Grace

Chapter Eleven

A Battle in the Desert

It had been three days since they had escaped from the Pure's clutches and Dust, Blaze, Grace and Demon had a hard time escaping. What made it harder was the fact that there was little food or drink in the canyons and deserts they had decided to fly through. Flying through the grassland areas would put them at risk as the Pure were more likely to suspect that they would go there as it was far easier to survive where there was more food and water.

However, the Pure also knew that if the owls had gone through the harsher areas, they could die of starvation, making their job easier.

Now as Demon was complaining at the suns rays, it was clear that this was not going to be a simple escape. It took an owl one look at the scorching sun and at the burning ground and it was made clear that if there was a place that was perfect to live on, it would not have been here. The only shade for miles around was a dead Joshua Tree and a small rock formation, in which they could hide. As for the water, they might have needed to dig it up and the food would have to be killed cautiously as most of the prey around here was incredibly deadly.

An example would be such a small thing such as a scorpion, which could kill creatures at least ten times as big in a matter of minutes using it's tail filled with toxins. Another would be the colonies of ants that work together to take down other animals or the jakals which too hunt in groups, only smaller and deadlier. Even an elephant was more fit to survive the desert than a small owl, but that did not matter to Grace and her friends, all they cared for was freedom.

"Do I really have to eat this?" Demon asked, looking at the earth worm in front of her.

"If you don't rather want to try an kill one of those," Grace replied pointing at the group of jackals which stood in front of the owls, waiting," then I suggest at least trying it."

Demon swallowed the worm without any further hesitation. "But once this is over, you won't make me eat a single earth worm ever again."

"Do I have to remind the two of you that once this is over, we're most likely to be dead?" Blaze asked, interrupting the conversation. "And hi girls, I see you're having a healthy breakfast Demon." If looks could kill Blaze would now have beenn officially dead. "Alright, alright, I'm sorry, but an owls got to do something to cheer them up."

Suddenly Grace got an idea. "Come on, let's get inside that cave structure," she exclaimed moving inside the hole in the formation of rocks they had found an hour ago. "We could give each other riddles."

"Fine," they all sighed.

Dust started off.

"What's goldy-white and is all around us?" Dust asked.

"Let me guess," Demon said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "It's not sand by any chance, is it?"

"How did you guess?" Dust joined in with the sarcasm.

"Okay, now me. What is visible, but you only see it at the end of life?" Demon asked.

"I know, I know... it's the thing that we all can enjoy... DEATH!" Blaze answered, getting annoyed with this game.

Grace noticed the bored expressions in her friends' faces. "Let's just finish here. Goodnight," she said blantly. She heard the others wish each other and her goodnight too and then they all fell asleep.

Kludd and a couple of his soldiers had set out to find the owls. But two days went past and no owl has heard of four owls flying in the meadows, each a different type. At least not of the description Kludd had given them.

In the end, he realised that the owls wanted them to think that all along, after all they knew that no owl has ever before dared to escape into the desert unless they were adept at surviving in it. And those who did were either never seen again or had managed to somehow live in the desert, even though most owls though that desert owls go mad because of the heat and the scorching, bright sun.

On the third day, Kludd's troops had spotted the desert and so they all (plus Kludd) flew in. He wanted revenge and he did not want nature to rob him from it.

"But Metal Beak, no normal owl has ever gone there and returned alive and sane," a soldier protested.

"Only owlets are scared of the desert, are you an owlet or an owl?" Kludd asked the soldier, glaring at him.

"I...I I'm an owlet sir!" he said.

"Fine.." Kludd sighed. "You're dismissed for now, but the rest of you shall come no matter what if you don't want to end imprisoned."

And so the soldiers followed him, even though reluctantly. From what they've heard the desert was dangerous and even if they managed to close up on the owls, they would be facing some pretty good flyers from what they've heard.

"I've heard a glare from one of those owls could make you wish you weren't born," one of the soldiers whispered to another.

The other owl agreed. "And I've heard one of the owls was so good at flying that it could take on anyowl - even Metalbeak."

"And I've heard that the Nyra's going to kill the two of you if you don't get into that desert and show them that your no girls!" Kludd shouted, surprising the two soldiers, whom flinched and turned around.

"But girls can fight too," an owl whispered, but was slapped immediately afterwards and then no owl dared to say anything more.

Suddenly Kludd saw the massive desert and gulped. This was going to be a long day and he hoped the owls were not too far. But with his luck they were probably a hundred thousand miles away by now.

We're al-most there!" Grace said, panting as her wings got heavy. She may have been good at flying but she had never flown for this long and for so many days. They had now been flying for a week. She knew that her group was slowing down and at the rate they were flying in they would either fall from the sky soon or get caught by the Pure, or both. But they couldn't stop. If they did there would be no chance but to surrender.

"Where? All I see for miles around is sand -," Dust said, before seeing some mountains several miles ahead. "You're right, but are you sure the mountains will hide us and provide as with food, water and shelter. Won't it be cold."

