Authors note: Please ignore my sister, kyuubecky's, remark. She's a strange one.
Chapter 7
Everything seemed to slow for Shaze. He saw the glint of the battle claws on the talons of the owl as he flew at him. He couldn't move, it was as if he was going yeep, the owl term for when the wings locked and the owl plummeted to the ground, but he wasn't flying. He could only watch as the pointed claws advanced. He regained his senses and tried to fly out of the way but it was too late. The claws dug deep into his port wing, shredding the feathers and skin off of it. Blood spurted out and all over his rival. Shaze screeched in pain but knew if he wanted to survive he would have to fight back but he couldn't fly and he wasn't armed. The owl flew at him again with an excited glint in his eye. Shaze dodge and lunged at the owl with his beak. He was only able to tear a few feathers. The crowd gasped in excitement. Never before had a sacrifice fought back. The owl kept attacking him viciously and Shaze kept dodging. The larger owl was persistent. He remained untouched while Shaze streamed blood. Then he remembered the few battled tactics his father had shown him. The words came flowing back to him.
"If you are unarmed and facing an opponent the best thing to do is to dodge out of the way in quick movements to tire your rival out. If you are wounded in places the make it hard to dodge in quick movements then try to size your enemy up and predict his next move. Then dodge out of the way early so you won't get hit but make sure you don't look to obvious." Shaze sized up his enemy. He was slightly larger than he was so that meant Shaze could dodge him easily. His wing continued to bleed heavily and the pain was life threatening but he kept dodging.
"Shamere! Kill him already!" the same massive owl that had spoken to him the other day was shouting at his attacker. It must be his father. The young owl tried harder but just couldn't seem to catch Shaze who was overfilling with confidence as he remembered what his father had told him. He didn't realize that at the Tree Timatsu had gathered a search and rescue team that was nearing to where he fought.
Timatsu gasped in horror as he saw his little brother fighting another owl. His fear continued to expand when he saw Shaze's shredded, bloody, wing. He immediately went into a spiral dive to snatch his brother. Only then did Shaze and his opponent notice him.
"Timatsu!" He shouted with excitement but then things took a terrible twist. His enemy was already filled with frustration and seeing this was too much. He flew at Timatsu, claws outstretched. Now it was Shaze's turn to be horrified. Blood reddened the night as the owl's claws met Timatsu's stomach and Shaze's brother began to fall to the ground. There was a loud thud as he hit the stone ground and a sharp snap.
"NO!"Shaze yelled as he flew over to his brother's side. Timatsu lay on his broken wing and there was a deep gash in his stomach. He looked up at Shaze and managed a painful smirk.
"Glaux bless, Shaze. I will always envy your-" He never finished. He blew his last breath and his eyes slowly closed. For a long moment Shaze looked down at his brother's unmoving body. Then an owl picked up the body and started to fly back to the Great Tree.
"Shaze, can you fly?" One of the owls said. Shaze could only nod mutely. The other owls were distracting the Pure Ones by flying and attacking each one of them. When Shaze lifted off he didn't even feel the pain of his marred wing as he flapped clumsily after the other two owls. He felt as if his life was over. His brother had been the only one who had ever treated Shaze with any respect at all. He was the only owl who ever noticed him and now he was dead. Tears were water falling down Shaze's cheeks. Now he only wanted all the more to escape his father.
….
He had been in the infirmary for weeks and not once had his father or his mother stopped to visit him. The matron assured Shaze that his father was still grieving for Timatsu and Shaze knew he was to, but doesn't his father care that he lay painfully in a downy bed with his wing wrapped up and half dead? What if he was never able to fly ever again? What if his wing got infected and he died? He knew the answer. His father would grieve over his older brother and not giving a heck to his other dead son. But Shaze knew it wasn't long until his feathers grew back on his wing. The nurse said that it would take longer because they were new feathers and they are harder to grow back. At least he could leave again in about a week's time. But to Shaze's total surprise he saw his father fly into the infirmary with an angry look in his face. It was a long moment until he spoke
"It's all your fault Timatsu is dead." His voice cracked." If you hadn't run away that day then Tim wouldn't have gone out of his way to help you. What were you thinking?" Shaze didn't respond, just glared back at his father. "I expect an answer."
"Why did you favor Tim? You made him co-leader and I was just an officer. I didn't even get to command any guardians. You let Tim do that to. What made you think he was better than I was?"
"He wasn't a foolish, ignorant little brat. He never hesitated to do the work I required him to do. He was good in fights and was an excellent warrior, the perfect king. He never went to war. If it hadn't been for you he might have. In fact once you recover I will exile you from the Great Ga'hoole Tree and if you ever show your face again the consequences will be dire."
….
Shamere couldn't look his father in the eyes. He knew he was very angry with him for not killing the young owl. He didn't know why but there was a resemblance between them, as if they were distant brothers.
"I am very disappointed in you. I am disgusted to call you my son. That was the only time in the history of the Pure Ones that the sacrifice survived." His voice was dangerously soft and cool. It made Shamere shiver; he didn't mean to let the owl go. He felt a cold fear creep up inside of him as his father stopped his pacing and stood in front of him. He looked up in his father's eyes and was surprised to see a gleam of pride in his dark eyes. "But you did kill an owl that appeared to be quite close to him. Every soldier said you were so angry it frightened even them. The screech you let out chilled their spines, rattled their bones."
Shamere looked up at his father with a glimmer of hope which quickly faded. He knew his father wasn't exactly the forgiving type. He sighed loudly.
"I will drop this subject until further notice, but not forever, mind you. One more mistake like that and I'll feed you to the vampire bats got that?" He hooted. Shamere nodded vigorously glad not to be torn limb from limb by his father's sharpened beak and talons. His father's beak had always given him the willies. It was blacker then that of a rogue smiths, not a smidge of its normal color remained. It was as if it was a coal itself, heated enough to burn bones at one point and cold enough to freeze a rat to death the next. It was clear his father was still fuming at him but until his father came up with a punishment, he was safe. Usually he had to fly laps all night but he knew from what he did, he would probably have to fly laps for three nights. He's done it before and he couldn't stand for a week. His father was humored greatly by this.
…...
She worked ceaselessly in her forge on her new piece. She was designing what she called art. She stuck silver and gold in a flame using the hottest coals she could find, melting and merging them together. She usually did this in such a pattern that beautiful swirls are formed in the new piece of metal but tonight she was just winging it. She was wondering what it would be like if she where to make tools of this metal. She wasn't sure how strong it would be but she loved to experiment when it came to artistic design. Most rogue smiths call her a fool for not making things that were actually beneficial to owl kind but she didn't mind what they said. She twisted her tongs and lowered the melting metal closer to the coals to raise the temperature. When she finally pulled out her new piece she gasped at its beauty. Not only was the pattern excellent but it was shaped like the eye of a wolf. This was something she knew must be valuable. She put it in a special jar to let it cool down and harden over day. She felt proude of her work. She looked at the fire and remembered those were her last coals. She swiftly grabbed her bucket and flew quickly to the Beyond.
"Stupid!" She said to herself. "How could I have forgotten the coals?"
