Chapter 10
(Thanks Banjostrings. And having written a few stories with long chapters, I can sort of see why they stop.)
Areen, Eva, Arison, Midnight, and Flame came bursting out of the portal. Flame lost his balance momentarily, thanks to suction power of the portal.
"So, what next Midnight?" Eva asked.
Arison made a face. Midnight? He was in on this plan too. He was behind Eva though, so she didn't notice.
Midnight answered. "We find where the band went."
She flew forward. They left the back room, then Midnight's flapping slowed, it looked like she was going to go yeep. "Whoa." She breathed.
The other owls looked forward. Arison couldn't blame her. Everything looked destroyed, including the building they were in. "Great Glaux." Eva agreed.
"What happened here?" Arison wondered, mostly to himself. He flapped forward a bit.
"Look out!" Arison was shoved to the ground just as a spall whizzed through a window, shattering it.
Eva let out a scream as she flapped out of the way. Arison looked up at who had saved him. It was Nyra, the Nyra from this time. "Are you crazy?!" She demanded.
"You bet he is." Midnight joked. "Now what happened here?"
Nyra shook her head. "I'm not an expert on Others, but something's changed. All the shops are being closed or destroyed,"
"Or both." Another owl, Nyroc, added.
Nyra nodded. "Right. And it's all being caused by the Others in the black cloaks. They closed this place down and took a few of the other owls and creatures with them."
"Death Eaters." Arison breathed.
"Come again?"
"The ones in black cloaks. They're called Death Eaters. They work for this evil dark lord." Arison explained.
"How do you now this?" Nyroc asked.
Arison opened his mouth, then closed it again. "It's a long story." He said.
"And now we should get out of here." Areen pointed out. She looked nervous, and Arison couldn't say he blamed her.
"What? No." Midnight said. "This is even more dangerous than we thought, the band might need our help."
"If they do, there are owls out there more helpful than us. We should go back and talk to some of them." Areen argued. Arison could hear the temper rising in her voice and, involuntarily, his feathers shrank back, remembering when she'd attacked him and Eva.
Flame meanwhile, flew over to Areen. "I agree. We weren't supposed to be here anyway."
Midnight's feathers grew bigger. "I don't care if it's dangerous, I'm going to help, and if you aren't coming with me, then go ahead and leave!" She whirled around and flapped for the door as fast as she could.
"Midnight no!" Arison flew after. Then he felt something hit his head, and the world went black.