all for your help." Verte turned to look at each of them, his eyes locking with Torin's for a quick moment.

"I'm going with you." Torin said suddenly, looking firmly at them.

"We're going to be doing a lot of flying, and I can't carry both of you." Verte said in mild surprise.

"I don't need you to, nor would I let you. I don't trust you alone with Kitsune."

"How do you expect to keep up?"

Torin smirked and stood up, walking over to a different tree. He began climbing up it, moving rather quickly. He vanished into the thick green leaves, and returned a few minutes later with a strange metal contraption strapped to his back. It was made of thin steel, with several black feathers attached to it; it was a metal pair of wings.

"Torin, you can't expect that to work." Kitsune groaned, shaking her head at his foolishness.

"Not only do I expect them to work. I know that they work. Everyone else here knows they work, because I use them for hunting all of the time." Torin retorted smugly.

"How?"

"Oh, it's simple, really. I just developed this technology that connects the wings to my nervous system like the wings on an actual avian. That way, I can control them just as well as the pigeon here can."

Kitsune rolled her eyes at him and grinned.

"And you said it was simple. Torin, you're a mad genius, you know that?" she asked with a grin.

He beamed back at her and rustled his metal wings a bit.

"You know it. So, I'm going." he replied, and both Kitsune and Verte nodded.

"I'm going, too!"

Everyone turned to look at Borea, who blushed a little.

"I can fly by myself, and I know plants really well. I can help you guys. So, can I come with you?" Borea said softly, rubbing her arm awkwardly.

"Borea, of course you can come with us." Kitsune said with a smile, and the girl smiled back at her happily.

Verte sighed and leaned back, smiling and closing his eyes.

"Well, then, you'll need to pack your own stuff. We leave first thing tomorrow morning."