Chapter 5: Echoes of the past

A restless murmur ran through the crowd roosting above us. They all looked at us with a mixture of anger and fear. I gulped but felt relieved to see Todd and Breeze flying over to a ledge right above us.

''You two are in so much guano. Chinook is gonna be grounded for a week,'' said Todd not without amusement written on his face.

''Why? He didn't do anything that big mouse,'' said Shade, mumbling the last word. I promptly threw an unmistakable glare at him and nodded warningly towards his mother. Luckily, she seemed to ignore his insult about Chinook.

''So, did you see it?'' Breeze asked, sounding excited, ''You know...''

''Todd!'' A sharp call prevented us from telling them about our adventure and three adult Silverwing females, the mothers of Breeze, Chinook and Todd landed behind the two young bats on the ledge ''Roost!'' the chubby one, called Bala strictly commanded and Todd instantly obeyed his mother's orders and left the spot, followed by Breeze.

''Ariel, this has gone too far!'' Bala criticized. Like the other two, she looked like a spitting image of her child. But with pink instead of orange hair and purple-colored fur and wings.

''Far too far,'' added Breeze's mother Jaya whose fur color was violet like her daughter's. But her hair was much brighter. More white.

Isis, Chinooks mom, who looked just like him with her hairstyle but had purple fur, white hair and a pink and white mane, flew over to the edge and hung down to our level with a claw pointed directly at Ariel. ''Keep those lawbreakers away from my baby!'' she demanded glaring at her coldly.

Shade rolled his eyes. ''It's a laugh,'' he muttered with a smirk.

''Shade!'' Ariel hushed him, ''Roost! Now!'' The young Silverwing lowered his head and did like his mother said. Then she looked back over to me and crossed her wings before her chest. ''You too!''

I blinked at her in surprise. ''But Mercury said ...'' Seeing the strict expression in her face, I knew it was useless trying to say anything. Instead, I just nodded and walked over to my sleeping place.

Arriving there, I was about to curl up under the leaves in order to sleep as I heard wings flapping behind me.

I turned around and saw Mercury standing in front of the entrance to the crevice. He had his arms crossed in front of his chest and stared down at me with a stern expression.

''Eh, Ariel said that I should come here. Sorry I didn't...''

''I know. She told me,'' he interrupted me without changing his facial expressions or gestures.

''Actually, I am more interested to know why you broke your word and went outside''?

I swallowed, not knowing what to say.

''Or why you and Shade broke the most important law?'' He shook his head. ''I thought I told you about it Vanessa.''

''You did,'' I admitted.

''I know you humans are used to walk around in the daylight,'' he continued, ''But here you are not among your kind Vanessa. You are here with us and therefore you have to follow our rules.''

I looked away, knowing he was right, and felt ashamed to have broken my word. I should have talked Shade out of seeing the sun and not be persuaded by him to go outside. After all, I was older than him, probably even in bat years and therefore should have acted more responsibly. But now it was too late.

''I'm sorry,'' I said and looked at him. ''I should have stayed here and not gone outside with Shade and see the sun. That was quite stupid of us.''

Mercury snorted, ''Indeed. Although ''quite stupid'' is still an understatement.'' He sighed and his expression changed into worry. ''We can only pray that your stupidity won't bring any misfortune.''

''What misfortune?'' I asked myself and had the feeling he meant alone the thing with the sun.

But what could that be? Didn't we escape the owl?

''Best you go to sleep now. We talk further about it tomorrow.''

I nodded and put myself back under the leaves while Mercury flew over to his own roost and closed my eyes.

''Hey, Psst! Vanessa!''

''Hmmr ..what's wrong?'' I asked grumpily, not liking to be woken up so early.

''The elders have met, and they want to see both of us...now!'' Shade replied, looking down at me with worry. Immediately I got up.

''But I thought only adult bats were allowed to meet the elders?'' I asked confused.

''Yes, and anyone who looks at the sun or goes out even though she was told not to do so!''

I flinched briefly noticing Mercury standing right there, beside Shade, looking at me reproachfully.

''Now come on!''

Not wanting to disgruntle him even more than he already was, I hastily rubbed the sleep out of my face and combed my hair with my fingers before walking out of the crevice to climb onto Mercury's back.

Then he lifted off and flew with me to the very top of Tree-Heaven, like the very first time after he brought me to the colony.

Shade and his mother Ariel followed us close behind.

Soon after did we land on the same mushroom-like platform and I looked up to the four elders standing on a sill right above us.
With my heart throbbing in my chest, I waited anxiously for what would happen next.
Then finally, after what felt to me like an eternity, Frieda began to speak.

