Chapter 15
Pigeon Court… Wrong Place, Wrong Time
Rachel, Shade, and Marina had finally reached the city of Montreal. It was bright and loud, and the buildings were taller than the trees in the woods. To Shade, the humans' city was truly an incredible sight to behold. To Rachel, it was incredible, but the Northern forest is what she truly longed for, especially as she and her friends are in the middle of catching up to the Silverwings.
As the trio flew through the city, Shade turned his gaze to his left and saw his reflection in the window of a nearby building. "This is so cool!" the young Silverwing exclaimed with joy. "This has gotta be where you're from, right Rachel?"
"Yeah. It is." said the Goldwing. Then she added jokingly, "And to think I left my colony and this city just to get away from it all." She chuckled, then she thought to herself, 'Hey who knows, maybe once after we've caught up with the Silverwings at the bell tower, we'll go pay my buddy Ambrose a quick visit.'
"Ahh. C'mon Rachel. Why get away from all this? I mean, look around. The humans' world is incredible!"
"Yeah, it's pretty amazing." Marina admitted, "But we need to stay focused and find Shade's tower."
Rachel agreed. "She's right, we need to keep both eyes open. So let's get searching."
With that, the Goldwing, the Silverwing and the Brightwing increased their speed and began to scan the city for the colony's next resting stop.
As the teens continued their search for the bell tower, the young Goldwing was unaware that her gold-dusted wings had reflected light from a flashing theatre sign. The reflected light flashed into the eyes of the giant carnivorous bat, who was feeding off a couple of rats with his obese partner in an alley.
The tall carnivorous bat hissed and snarled by the sudden flash of light and he looked up to see what had caused it. He thoroughly scanned the rooftops and the sky, but there was nothing there. 'What in the name of… What sort of source could have caused that flashing light?' he thought.
With a suspicious hum, the carnivorous bat scanned the area again and then went back to his meal, while secretly planning to find the source of the flashing light to confirm his suspicion.
Shade scanned everywhere for the bell tower until finally he spotted a clock tower up ahead. "There's one over there!" he called to his friends.
The girls looked up to see where the Silverwing was gazing. Up ahead was indeed a clock tower, and the face of the clock read one minute to ten. The question is… is the clock tower what they're looking for?
Rachel and her friends flew over to the tower and landed on the wooden barred window above the face of the clock to rest. Shade landed on the left while Marina landed on the right, leaving the tired Goldwing in the middle.
The Brightwing sighed in relief. "Finally."
"You can say that again." Rachel chuckled.
"Finally." the Brightwing repeated, jokingly.
Rachel smirked and chuckled at Marina's little joke. "Not what I meant." The girls both started to laugh.
Shade glanced around the clock tower, looking puzzled and unsure. "Marina, Rachel, I'm not sure this is the same tower on the sound map." Shade replied unsure.
"What?" Rachel looked at him confused.
"Sure it is." Marina spoke, seeming sure.
"Well… it doesn't have a cross." Shade replied looking up and saw a one point.
"As Marina put it earlier, and I quote… 'Holy sunlight, Shade! Now you tell us this?!'" Rachel was getting irritated. "You dragged us all the way here and now you're just finally realizing that you led us to the wrong tower? Why didn't you mention the cross before we left the cave?"
Shade's face turned red in embarrassment and he chuckled nervously.
"Well did you or Rachel see any other tower in your little sight-seeing tour?" Marina asked Shade, complainingly. She was so tired that she was in no mood to fly on any further.
"Uh... no, but I-"
"Okay, then what else could it be?" Marina interrupted.
Suddenly, when the clock struck ten - BONG! The bells of the clock tower rang so loud that its vibrations made the whole tower shake. The bells also stunned the young teens to yell in pain and cover their ears from their loud ringing. As the clock tower shook, the Goldwing and her friends lost their balance and toppled off the wooden window, falling like leaves in the autumn. They fell a few feet but then they caught themselves in midair.
As they flew back up to the wooden window, Marina loudly tells Shade, "That proves it! You said you heard a loud bong."
"Ahh! I'm still getting a ringing in my ears and I don't think it's the bells." Rachel groaned, while cleaning her ears.
"This isn't it." Shade insisted and landed on the wooden beam again, right where the wood was broken, allowing him to stand upright between the beams.
