Chapter 8: Castaway

"NO!" Ariel cried out and hurried to save her son and their human friend. Desperately she tried to reach at least one of them but the wind kept forcing her back without mercy.
Eventually, she had to give up and helplessly watched the outlines of Shade and Vanessa getting smaller and smaller until they completely disappeared in the clouds.

On her right, Mercury was just as shocked as she was. Also starring down at the clouds underneath them, the piece that ripped off from Vanessa's dress still in his claws.
For a moment they were both too shocked to say anything until Mercury managed to pull himself together and dashed towards the front to inform Frieda about what happened.
Ariel, however, just kept looking down, not wanting to believe she may have lost her only son right before her eyes.
With all her heart she prayed to Nocturna that Shade and Vanessa would be alright.

Seagulls.
That was the first thing I heard as I finally gained consciousness again. Seagulls and the sound of waves close to, ... wherever I was.
Opening my eyes, I realized that I somehow tangled myself up in a bunch of seaweed lying on an unfamiliar shore. I crawled out of it and looked at my surroundings when I noticed some rustling. First, I thought it was a crab or some kind of other sea creature but then
I realized that it was just Shade whose blue colored head peaked out from the seaweed right next to me. Coughing, he struggled to get out of it then spotted me to his right.

''Vanessa! Oh, man I'm so glad to see you. Are you alright?'' he asked, his eyes shining with relief.

''I'm fine. Just a few scratches,'' I said while checking myself for any wounds. Besides a few bruises there seemed to be nothing serious. ''The seaweed probably caught us.''

''That and the wind. Did you also feel like it was holding you a little?''

I nodded. ''Yes, it felt like something was slowing down our fall,'' I said, remembering how it felt like the wind was trying to decelerate our fall before losing my consciousness out of shock and fear.

''Say, do you have any ideas where we are?'' Shade asked, looking around with a frown.

''No,'' I replied, checking our surroundings as well. ''But it seems we stranded on some kind of coast but I can't tell you ... Hold on! Did you hear that?'' A sudden clacking caught my attention as I turned my head around. Then a red-colored crab popped its head up from behind a small hill straight before us, followed by two more crabs.

''Oh — oh!'' I said watching the crabs quickly crawling over to us, clattering their pincers.
They didn't look very pleased to see us.

''Uh... What are those?'' Shade asked, nervously while watching the crustaceans coming closer.

''Crabs!'' I said ''But I don't think they are happy to see us Shade.''

''Why? We haven't done anything to ... Hey!''

He flinched back as one crab snipped its pincers close to his ear, missing him only by an inch. Another one tried grabbing my arm but luckily it just cut the seaweed instead. Shade and I moved around, trying our best to avoid the sharp pincers but also let them cut us free from the tang.

As soon as we were free, Shade jumped into the air and grabbed my hands with his feet before flying off into the forest and away from the angry crabs. Their threatening clattering died away, the further we got away from the shore.

Confused and disoriented Shade fluttered with me through this unfamiliar forest while we both looked around hoping to see one of the Silverwings or at least some other bat who could help us.
But all we encountered was a pair of creepy red eyes in the leafage and some angry growling in a seemingly abandoned treehole.
Still, we kept looking around, not wanting to give up just yet but eventually Shade needed a break, and so he landed us on the branch of a tree whose leaves were all colorful red, orange or yellow.

''Are you sure they are around here somewhere?'' I asked, feeling unsure.

''Of course. They wouldn't just leave us behind,'' Shade replied as if it was the most obvious in the world but I could also hear a bit of uncertainty in his voice.
I felt bad thinking it was probably my fault we ended up in this situation. If I hadn't tried to force Shade to cling to his mom by pulling him down by his foot, I wouldn't have lost my balance on Ariel's back and we would still be with the colony. But at least Shade wasn't blaming me for it. At least not now.

Shade sighed and scanned the area again. ''You really don't see or hear anyone?'' he asked with a hint of hope in his voice but I shook my head.

''No Shade,'' I replied mirthlessly, causing him to sigh again.

''Great and what are we doing here now?'' he asked when an unexpected voice suddenly spoke right behind us.

''That's something I could ask you two just as well.''

With a gasp Shade and I, both turned around expecting to see the owner of the voice but instead we saw only a wall of colorful leaves. Then again something seemed strange.
One of the leaves, a bright orange one, looked much thicker than the others but before I could investigate it more closely it suddenly moved.
To our surprise the leaf unfolded two leathery wings, revealing the head and body of a female bat.
She was young but apparently a bit older than Shade due to her more mature features. Her beige colored fur and a dark brown mane with orange colored wings and ash-blond hair reminded me of the fall. Also, did it perfectly camouflage her among the other leaves.