''Shade Silverwing and Vanessa, step forward.'' Still, nervous we both did as we were told.
''You two have broken the most ancient law of our colony. Do you have an explanation for this?''
The moonlight dropped on a silver piece of metal on Frieda's left wrist and I blinked, wondering why I haven't noticed it before. Next to me, Shade looked also in awe at the sparkling band.
Frieda noticed our expressions and looked at her band for a second before turning back to us. Ignoring it. ''Now?''

''Just youthful exuberance and curiosity.'' Ariel blurted, trying to defend us.''They only...''

''Curiosity that will be the ruin of this colony,'' Bathsheba interrupted her harshly. ''The owls will want retribution and quite frankly, who can blame them?''

I gulped.

''Silence!'' Frieda hushed her with a glare before turning back to me and Shade. ''Do you have anything to say for yourself?''she asked.

Ariel frantically shook her head. ''No, no, they don't. They're just children.''

For a split-second, I felt the urge to object. After all, I just went past my teen years and was definitely not a child anymore. Then again this wasn't quite the right moment for such kind of discussion. So instead, I kept my mouth shut.

Shade however, thought differently: ''Yes, I do,'' he said, looking up at the four elders with resolution. ''The law is ... wrong!'' An agitated murmur went through the crowd of Silverwings nearby watching us. Even the elders looked shocked by his words. Especially Bathsheba.

''What?'' she snarled.

''Shade!'' Ariel breathed.

''Let the boy speak,'' Frieda demanded but Bathsheba didn't listen. She hopped forward, ignoring her leader and glared angrily down at my friend.

''Listen you insolent upstart! That law guarantees our very existence.''

''Bathsheba!'' Frieda threw a warning glare at her colleague before asking Shade to continue with his explanation. Unfortunately, Shade didn't seem to know how to explain himself, so I took the floor instead.

''What's so wrong with bats seeing the sun?'' I asked before I could even stop myself. The words just tumbled out of my mouth. Asking the question, I had in my mind since the first time I heard about this law. ''I mean, I've heard stories, about bats getting turned into dust or stone and such things. But that's ... I'm sorry ... ridiculous. The sun might have its dangers but it won't burst anyone into flames just like that.''

Shade nodded eagerly, agreeing with me. ''That's right, the only reason we can't be out in the daylight is because of the owls. It's unfair!''

Frieda raised her wing. ''I've heard enough.''

''Indeed,'' Bathsheba said, ''We have no choice but to hand these lawbreakers over to the owls.''

''What?'' cried Ariel and immediately wrapped her wings protectively around her son. ''No, Frieda, please!'' pleadingly she stared up to the supreme elder.

''And we should do it now before the owls come for him and the girl. Someone probably told the owls about her anyway after seeing her outside, when she was actually supposed to stay inside.'' She glared at me. ''I knew you would just cause trouble to our colony human.''

Anger flared up inside me but I forced myself to stay calm, knowing it won't be worth it to start to argue with her. The other two elders, however, seemed to be unsure about what should happen to us.

''I don't like this idea. But for the good for all of us it might be the best if we let the owls handle the situation since they will come to us anyway.'' said Aurora.

Lucretia nodded. ''Yes, they will want to know the truth about a human being in our home.''

Bathsheba grinned triumphantly, thinking she had won this round.
''Good. Now let us send a message to the owls to tell them that we hand these two over to them.''

''No!''

Annoyed Bathsheba glared down at the bat who dared to object her decision. To my surprise, it wasn't Ariel again but Mercury instead who had walked up and protectively shielded me with his wings from the glaring eyes of the elder. ''We can't just hand them over just like that. There has to be another way.''

I blinked in confusion wondering why he was defending me like that? Well, he was defending Shade as well with his words but his wings were only blocking me from the bats above us.

Bathsheba looked like she was about to nag again but Frieda stopped her before she could even make a sound.

''I'll take appropriate actions at the appropriate time,'' she said and flew down to us on the ledge.

''Come with me,'' she said and Shade and I both exchanged a worried glance with each other before looking at Ariel and Mercury for help.
Ariel kept her wings around her son, not wanting to let him go and Mercury too refused to lower his wings.

''Ariel, Mercury. It's for the good of the colony'' said Frieda calmly.

The Silverwing scout wanted to disagree with her at first, but Ariel held him back by putting a hand on his shoulder. With a deep sigh, Mercury moved his wings away from me and stepped aside. Scared and confused I watched what he was doing and how Ariel let go of her son. Both with a sad expression in their eyes.

''Shade. Vanessa. Go with Frieda!'' Ariel said.

We were shocked but knew we had no choice but to do as we were told.
Therefore, Shade lifted himself up from the ground and flew over to me to grab my hands with his feet before following Frieda into the depths of Tree-Heaven.

Frieda continued leading us down until we arrived at the mossy bottom of the tree.
One couldn't imagine how relieved I was to feel solid ground back under my feet.
Down here, the surrounding air was much cooler here than in the upper regions, so I rubbed my arms to warm up a bit. The smell of soil and wood was so intensive, even I could smell it without problems.