"Then where is it?" Marina groaned, coming to the end of her patience. "Honestly, guys! I feel like I'm doing everything."
Shade protests to that remark. "You're doing everything? It was my sound map! That just-"
"Stinks!" Marina wrinkled her nose as she finished his sentence.
Shade stared at her for a moment and then said, "That's not what I was going to say!"
Rachel sniffed around and she nearly gagged by the sudden stinky aroma. "Ugh! Whoa! What crawled up here and died?" she exclaimed, covering her nose with her wing.
Shade picked up the stench and winced, holding his nose. "Ugh! Pee-yoo! Oh, you're right! It smells… foul."
Rachel, still covering nose, looked at Shade curiously. "Um… Define 'foul'. Do you mean as in awful or as in… bir-Ahh!"
Suddenly, something grabbed Rachel from behind and pulled her into the bell tower. Then, two giant birds' wings grabbed Shade and Marina and pulled them into the tower as well.
Within the dark and smelly bell tower, Rachel, Shade and Marina were roughly shoved to the ground like a few sacks of potatoes. Rachel and Marina fell onto their stomachs while Shade landed on his back, and the three of them were pinned down by their feathered captors. The young Silverwing looked up, and to his shock, he and his friends were being held… in pigeon court!
"Pigeons!" Marina exclaimed.
True enough, the clock tower was home to a court of pigeons, and - judging by their cold, hateful glares - for some strange reasons, they were not pleased with the three young bats.
In fear, Shade struggled to get out of his captor's grasp, but to no avail. Then he turned his fearful gaze towards Rachel and Marina. "What are we going to do, guys?"
"I-ugh!" Marina cringed in pain from her captor's foot being pressed down harder on her wing, "I don't know!"
Rachel strained, trying to break free but couldn't due to her captor's strong grip. "Ahh! I don't even know what's going on!"
Suddenly, using their beaks, two of the three pigeon guards picked Shade and Rachel by the scruff of their manes and moved them over to the Brightwing. The two guards dropped their captives onto their stomachs and pinned their wings to the floor once again, immobilizing the teens with their sharp talons.
Rachel continued to struggle within the pigeon's sharp talons, but it was no use.
The pigeon guard holding Shade informed his commanding officer. "Captain, here are the renegades Hegland saw kill our friend!"
Rachel stopped in her tracks, completely confused by what she had just heard. "What? 'Kill?' What are they talking about?" She whispered to her friends, but they too were completely at a loss. It would seem that something had happened before Rachel and her friends arrived in the city. It would aslo seem that the trio had shown up at the wrong place at the wrong time; and now they are wrongfully being held in pigeon court… for murder!
As the jury of the pigeon court continued cooing and muttering about the now suspected murderers in this case, the captain of the court flew down to the captive renegades to thoroughly examine them, glaring at them coldy. He then turned to the court. "Silence! Give me more light." He demanded.
Over in the corner of the courtroom was a sheet of paper, covering a hole in the floor. One member of the pigeon court pulled away the sheet of paper and the city lights lit up the room. As the room illuminated, the light revealed the glittering gold dust in Rachel's wings. This made the entire pigeon court coo and awe in amazement.
The pigeon captain's shadow grew larger as he drew closer to the captive trio. He closely examined Shade and, with his beak, he began pulling on the Silverwing's hair. As the captain pulled, Shade cried in pain. Next, the pigeon captain quickly turned to examine Marina. With his wing, he smacked her in the face and she grunted from the impact. Then, he turned to Rachel. At first, he was amazed by her sparkling wings, but then he shook his head to regain his concentration.
The captain turned his gaze to the witness to identify the attackers. "Hegland. Come forward."
With his head lowered, the pigeon known as Hegland walked towards his commanding officer and turned his gaze to identify the culprits. As he studied the trio, Hegland did not recognize them and shook his head.
"Uh… these aren't the ones." he stammered as he continued explaining, "There were only two of them. And I've never seen the sparkle one before. I-I told you, they were huge! "
"Are you sure?" The captain pompously rolled his eyes and scoffed, "Tch! what am I saying? You're never sure."
But Hegland was scared out of his wits. In fact, his nervousness grew to panic and terror. "Oh... what if the giant bats come back? Their wings were-"
"Enough!" The captain snapped at him, having enough of this "giant bats" nonsense.