"Owls are more used to flying in the cold than the warmth, but the mountains aren't that big anyway, the temperature should drop below ten degrees celsius at night - these mountains look more like large hills and we're in the middle of summer anyway," Blaze exclaimed.

"Well let's hope there's some proper food out there - I'm starving!" Demon said, making Dust chuckle. "Not funny Dust, this is serious. Besides, if I don't have any proper food I'll go hungry and if I get hungry I won't even say no to some delicious owl meat, yum!"

Dust flinched. "Sorry."

"Nah, owl meat must be terrible anyway," Demon finishes off. Blaze laughed.

"You bet it would be - especially Dust, he's just feathers and bones," Blaze joined in. This got Dust angry.

"I'm not just feathers and bones, I've got flesh and blood too," Dust retorted.

"Stop bullying him girls - he's too soft anyway," Graceful joked.

Dust lunged at her. "No I'm not."

Graceful pushed him aside. "Yes, you are."

"Not."

"Yes you are."

"No am not."

"Yes you're not."

"Yes I am - wait, no am not!" Dust almost fell for the trick.

"Oh but I like softies," Demon whispered. Dust blushed. "They're so cute - just like you."

"Am I - no I'm not a softie!" Dust complained.

"But you are cute!" Demon said with a smiled.

"Ugh... I don't like disturbing your little act but there's some more important things now... like I don't know - TEN SOLDIERS AND A METAL BEAK HEADING OUR WAY!" Blaze interrupted them. Both Dust and Demon looked behind them and they saw something moving in the sky. So it was true. They were coming.

It was now a week. Kludd was getting sick of the complaints of his soldiers but at least they stayed airborne. What was even better was that they barely slowed down and so Kludd hoped that he would manage to catch up with the four owls.

"Could we stop for some food boss?" a soldier asked.

"You had some last night, no we are not!" Kludd replied.

"Could we at least get some rest?" another asked. "We've been flying for twenty-four hours."

"And we'll be flying another twenty twenty-four hours if you all continue talking!" Kludd retorted.

"But," a soldier was just about to speak.

"Now you have it. Since we will now continue flying for another day, you might as well want to know who you should all beat up once this all is over," Kludd cut him off. The nine other soldiers glared at the whimpering soldier who seemed to have shrinked in size.

The group flew on until they saw what looked like the faint outlines of mountains. Suddenly a soldier called out. "There they are, Metalbeak. All of them, just a mile or two away!"

Kludd sped up and flew on. The rest of the group followed his lead, also speeding up. He heard the screech of one owls whom had just given out a warning and was flying off. The other owls started flying too and the chase was on.

Kludd decided to fly even faster, but as his group was just ten meters away, the four owls had begun flying twice as fast as he was. He guessed they were more rested then him as they managed to fly like this for an hour.

He continued to fly on, even though all his muscles were burning and his bones were aching. He wanted revenge for that betrayal and for that ruined wedding. But his armoury was slowing him down and then he decided to do the only possible thing and he threw away all his armour, including his metal mask.

Since it was night his scars did not pain him from the sunlight and he was lighter which gave him better speed. He regretted throwing away the only thing that hid his nasty looking scars and what proved that he was the most powerful owl, but he was happy to be faster.

He managed to get closer to the slowest owl, Dust. His soldiers were too far to help, but he himself could take this owl on and he knew it.

Dust screeched in pain as an owl clawed at his wing. He turned around to see Kludd, who even without his mask looked evil, scary and the scratches he had given him were still just as painful.

"Hey! Leave him be!" Demon shouted and she lunged at Kludd, hitting him with one wing at the back oh his head, before getting to Dust.

"Are you okay, Dust?" she asked him. He nodded and then lunged at Kludd. He scratched the bigger owl's belly, tearing several feathers and leaving two scratches that were a little deep. Kludd backed off as he felt the pain but then decided to peck the owl in the head trying to making him fall or even go unconscious from shock or just weaken him.

Demon decided to attack Kludd head on, but he flew aside, when Blaze appeared, hitting him instead.

"I see that you are very loyal to each other. What would you do if I were to kill one of you I wonder..." Kludd spoke, whilst grabbing Blaze and trying to wound her by digging his talons into the bone of her leg. She yelped in pain which made Grace react and attack him.

"Don't. You. Dare!" Grace shouted at him before flying into the air. Then she dived-bombed at him, full speed and in shock, Kludd let go of Blaze.

She head-butted him, sending him to the ground, but then he rose just a second before he touched the ground and lunged at her, his talons spread out, ready to attack.

However, Grace did not see this attack coming and was shocked to feel several sharp claws around her neck, digging deeper into her skin. She let out a small cry for help.

"Now way to fight me now," Kludd said, smiling slyly. "And since my soldiers are already here, anyone who tries to help you will be caught and imprisoned as well."

"You would not... stoop...that...low," Grace said in a raspy voice. "To a ... trickster."