Curiously Shade and I kept following the supreme elder through a narrow passage behind some kind of wooden door which let us even deeper into the tree until we reached a curtain of dry leaves. Right behind it was a massive cave with walls so smooth like ice and roots hanging down from the ceiling above and along the walls.

It seemed we were below the ground and under Three-Heaven itself.

''Sit down over there!'' Frieda nodded towards a spiral-shaped root hanging down in the middle of the room and Shade flew over to set me on top of it before roosting underneath with the elder beside him.

Both of us looked around in awe and astonishment.

''I don't understand,'' Shade finally said, ''Where are we?''

''This room is called the Echo-Chamber,'' Frieda explained,'' It holds all of our colonies history, sung by Silverwings long dead. The walls of the chamber are polished so smoothly they will echo here forever.

Wow, I thought and kept looking around. The chamber was pretty much dark but from the bottom which looked strangely like some kind of round lake, swirled a mysterious fog upwards and gave the room a ghostly white glow.

''What's that sound?'' Shade suddenly asked, pulling me out of my trance.

''Sound?'' I wondered what he was talking about and listened more carefully but besides the rustling of wings and my own thoughts in my head I couldn't hear a thing.
Feeling confusion, I looked down to the two bats roosting beneath me.

''You can hear it?'' I heard Frieda asking Shade who kept looking around as if he wasn't so sure of it himself.

''Well, kind of,'' he replies, ''It's like ... someones whispering.''

I tried to listen again, but all I could hear was the wind, howling faintly through the chamber. Could there even be wind so deep down under the ground?

''Someone from hundreds, even thousands of migrations ago.''

''What are they saying?''

Frieda smiled. ''You tell me. Simply concentrate and listen. Not everyone has the gift.''
Shade did as he was told and closed his eyes shut. His eyebrows wrinkled slightly in frustration as he tried to concentrate. ''I hear so many voices,'' he said.

''Pick one.''

I watched Shade concentrating hard on finding those voices and huffed softly.
''No idea what you two are talking about but I can only hear the wind,'' I said, leaning back with my arms crossed before my chest.
To my surprise, Frieda looked up at me with a soft smile and shook her head.

''There is no wind down here, my dear,'' she said, ''It would just confuse the echoes. No. What you hear are the reverberations of echoes sung by bats long ago. Humans like you normally cannot hear the high-pitched sounds we bats make, but I am sure that you will be able to hear them too one day. All you need is a bit of practice.'' I looked at her skeptically.
''Just close your eyes and listen carefully. Do not let your thought interfere, just concentrate.''

I did as she said and closed my eyes, concentrating on the surrounding sounds, while trying my best not to think of something that could disturb me.
But for the next few minutes, I kept hearing only the soft breathing sounds of me, Frieda and Shade and the strange whispering in the wind. ... wait a moment? Whispering? At first, I thought I had just imagined it but when I listened more carefully, I could hear faint voices talking to me.
I was surprised and wanted to know who the voices belong to but I also feared I would lose them again if I stopped the connection. After a moment, the voices became louder, and I was able to understand them better.

''...this winter...''

''...the owls took revenge...''

''... fifteen newborns died in the nursery...''

''...rebellion crushed after the battle...''

I had no idea what the voices were talking about but it didn't sound well.
Then I frowned and tried my best to keep a hold on to a different voice, thinking it must behold the story Frieda wanted me and Shade to hear.

''Many seasons past, at the dawning of the ages, the world we know was nothing but an empty place.''

It sounded like a young female, but her voice soon switched to a more masculine one and vice verse. As if a small group of bats was telling this one story together.

''There was only Nocturna, the winged spirit, whose wings spanned the entire night sky and were the night sky and contained the stars and the moon and the wind. One by one Nocturna fashioned creatures...''

Pictures started to fill my mind, giving me the impression of how the world must have looked like in prehistorical time. Everything was so strange and wild and it felt like I was really there.

''All creatures existed without order.''

''No one knew, the hunter from the hunted.''

''All creatures struggled for their place in a world with no boundaries or laws.''

The previously peaceful looking images in my head turned into more disturbing ones by showing me scenes of fighting animals all over the grounds. And I began to wonder what were the causes of these fights?

''Alliances were formed,'' the voices continued, ''and war was weighed between the two great kingdoms. The birds and the beasts.''

Again a battle took place before my eyes. More intense and brutal than the ones before. The only difference: Instead of everyone going against everyone else. The birds were now fighting together against the creatures of the land.

It was a pure horrific scenario but with one thing missing. Where were the bats?

In my mind, I looked around until I eventually spotted a few of them hiding in a cave, safely away from the battle.