Poor Hegland sadly lowered his head because his commanding officer didn't believe his testimony.
Rachel glanced over at Shade and Marina in puzzlement. "You guys have giant bats here in the Northern forest?" she whispered to them. But they both shook their heads.
"No. We've never even heard of giant bats." Marina added in a whisper.
"This is news to us, Rachel." Shade whispered in reply.
Rachel turned gaze back to Hegland and seeing how traumatized he was, the Goldwing empathetically felt sorry for him after what he had endured. She could sense that Hegland was never taken seriously by the captain nor by anyone else... like he was… an outcast. Then she noticed the fresh cut on the left side of his neck. 'He must've gotten scratched during the attack.' She thought. 'What sort of bat did that?'
Meanwhile, the migrating Silverwings had arrived in Montreal City. Through the city and past the buildings, Frieda led her colony to their remote resting stop, with Mercury scouting from above.
"We are almost at the cathedral." said the head elder.
Suddenly, Mercury's eyes widened with horror… "Dive! Take cover!" he alerted the Silverwings of the approaching danger up ahead.
The Silverwings quickly followed the scout to a nearby building and hid underneath its rooftop without hesitation. Flying past the building was a group of owls led by the owl general Brutus. They were heading for the clock tower and judging by their flying formation, something was amiss.
"What was that about?" asked the puzzled Mercury. Frieda was just as confused as he was.
"I can't imagine." She replied. "I thought the score was settled with the owls when they burned down Tree Haven."
"I guess they didn't consider that punishment enough." said the bitter Bathsheba, sneering as she turned her gaze towards Ariel, still wishing that Shade and that Goldwing rogue were handed over to the owls.
Frieda's puzzlement grew to concern. "Owls in the city are uncommon and those owls were in battle formation. That's never a good sign."
Back in the clock tower, Rachel, Shade and Marina were still under the pigeon court's interrogation. Shade continued to struggle in his attempt to break free from his captor's grasp, while Marina stayed put.
Rachel, on the other hand, was lost in thought. She was trying to figure out what sort of species of bat could kill other animals. Then, the pigeon captain walked up to her, cutting off her thoughts.
"I have heard rumors about a young bat with sparkly wings entering the Northern forest, though I never thought those rumors to be true." He said. "Well how about it, Glitter-wing? You look like the smart one."
"Okay… First of all, it's 'Goldwing', not 'Glitter-wing'." Rachel corrected him. "And second, we didn't kill anybody. We were at the wrong place at the wrong time."
Unfortunately, the pigeon captain didn't believe her words. Then he nodded at her captor, signaling him to torture the Goldwing. Rachel groaned in pain as her captor's grip tightened harder with his talons digging into her arms.
"Hey, featherhead! Leave her alone!" Shade angrily yelled at the pigeon captain. The captain was about to stomp on the Silverwing when...
"He's arrived, sir." One of the pigeon cadets reported.
The captain lowered his foot down and turned to his left, facing forward. Rachel and her friends turned their attention to the very direction where the captain was facing. Ascending from the shadows, a familiar great horned owl with eyes filled with pride and a stern frowning face. It was General Brutus. He stood at the other side of the room and the pigeon captain saluted him with loyalty, pride and respect.
Then the great horned owl's stern gaze turned towards the young bats. He drew closer to Shade and Rachel.
"You two." The owl breathed in a low growl.
Shade stuttered, "B-B-Brutus!"
"Wasn't breaking the law enough for you, bat? You, the Goldwing, and your colony have now graduated to murder?"
"Murder?! My colony would never murder!" Shade's fear was replaced with defense as he protested.
"So, you admit that it was just you and your friends here."
"We didn't do anything!" Marina exclaimed.
The pigeon captain stepped in. "My sentry described them as giant bats, unlike these three."
The great horned owl shook his head in arrogant disbelief and he stuck his chest out. "Preposterous! The Silverwings are obviously killing innocent pigeons as retribution for our burning of Tree Haven."
Rachel couldn't believe what she was hearing. How could he possibly think that the Silverwings are killing pigeons out of revenge? General Brutus's pride and ignorance were blinding him to not think straight and listen to reason.
"That's insane! No bat can kill a pigeon." Shade rebutted.