''I asked you two a question,'' she repeated glaring at us with her dazzling green eyes.

Shade couldn't stop staring at her. ''You are a bat!'' he blurted out in astonishment causing the female to roll her eyes at him in annoyance.

''You are a genius. Of course, I'm a bat,'' she replied cocky and jumped down to us on the branch. Staring at us distrustfully she crossed her wings before her chest wrinkled her nose a bit at my sight as if she saw a disgusting bug before quickly looking away with a huff.
Raising my eyebrow I wonder what her problem was but kept my mouth shut while she observed Shade from head to toe.

''Gee, you are like a bat,'' she said thoughtfully, ''only smaller.''

''Who are you?'' Shade asked.

''Not so fast. I ask the questions around here. So, who are you?'' she demanded to know, refusing to tell us her own name first.

''I'm Shade and this is Vanessa,'' Shade replied, pointing to himself and at me.

''And what do you think you are doing on my island?''

''We got separated from our colony,'' Shade explained and raised his eyebrow in confusion while studying her appearance a bit more. ''What's wrong with your fur?'' he asked pointing towards her bright colored belly.

''Wrong?'' The female blinked in confusion and looked down on herself. ''What do you mean? There is nothing wrong with my fur,'' she said huffy and placed her hands on her hips, looking rather insulted.

'Eh, it's all ... light,'' Shade said not understanding what he could have said wrong.

The female chuckled in amusement, noticing his confusion. ''Small and clueless,'' she said rolling her eyes at his naivety. ''I'm a Brightwing, of course!''

''I didn't know there were other kinds of bats,'' Shade admitted and glanced over at me with astonishment written on his face before looking back to the Brightwing female.

''Where have you been living? Under a rock?'' she asked chuckling softly.

''No! In a tree,'' Shade muttered, turning his eyes away.

''So, how did you get separated from your colony? Did they ... uhm ... banish you?'' she asked, looking a little more sympathetically at Shade, who stared back at her in shock.

''Oh, what? No! I ... I mean, we were blown off course,'' he replied.

''Really?'' she grinned at him, seemingly not believing his words, ''Sure your wings weren't just big enough to keep you on course?'' she asked mockingly and raised up her own set of wings to demonstrate their big size with were far larger than his.

''I don't need this,'' Shade growled and flew up to grab my hands with his feet. ''Come on Vanessa, let's get outta here.''
I nodded, wanting away from here as well. With her bitchy attitude, this female reminded me too much of Chinook.
However, we didn't get far when the Brightwing stopped us by fluttering right in front of us.

''Hey, where do you think you are going?'' she asked.

''Preferably somewhere you aren't,'' I said glaring at her, but she simply ignored me and spoke to Shade instead.

''You do realize that the sun is coming up? In your case, I wouldn't waste time by flying around as if I don't know where I'm going but search for a hideout instead.''

''Uh ... sure. That's just where we were off to anyways,'' Shade replied, but she could hear the uncertainty in his voice.

''You know what. I'll be so kind and let you spend the day at my place. Just follow me it's not far.''

''Don't do us any favors,'' Shade muttered not wanting to fly after her.

''Shade, maybe it's better we go with her, the horizon is brightening up already, '' I said looking east, noticing the sky lightening up a little while hearing birds chirping around.

''You should listen to your friend here little one. Oh, and by the way ... my name is Marina.''
And with that she flew off into the forest, leaving us no choice but to follow her.

At the same time back at the artificial jungle, the shadow who had studied the small leave flew up to the air vent high on the wall. With just one of his razor sharp claws he peeled the concrete around the grid as if it was as soft as butter and then used both of his hands to pull the grid out of its place with amazing strength and let it crash down on the floor together with some crumbs of concrete.
With sinister laugh he vanished through the shaft and into his freedom, accompanied by another one of his kind.

The next evening I woke up, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes and checked my surroundings.
Yesterday Marina brought us to her roost, an abandoned fishing hut which was mostly empty aside from a bundle of fishing nets and a few old and dirty sails and blankets lying around together with some pots. A few of them broken.

Looking around I noticed our acquaintance to be missing because besides me there was only Shade roosting upside down from a robe above me, sleeping the sleep of the just.
Feeling a bit hungry I decided to find myself some food and quietly got up from my makeshift bed made out of leaves and remnants not wanting to wake up Shade.

