"… A what?" Kludd asked, confused. Zarko slowly looked at him.
"One of the deadliest things ever designed. This thing, is extremely fragile; drop it, and it'll explode. The question is, 'how big'? I know the answer… but let's just say that it could probably make Shadow Forest look like a burnt version of the Barrens…"
This sent chills up all of their spines. Zarko looked down at the object in his talons.
"What do we do with it?" Thora asked.
"Keep it." Zarko said simply. "We cannot hide this anywhere. Otherwise, something could stumble across it and trigger it to explode. Everything within 1.7 miles will be dead in the matter of seconds. The best place to hide something, is where it doesn't exist…"
"And how exactly do we do that?" Now it was Claymore who asked. Zarko smirked.
"Tell me… Does anybody know where our island is?"
"No." They all said at the same time.
"Therefore, it doesn't exist to them."
Just then, his three brothers flew in. "We heard what you found. What are we to do about this?"
"Well, Alcrus, we're going to take it with us." Zarko answered.
"What! What could you possibly plan to do with it!" Reiden exclaimed. Zarko glared at him.
"You'll see." Zarko said as he carefully lowered it back inside. "Now, we need to get this out of here as quick as possible."
"I wouldn't think so."
They all turned and saw an owl standing at the entrance to the Palace. "Give me the Ember, before I have to hurt you."
They all looked at him strangely… all except for Zarko, who approached him. "How do you know the Ember is here?"
"That is none of your concern. I don't know where that frinking Boreal Owl is, but I don't care. I'm going to take the Ember, and then I'll be on my way."
"You're a bigger fool than I expected." Zarko said as he stared down the owl. "What makes you even think that you can just fly in here and take the very Ember of Ga'Hoole?"
"Again, that is none of your concern."
"Well, this is none of your concern either, but we came here not for the Ember, but something much more dangerous."
"And I should care, why?"
"Because if you want to live, then you'll fly out of here and forget that this place even existed. I'm giving you a chance to live. Right now, you can either fly out of here and live a great life, or act like you're tough and get yourself killed because of stupidity."
The owl charged him out of anger, battle claws extended, but Zarko just merely stepped to the side. He landed and turned back to him. Zarko churred.
"Hmph, pathetic. I'll try to make this quick."
The owl charged him once more and Zarko drew a sword and held it out to him. He tried to stop, but failed as he flew into it, and the end came out through the other side of his gizzard. The owl tried to breath, but couldn't as his lights had faded away. Zarko slowly pulled the sword out of him and his body fell to the ground.
"Rest in peace…" He whispered, sheathing his sword. He turned back to the other seven owls. "Get everything back inside of the crate; we're leaving."
He flew over to the pile of weapons he'd pulled out and grabbed the mini-gun. Alterran flew over to him and got a hold of one of the six barrels. They put it in, followed by Alcrus carrying an M16 into it, Reiden carried in some strange rectangle-shaped object carefully, and Clay, Kludd, Thora and Uglamore all carried in the pistols since they weren't strong enough to carry anything else.
"Alright, that should be good." Zarko said, locking the crate. "Pick it up- all of you; gonna need a lot of strength to carry it."
"What do we do about the body?" Alcrus asked as they got a hold of the sides and began to slowly lift it into the air.
"Leave that to me. Go on; I'll catch up." Zarko answered. Thora and Uglamore gave him a confused look but flew out slowly with the crate. Zarko stood at the entrance and watched as they flew away. When they got out of view, he sighed. "I know you're there, Bess."
Bess was surprised that he knew that she was there. Since there was no use in hiding, she flew out of the closet and landed some ways behind him. "How did you know I was here?"
"I've known you were there ever since I set foot in this place." He answered without turning around. "I understand that you have a lot of questions, like 'Who am you?' 'What are you doing here?' Who was that owl?' 'Who are the humans?' 'What about that crate?' 'What are guns?' 'What exactly does that 'Nuke' do?' I can tell you that the humans are what you call the 'Others', but that's it; anything else, I cannot explain. But there is something you can do for me…"
"What is it?" She asked cautiously. Zarko slightly turned his head.
"The Great Tree of Ga'Hoole Tree needs to know that this owl had come looking for the Ember. I know that you haven't left the Palace of Mists in a very long time, but too much is at stake here. Mention us at your own will, but if so, only tell Coryn and the rest of the Band and leave the rest up to them, unless they tell you otherwise."