"No one bat perhaps," Brutus agreed, "but an ambush by the whole colony! Besides, I've heard tales of cornered bats and the wiles they employ. A bat scorned will stop at nothing."
That just made Shade more furious. "That's the stupidest thing I have ever heard!"
"Shade, shut up!" Marina hissed.
"If I were you, I'd listen to your wise little friend here." Brutus warned the Silverwing with a dangerous tone. Then he bellowed in Shade's face, "Tell me where your colony is! Now!"
"I don't know!" Shade answered truthfully, but Brutus brushed off his answer.
Then the owl general turned to Marina. "Why is a Brightwing in league with this puny criminal and his gold-dusted accomplice?" he asked.
Marina kept her silence as she gazed at Shade and Rachel with uncertainty.
"Answer the general!" the pigeon captain commanded.
His bellowing made Marina flinch, before she glared at the owl in defiance. "He's not a criminal," she replied in defense, "and neither is Rachel!"
General Brutus shook his head as if he was wasting his time with them. "Ugh… bats. Your ancestors couldn't see who to side with and neither can you. You creatures make me sick!"
"And who are you to judge?!" Rachel protested, having enough of the owl general's arrogance and prejudice. "You are an arrogant, small-minded, insecure, pompous fool!"
Brutus quickly turned to the Goldwing, looking highly offended. "How dare you defy me!"
"You mistreat the bats of the Northern forest the same way your ancestors mistreated theirs! You speak of justice, yet you cruelly act out of vengeance. Just like when you burned down Tree Haven. You wouldn't know the true meaning of justice if it bit you in the tail feathers!"
"SILENCE!" bellowed General Brutus, his feathers all ruffled up.
"JUSTICE!" Rachel bellowed back, without a trace of backing down.
Shade and Marina froze with fear, yet the owl general did not strike back. Brutus drew his head closer to the defiant Goldwing. "Mark my words 'Goldwing', I will see to it that you will pay for this insolence." he threatened in a low growl. Then, Brutus lifted his head and addressed the pigeon captain. "Captain, post sentries all over the city."
"It's already been done, General." the captain replied.
"Fine. Capture and arrest all Silverwings!" the owl general decreed.
Shade's eyes widened in horror and he cried, "No!"
"You can't!" Rachel pleaded.
"I will alert the owls in the Northern Forest." General Brutus headed towards the exit. But before he left, he paused for a moment and looked over his shoulder. "Oh… and captain, torture these prisoners until they reveal the colony's whereabouts," he said with a deceptive pleasant tone.
The three teens gasped in horror, then owl general left the city, leaving Rachel and her friends behind to suffer excruciating torture.
The Silverwings continued their way to the cathedral to rest for the day. But as they were flying, Frieda noticed something perching by the stone gargoyles of the cathedral. Using her echolocation, she saw three night guard pigeons. Something was definitely amiss.
"I do not like this," she said quietly with unease. "We should skip this landmark and move on to the next one."
"Don't be so dramatic Frieda. It's just some pigeons. So what?" Bathsheba carelessly didn't see what the problem was.
"First owls in battle formation, now pigeons on guard duty at night. Something is wrong." the elder explained
"You are the leader," Bathsheba replied. "We will carry on, but I still disagree!" Putting on a sour face, the old bat joined the other elders somewhere behind them.
Noticing Ariel's worried expression, Frieda calmly soothed her, "don't worry Ariel. I promise we will stop and wait for Shade and Rachel later. But for now, we must fly on."
Ariel softly sighed, knowing that she would have to keep on waiting until the colony stopped at another resting point. She gazed at the cathedral up ahead, hoping that Shade and Rachel were already there resting for now. Then, she continued to fly on with the rest of the colony.
On top of a building, not too far away, the two giant carnivorous bats were feasting on another pigeon they have just killed. Once they were satisfied with their current meal, the obese bat noticed an entire migrating colony of Silverwings flying past them an he immediately notified his partner.
Irritated, the taller bat glanced at his partner until he noticed the Silverwings as well. Placing a claw to his chin in thought, a devilish smirk slowly spread across his face as he began to develop another sadistic and sinister plan.
Back in the clock tower, the pigeon guards began sharpening their beaks on the brick walls, metallic stubs, and wooden support poles, readying themselves to torture the now accused teens.