A cold wind blew through the cracks in the roof, sending a shiver through my body.
I was still wearing nothing but those leaves I provisionally wrapped around my body after I found myself shrunk. But after all, what happened this thing really needed a makeover. It was practically nothing more but a piece of shreds. Still, I was lucky that it at least kept my private parts hidden.

Nevertheless, I needed something new to wear. That was for sure but what could I use?
Without the required materials there was no way I could at least try sewing myself a new dress out of the remains of my bed.
No, I needed something else, preferably some clothes ready to wear. Unfortunately, there seemed to be nothing like this lying around until I spotted something behind two pots.
It was a doll. A little tattered and dirty but apart from that it looked just fine, wearing a sand colored, long-sleeved native American styled top plus skirt and dark brown moccasin boots.

''This could come in handy,'' I mumbled to myself, contemplating the doll and began changing my ragged leaf clothes with theirs with fit me surprisingly perfectly. With a smile I turned my body around, feeling happy to have normal clothes on again, though a skirt might be not the warmest thing to wear during winter in a place like Canada
Luckily the doll wore also a fluffy white hooded cloak which was thick enough to keep me warm from the cold wind.

As soon as I finished putting my new clothes on I heard wing beats coming from a crack in the roof and looked up to see Marina flying back in.

''Oh, I see you are awake,'' she said, though she didn't sound too happy about it.

With an appraising look, Marina eyed my new outfit. Obviously unimpressed.
''I see you put some fresh leaves on or whatever that is your kind is wearing,'' she said emphasizing the phrase ''your kind'' as if it was something unpleasant, but before I could say something I noticed Shade waking up from his nap.

''Evening,'' he greeted us with a yawn while rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

''Hey there sleepy head,'' Marina said looking much friendlier at him than at me earlier. ''Now that you are awake I can finally show you around the island, just so you know where my territory is,'' she said and flew out before either Shade or I could say anything against it.
Both of us exchanged a short look and shrugged then followed her outside.

Moments later we were flying alongside the cost next to Marina while listening to her speech about where her territory starts and ends.
''From the barnacle covered rocks to the old cider tree that's mine,'' she explained, ''And from the waterfall to the north cove, that's mine.''

Shade seemed impressed. ''You have this whole place to yourself?'' he asked her with awe.

''Pretty much.''

''Wow. We are totally surrounded by water,'' he said, his eyes gazing our surroundings as we flew along the coast.

''Duh, that's what an island is,'' Marina said rolling her eyes at Shade's lack of knowledge about such stuff.

''Say, are more bats on this island besides you?'' I asked knowing that northern bats usually don't live alone by themselves.

''Nope, the island is pretty much empty for that matter, but they are lots of other animals to keep company.''

''For how long have you been here?'' Shade asked.

''Since last spring. I was pretty much lucky to find this place. It practically saved my life after it got destroyed by certain creatures,'' Marina said while throwing a short icy glance at which made me wonder once more what she had against me when I didn't even do anything wrong to her.

After a few more minutes, flying around Marina turned to Shade and once again checked out his size then shook her head. ''Look,''she said,''You are obviously too small to make it back to the mainland especially while carrying the furless all the time never mind catching up with your colony so...''

''I don't care!'' he said, ''We are not going back.''

I quickly looked up feeling confused about his outburst. ''What...?''

''You can hang with me ... Wait!'' Marina's happy expression changed to concern after realizing what he just said. ''You don't care?'' she asked looking at him puzzled, ''What's that about?''

''I broke the law, I looked at the sun.'' Marina gasped in horror and stared at us for a second before following us to the woods and down to a branch.

''You looked at the sun?'' she asked looking at Shade then laughed a little as if she didn't believe it, ''You are pulling my wing.''

I shook my head. ''No he really did ... we did I should better say but the owls found out and destroyed Tree-Heaven.''

Shade nodded with a sigh and lowered his eyes in shame. ''And it's all my fault. The colony is better off without me.'' I tried to say something, but he quickly cut me off, shaking his head. ''No, Vanessa, it's true. If I hadn't come up with that stupid bet everything would still be fine.''

Marina looked at him sympathetically then jumped from her roost to the lower branch where I stood.''Hey, it could have been a lot worse,'' she said trying to cheer him up a little while holding up her hand to him in an encouraging gesture. Just then I realized the silver band stuck to her left wrist.