"Why should I trust you?" Bess asked once again. "How do I know you won't just wait for me to leave so you can grab the Ember?"
"Hm, smart girl… but I am afraid that I'm not after the Ember, for it is nothing of value to me. All it is, is an ancient relic used to make history. Had I intended to take it, I would've been long gone, and you would've been dead. And if you mention me to the Parliament, make sure you tell Soren my name." Zarko turned until he could completely face her. "Your father, Grimble, was a good and brave owl. If it weren't for him, we wouldn't have a chance against the Pure Ones."
"What? How do you know about my father!"
"I just opened a crate you've been trying to open for a long time, showed you weapons you never could have possibly imagined, and yet you ask me how I know about him?" Zarko seemed like he'd expected it, but was still calm. "Glaux himself is grateful for his heroic sacrifice. He rests forever in Glamoura, and now knows peace forever."
Bess was left silent as she just stared at him. The torches and candles she had around the Palace of Mists were out of lighting reach of him, and since his back was to the entrance the moonlight was shining on it, making the side facing her completely black. Zarko eventually sighed.
"Do what you wish with the body; search for answers, salvage what you need, it's up to you. All that matters to me, is that you tell the Great Tree about the owl coming here." He said, taking off.
"Wait! " Bess called after him. He looked down, but only his fierce orange eyes were visible. "Who exactly are you?"
Zarko looked down silently, until he answered,
"A Servant of Glaux, a Harbinger of Peace, a Reverend of the Light, and a Bringer of Death."
"Put it down there!" Zarko directed as they struggled to carry the large crate.
"That's… what I've been waiting to hear… for the past… several miles…" Alcrus breathed as they were a few seconds away from putting it down. They got a few feet above the point to put it down when they all -except of Zarko- let go, causing Zarko to fall as he still held on to the crate. When they hit the ground, he was alright but looked up.
"Careful! That Nuke goes off, and this island won't even exist anymore!" He warned. They all went wide-eyed but nodded; they'd forgotten the dangers of what it held! He sighed and looked down on the crate. "I'm going to need some time alone with this, so I want you all to get some rest; do what you wish until I get this all working."
His brothers only nodded once again and took off without questions or hesitation, while the rest hesitated. Clay looked around before taking off, followed by Uglamore. Kludd seemed to be lost and thought, but came back to reality and took off as well. Zarko began to slowly fly the crate along the ground to somewhere. Thora, still being there, helped by doing the same.
"Hey, Zarko." She said, noticing that since she was helping it was moving faster. "Just thought you could use a talon."
"Takk, Thora." He thanked in Krakish as they pulled. "It's not easy pulling a half-ton crate as an owl..."
"No problem." Thora nodded. "Also thought that I could ask a few questions…"
"Alright, I'm not stopping you."
"Have you notice Kludd acting a little… off, lately?"
Zarko seemed to slightly lose his grip as the crate slipped a little and his altitude lowered an inch as well, but he quickly regained it all. "What makes you say that?"
"I mean… Whenever I see him, he seems to get… nervous. I don't know what it is though."
"Any ideas why?" He asked, listening closely to make sure he didn't misunderstand or not hear anything.
"Hm… No, none at all." She hummed.
"Name a few times when this has happened." Zarko told her.
"I noticed it first in the Crack, when he and Clay rescued me, Alcrus and Uglamore. We got caught up staring at each other, and when Alcrus asked him a question, he just stared stuttering. Also noticed it the morning before you came; I couldn't sleep, so I came to see what Kludd was up to. He was awake, asked what I was doing there, and I told him. I figured that he'd need to sleep, so I told him I was going to go out and hunt. He told me to wait, told me that he was just out hunting and asked if I wanted the rest of his vole."
"And he sounded nervous?"
"Yes. I came in and started eating, and I noticed him flinch a little, so I asked him what was wrong. I wanted to ask why he was always so nervous, but decided to keep it to myself. He said that he'd been wondering about how everyone in the world thought of him, and how they all thought him as a killer and that even his parents were glad he was dead. I told him that they didn't know that you were not to blame, and that you were trying everything you could to fix it all."