''But we bats, being both but neither, refused to join the battle.''

''When the war finally ended, the great treaty was forged.''

So suddenly the fights had started so quickly they ended again and I saw myself in the middle with birds on the one side and beasts on the other side. Close by on the trees hung the bats and the other animals growled and gared at them with hate in their eyes.

''Because we refused to take sides. The birds and the beasts banished us. For all eternity to the darkness of the night.''

The world started to spin around me and engulfed me with pitch blackness. Then I opened my eyes and found myself back in the Echo-Chamber.

''We were forbidden from ever glimpsing the sun again,'' Frieda explained and I knew she must have listened to the story as well.
Shade was outraged.

''Is that how we got stuck with the law? Urgh, that's so unfair.'' He frowned. ''I hate the owls!''

Frieda shook her head. ''You must learn to rule your anger and not let your anger rule you. Only foolish deeds will come of that.''

''But he's right,'' I said, feeling as angry as Shade. I didn't know what I had expected to see why the bats weren't allowed to see the sun. But this? ''You didn't do anything wrong. In fact, you guys even did the right thing in staying out of those battles.''

Frieda sighted. ''You may be right with that my child,'' she said, ''but for the birds and the beasts, we were traitors and cowards. However, it is said that hundreds of years after the great treaty Nocturna herself spoke to us bats and gave us the greatest gift of all. The great promise.''

I was confused. ''What is the great promise?''

''It is one of the oldest legends here in the Echo-Chamber. It is even unclear if it really happened. But according to it, the goddess Nocturna herself personally gave us the promise to return into the light of the day.''

''And how? Will there be another war?'' Shade asked.

''Maybe. I'm not sure.''

''When? When will that happen?''

Frieda sighed and shook her head. ''Perhaps no more in my lifetime, nor in yours, but that could be different for Vanessa.''

''Huh? Why is that?'' Shade asked blinking and turned over to me.

''Human lifespan a longer than bats,'' Frieda explained to him before I could even think about what to say. ''However, what ever may happens. I believe it will happen much sooner.''

''Why?''

''That's why!'' Frieda moved her wing and showed us the silver band on her left forearm.

Shade breathed in awe. ''How did you get it?'' He asked carefully, not leaving his eyes from the silver metal.

''It was given to me by humans when I was still young. Barely older than you Shade,'' Frieda explained, ''Some of us were out in the woods one night. The humans came, caught us, attached the bands on our wrist and released us again. I believe it is a sign. A sign that the great promise is about to come soon. I don't know what role the humans will play in it but I think they've come to help us somehow.''
Finishing her sentence she looked back up and stared me directly into the eyes with her bright yellows ones as if she was expecting something great from me.
Slightly embarrassed I looked away, not knowing what to say to her. Luckily Shade interfered again before the silence in the room could get anymore awkward.

''Have the humans ever tried to band anyone else?'' he asked curiously.

''Not for a long time,'' Frieda said, turning back to the young Silverwing, ''But two winters ago they came back and banded a few males.

''My dad,'' Shade immediately busted out.

Frieda nodded. ''Ariel told you about it, right?'' Shade shook his head.

''No,'' he mumbled sadly, ''She doesn't talk much about him.''

Frieda sighed. ''We used to tell our young often about these stories. But over time, most elders decided we should stop. There would be no point in thinking about a promise that might never happen. Bathsheba thinks so as well. She and many others don't wish to shed any more blood than it has already been spilled.''

I gulped, thinking about something. ''Does...ehm...does it have anything to do with a rebellion? I heard a few voices whispering about it a bit earlier.''

''Yes,'' Frieda replied, nodding. ''About fifteen years ago several colonies united to form a rebellion against the owls with dramatical consequences. But even though the bats had no chance against the owls they kept fighting. We kept fighting, I should say.''

''You fought?'' Shade asked with awe, and he and I exchanged a short surprised look.

''I was lucky to get away with my life,'' said Frieda, ''But after that, the elders decide it would be for the best of all of us to stay in the night and forget about the time where we had the freedom to fly even during the day. Basically, that sounds reasonable, but there are still some bats who can't get off the idea of the sun and freedom.''

''Why did you show us all this,'' I asked, feeling confused, knowing Shade was probably wondering the same.

Frieda smiled at us. ''You both are different from other bats or humans I've met. You carry some kind of glow inside you that shouldn't be darkened. I can feel it.''

I didn't understand what she was talking about, but before I could ask her any more questions I heard wing beats and looked up to see Mercury fluttering down to us with a serious expression on his face.

''Pardon me, Frieda,'' he said firmly, ''Brutus, supreme commander of the owls, has arrived.''

AN: Another chapter updated ^^ Didn't change much besides leaving out the scene where I eavesdrop the conversation with Shade and his mother about his dad.