12

12

"This herb is for infections," said Grif.

Dusk didn't notice. He had gotten so bored for the past half hour that he had stopped listening to Grif and was grooming himself when Grif took an empty nutshell and slammed it on his head.

"Ow!" cried Dusk, "What was that for?"

"You weren't paying attention. The Tree Bark Regiment has no time to train chiropters who don't listen to their teachers."

"Teachers, huh?" Dusk muttered. Grif must be at least 3 months younger than him and he was his teacher.

"Now tell me, which herb is good for infections?" Grif asked.

Dusk looked at the piles of leaves. They all looked the same.

"This one." Grif pointed at a pile of ground up leaves. "Remember it."

As Dusk sniffed the herb, a loud thump echoed through the tree. Several of the workers looked up. Something rammed into the tree again.

"What was that?" Dusk wondered aloud.

A regiment member flew in through a hole in the bark.

'The felids found the tree!" he shouted, "Evacuate!"

"We can't!" cried Grif, "The wounded can't move."

"Then we must hold here," said the regiment member.

Just then, Tark flew in through the same hole.

He looked at Dusk and said, "Come with me."

He climbed up the walls as Dusk flew along.

"The felids are trying to break through the wall," Tark explained.

There was another thump against the wall. Dusk could hear the roaring of the felids. The wall couldn't hold any longer.

As they neared the hole, Tark suddenly glided out and tuck his wings and dived at the felid ramming into the wall with his helmet aimed at the felid's head. The felid roared at the impact and thrashed around for a few seconds before falling down dead. Dusk flew down next to Tark.

"How did you do that?" he asked, surprised.

"We've tipped our helmet thorns with poison. Very deadly poison." He looked into the forest. "You better get back to your colony. They'll be wondering about you."

"Don't you need help?" asked Dusk.

"I don't think you can help very much. You haven't even had your training yet."

"What training?"

"I'll tell you tomorrow. I am your trainer, by the way."

"Great," said Dusk, not very excited. There was so much going on and he couldn't even help.

"Go, quickly," said Tark, hurriedly.

Dusk flew back to the Colony's tree thinking. Was joining the regiment a good choice? It seemed to be a lot more work than he'd expected and he was starting to feel bored by it.

Maybe I shouldn't have joined, he thought.