"Oh yes I would, haven't you learnt anything," Kludd replied.

Grace tried to choke herself by holding her breath, but Kludd just laughed at her attempt. "Try as hard as you might. It will only ake your friends come quicker."

Blaze was the first to come and the first to get caught. "Don't you even dare scratch her you brute, or I'll kill you!" she screeched.

"And how would you do that now?" he asked mockingly as he commanded one of his soldiers to grab hold of the threatening owl.

Demon raced up too and so did Dust. "Let them go!" Demon said. "I'm the one who betrayed the pure ones first and it was my plan to stop the wedding!" Demon said glaring at Kludd.

"What if I said no," Kludd retorted commanding yet another guard, this time to hold Demon still. She spat at the owls eyes, but the owl just tightened his grip further.

This was the last straw for Dust. "Let her go!" he unleashed his talons at the owl holding Demon and then pecked and scratched at him furiously until the owls face was marked with blood and scarring-deep wounds. The soldier screeched in pain and tried to fight Dust off, loosening his grip on Demon in the process. She quickly flew away from the owl and attacked the soldier holding Blaze, who released his grip on Blaze and she flew off to help Grace.

The desert had become a battle field. Some owls fled from battle, too injured to fly for long enough and they fell into the sand. The first one had his wings dislocated bad enough to make him fall and hit the sand. He had not managed to survive the impact as the ground had become harder as the owls were now neared the mountains.

Another one was brutally injured by Dust. With now only one eye, he tried to hit Dust, but only managing to wound Dusts back a bit and not even near the spine. The wound was slightly deep but not deep enough to stop Dust from slamming into the owl, spraining the owl's right leg.

The owl seemed to loose concentration from the pain and was shocked when Demon had managed to attack him with her talons. He got three bloody lines of his belly and on on his already sprained leg. The owl surrendered and quickly flew on, trying to get to the mountain. He knew that if he had kept on fighting he would have died.

Seeing this, two smaller soldiers decided to follow the owl. They did not want to have anything to do with this fight anymore. They decided to help the injured owl as they knew that in a group of three they were more likely to survive and they flew off, to the mountain.

Blaze had managed to make Kludd let go of Grace who soon afterwards started attacking him. Seeing the battle as fair now, Blaze decided to take on a soldier. It was a large one, but it did not have a big brain capacity as it was barely the one who could suspect a surprise attac coming.

The sudden impact as Blaze crashed into the owl, made it even more confused and gave Blaze a head start. She pecked him on the head and then flew off and then pecked in on the head to make him think that she was just trying yo annoy him. Then she dived-bombed him and made both of them close up to the ground. She then slammed him against a nearby rock, splitting his skull open. As the owl coughed up his own blood, she knew that he was dying and she flew off, but slowly, as the shock from hitting the massive owl had made her feel slightly dizzy.

Grace fought on with Kludd. "That's for tricking my friends!" she said, hitting him with a wing. Kludd decided to return the attack, but Grace dodged it. She slowly caught her breath from the battle and then she scratched him next to one of his eyes. He screeched in pain, making something inside her snap.

"I'm sorry," she apologized and back off. Why did I back off, what am I doing? she thought.

Kludd turned his face round, so to hide the bleeding scar. "Why would you apologise!?" Kludd asked.

"I...I..." she stuttered not knowing what to say.

He turned his head round again ans smiled slyly. "Would it help you come to yourself again if I said I hunted in your parent's territory?" he asked.

"You what?!" she said, attacking with her claws. Kludd took this chance to grab her by one of her wings, then her neck and then pin her down to the ground.

"You heard me right, I hunted in your parent's territory, now what are you going to do about it?" Kludd asked, smirking and he put his face closer to hers. She tried to spit in his face but missed. "No good trying that either."

Grace's friends stopped fighting. They looked at the commotion before the left over soldiers grabbed them.

"We will be here for the night. Tie those three up, soldier Ice Claw," Kludd commanded the toughest soldier with grey and silver feathers to tie Dust, Demon and Blaze to a near by tree. The owls tried to escape, but it was no use.

"As for this one," he continued looking at Gace. "You three of you shall take turns to guared her her in a separate area. She's the leader of this group." Grace squirmed in the wings and talons of the soldiers, but could not escape.

"And you," he pointed to the two last remaining soldiers," will guard the three. I will watch for out for the desert animals. If any of the meat eating beasts of the desert comes, these four will hold them off." He smirked at the last part and the started his job.

I hope you've founf this chapter interesting. It's a little longer than most of the chapters and the name does not fit that well but I could not think of any other. I also know that it probably doesn't live to your expections and truth be told, it does not live off mine either, but I wanted the last several chapters to make sense, so I had to find a way to connect the events. And I decided to make it more interesting by adding some not so important parts.

Please review, wether the reviews will be negative or positive, so I can see wether I truly need to re-write the chapter or just leave it. Thanks for reading,

Skyress.