"What do we do Shade?" Marina whispered in fear.
"Get out of here as fast possible," he answered with determination.
"And warn the Silverwings about Brutus's wild accusation." Rachel added.
Marina noticed the sheet of paper and the hole in the floor. She remembered earlier that one of the pigeon guards had pulled the paper away from the hole to light up the room, and an idea came to her head. She quickly turned to her friends. "Guys."
"Yeah?" Shade and Rachel said in unison.
"Pigeons can't see in the dark." The Brightwing nudged her head toward the hole in the floor.
Shade and Rachel looked over to the hole and, immediately getting the idea, Shade nodded to the girls.
While his captor was busy sharpening his beak, Shade took the opportunity to slip out of the pigeon's foot. Unfortunately, one of the pigeon's talons accidentally tore Shade's wing and he cried in pain in the process. Despite the pain in his freshly torn wing, Shade flew over to the sheet of paper as fast as he could and covered up the hole.
Just as the lights went out, the entire pigeon court went into a frenzy, squawking in panic and confusion.
"Don't let the prisoners escape!" One of the pigeon guards cried in alert. In the chaos, some members of the court were flapping their wings anxiously and some kept ramming into each other.
Seizing the opportunity, Marina bit her captor hard in the foot, causing him to screech in pain and release her. Rachel did the same, then she and Marina both rushed over to join Shade.
"Way to go!" Shade cheered.
"Let's move!" Marina cried, and the three teens took off on their escape.
Using his echolocation, Shade was able to see which pigeon was where in all the chaos while leading his friends in their escape. The three friends dodged all the pigeons that tried to block our way. Shade looked back and saw Rachel and Marina almost snatched by a pigeon, luckily they dodged the bird. However, as Shade turned his head forward, he accidentally flew right into a pigeon, and he ricocheted out of the clock tower window.
Once he had regained his composure, Shade realised that his friends were still trapped inside the clock tower.
"Shade!" Marina cried. As she and Rachel continued to dodge their way out, one pigeon blocked their path and Marina cried for Shade again. "Shade!"
Shade gasped and dove back inside the tower. He kicked the pigeon out of the way. Then Marina and Rachel helped pin him down on the railing, causing the pigeon sequel in the process. The three friends took off into the air and continued to fly towards the exit.
As they were reaching the exit, Shade was flying as fast as he could, but then he winced and groaned as the pain from his torn wing worsened. The pain was so bad that he rammed into the wall and he fell onto a wooden beam.
Noticing this, Marina gasped in horror and they flew down to aid him. Rachel noticed as well and followed after the Brightwing.
"You ok?" Marina asked as she helped him up.
"Just fly!" Shade groaned and the three of them flew to the exit and escaped the pigeon court.
As they flew further and further, Rachel noticed the rip in Shade's wing and gasped. "Shade! Your wing!"
"Do you want to stop?" Marina asked in concern. "Rest your wing?"
Shade had a hard time flying due to the pain, but he kept on going. He sneered in a bitter low growl. "Pigeons. I hate them all almost as much as I hate those stupid owls!"
"Shade, revenge isn't worth it." Marina reasoned with him. "We have to warn your colony! We've gotta find that cross."
"She's right, Shade. Nothing good can come from vengeance." Rachel added. "Now let's go find the Silverwings!"
With that, Rachel and friends flew on to find the bell tower with the cross and warn the Silverwings of General Brutus... and fast!
Goldwing16' Note(s):
FUN FACT(S):
1. In the little passage about Rachel's wings reflecting light from a theatre sign and flashing into the eyes of a certain Vampyrum Prince, well... I used a reference from Swan Princess where Odette's wings (as a swan) flashes sunlight into Prince Derek's eyes in the woods, but I made a little twist in the reference. Anyways... it looks like You-Know-Who is getting kinda close to finding her. First her voice, now the flashing light. Yuh-oh.
2. When Rachel and her friends are being accused of murder by General Brutus and the pigeon court, Rachel stands up for the Northern bats and verbally lets Brutus have it. This is reference of Esmerelda standing up to Frollo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame... as requested by one of my readers.
Stay tuned for Chapter 16 AND the lyrics to my parody song wrote this fanfic... Nocturnal Help The Outcasts!