"Aye, that explains why he asked me about that the next morning." He said to himself. "Please, continue."
"Continuing from where I left off, I noticed that it'd started raining and I was too tired to fly back, so I asked Kludd if I could stay there for the day. He told me he could, but he sounded unsure. A few moments after, I felt a little cold so asked if I could sleep next to him. He was hesitant, but told me I could. And then, I fell asleep."
Zarko was silent for a few moments, before speaking up again.
"Why don't you ask him about it? Or you could ask Clay, Uglamore or one of my brothers."
"Well, I… I don't what to intrude his personal space or anything…"
"That's why I suggested that you could ask somebody else."
"What would make you think they know?" Thora asked, but then realized something. "You all know, don't you?"
Zarko churred. "How'd you figure out?"
"If anyone knew something like that, you'd know it!"
"Well, I'm afraid it is a little personal, but it does involve you. It wouldn't be rude to pressure him a little on this, because it's hard to let out- a now-or-never decision." He looked ahead and noticed something. "There's our destination."
Thora looked ahead too and saw a cave big enough to fit a family of lions, but it had a variety of large tools she'd never seen before. "What's in there?"
"Everything I need to recreate the contents of this crate." He answered as they set it down right outside the cave. "I don't mean to push you away, but I'll need to be alone to work on this."
"Alright then." She said as she was about to take off, but turned back to him instead. "Can I ask you one more question?"
"Yes, you may."
"…What is the closes you've ever come to death as a human?"
Zarko immediately froze up, as if he was remembering something.
Flashback…
'CRACK!'
Zarko stopped as he looked down at his chest. There was a large bullet hole, leaking more and more blood with every second. He looked up at the incoming soldiers, firing their weapons as they charged him.
'CRACK CRACK CRACK!'
Two more went into his left shoulder, and another in his stomach. He dropped his M16, dropped to his knees, and looked up at them once again as all of the bullets flew past him.
"ZARKO!" He heard a yell. Zarko fell back on the hot desert ground and looked up at the clear blue sky, his vision making it mix with red, and many sand particles flying over him. A soldier he recognized as Alterran grabbed his backpack and began dragging him. "Alrcus, cover the left side! Reiden, get the right!"
He continued to look at the many enemy soldiers running towards them at full speed, many falling as his bullets entered their bodies. A grenade exploded a few feet in front of him, causing the sand to fly up and block his vision. One of them charged through it, and he heard Alterran's M9 click. With quick reflexes not failing, Zarko pulled his Desert Eagle and a loud metallic crack filled his ears as a hole was now between the soldier's head. More and more got close, running along the red sand- stained with his blood. He continued to fire his Desert Eagle, slowly as his fading strength made the recoil more intense.
Zarko was now hearing the propellers of a Blackhawk above him, meaning that their extraction was here. He looked back and saw the mounted mini-guns loading led into all of the soldiers. Looking back in front of him, he saw one with an RPG-7 run up on a sand dune to his left. He quickly reacted by aiming his sidearm at him, and pulling the trigger…
'Click!'
His eyes widened in horror. He threw the Desert Eagle to the side and reached out to his back, and pulled a large combat knife out. The distance between him and the RPG was about a good twenty to thirty feet, making the chances of a hit thin. No matter, he threw it, and seconds past until it entered straight through the chest. The soldier began to fall, lifeless as his finger pulled down the trigger. The rocket was aimed towards him, and it was approaching quickly. Seeing that he was passing a body, he quickly pick the dead body's AK-47 up and fired it blindly in the direction of the rocket. A large explosion filled the air in front of him, and he blacked out.
When he regained consciousness, he felt his back being pushed down on metal, meaning he was in the helicopter. They began to take off as he stared out at the empty desert full of enemy soldiers, and a large airbase in flames…
End of Flashback…
"I… I can't remember." He lied, looking back at Thora. "But right now, go ahead and do what you need to during this point of your freedom."
She was hesitant, but flew off. Zarko, left alone, looked back down at the box and opened it with the key.
Crazybird101 & Shard. Alba- Glad to see that everything is most likely settled now, and I in fact do consider you as friends.
Crazybird101- Well, I got the idea randomly, to tell you the truth; I just think of randomness XD
Shard. Alba- Hm, I haven't really thought of when Kludd was going to tell her, but it's a work-in-progress.