Shade's eyes widen, noticing it too. ''You've got a band!'' he exclaimed excitedly and pointed at her wrist.

Marina looked shocked for a second and quickly covered the silver metal under her wing.

''What band? ... Oh, you mean this band!? Got a problem with that?'' she asked glaring at us. We both shook our heads, confused about her reaction.

''Ehm, no,'' Shade said, ''Should we?''

"Don't you know? ... It's cursed." she hissed through her teeth.

''Now wait a moment Marina. That's not ...'' I lift up my hands trying to reason with her, but she quickly interrupted me.

''Save it furless,'' she scoffed at me angrily,'' ''I don't need to hear any lies coming from someone like you, just to make me feel better or something.''
I looked away feeling hurt by those words but instead of feeling sorry for what she just said, Marina simply implied she was hungry and flew off.

''You should follow her Shade,'' I said quietly, ''You haven't eaten since we got into the storm. I'll wait for you here.'' I didn't even know why Marina's words hurt me so much but I wanted to be alone for a moment albeit Shade had other ideas.

''You haven't anything since then as well,'' he said, ''Come on, let's try finding some food together.'' He took off and grabbed my hands with his feet and flew into the forest.

It didn't take long for us until we caught back up with Marina. The Brightwing was chasing a tiger moth when she notices us flying behind her. Instead of chasing us away she kept concentrating on her prey and managed to grab it with her hind claws and carried it towards a tree where she then roosted upside down. Shade followed her wordlessly and set me down on the branch below before roosting beside her.

''I was out hunting. All alone,'' Marina began, holding the dead moth in her claws, ''Suddenly I was hanging in mid-air, caught in this huge net. Then ... this giant hand reached in and ... that's when they banded me,'' she looked away, sighing deeply.

''Then what happened?'' Shade asked.

''I flew home,'' she said, ''but when the other Brightwings saw me with this band they banished me.''

''Why?''

''When the humans tag you, you're marked for certain death,'' she said and threw another icy glance at me before gulping down her moth within a few bites.

''Death? Are you sure? I mean I know someone who ...'' Shade tried to tell her something but Marina quickly cut him off not wanting to talk more about it. Nevertheless, did I try to explain the truth to her myself.

''Marina the bands are not a curse,'' I said, ''My kind band bats to keep track on them in order to help them not to get extinct.''

''Why should I believe what you say after what your kind did to me? I've lost everything. My friends, my family. All because of this stupid band.'' she shoved her banded wing right into my face, growling at me. ''Even if it's not the bands fault for what happened to me, it's certainly yours and your kinds fault. After all it was you who made this stupid thing and put it on my wing.''

I opened my mouth to object but couldn't find the right words. Instead I closed it again and just looked away with my teeth pressed together in order to hold back the urge to cry even though tears started to burn in my eye. Why was she so mean to me? It wasn't my fault what happened to her. I wasn't the one who banded her.
Marina just huffed at me angrily and stormed off with a snarl.

I swallowed my sadness down and looked away, trying not to take what she said to heart too much while Shade jumped down to me, consolingly putting a hand on my shoulder.
''It's alright Vanessa. I'm sure she doesn't mean it,'' he said, ''She is just upset about what happened the last time she encountered a human.''

''I know,'' I said while rubbing the tears out of my eyes,''But that still doesn't give her the right to blame me for it just because I'm a human as well.'' Shade let out a sigh and seemed to think about what they should do now, then my stomach starts to growl. I totally forgot that I still haven't eaten anything yet.

''Come on, let's grab some food and leave this place, ok?!''

''I thought you wanted to stay here?'' I asked looking at Shade in confusion, but the Silverwing shook his head. ''Not with a bat who isn't willing to accept you as their friend as well.''

I nodded thinking the same and let him carry me down to the ground near the shore and close to a bush full of juicy berries.
Plucking some out I felt glad to have something to eat that aren't bugs and watched Shade flying off into the forest, probably to catch some food for himself.

For a moment I just sat there next to the bush, eating my berries and thought about the future.
Sure this place was nice, especially with the magnificent view of the sea. Yet, Shade was right.

No matter how beautiful it looked, no place could be called home if its inhabitants only welcomed one of us.

With a sigh I finished my last berry and got back up to walk a bit around the coast while waiting for Shade to return.

As I was walking, I looked out to the sea and listened to the soft rustling of the waves. A soft breeze blew through my hair and blew a few strands into my face. I stopped for a moment to put them back behind my ears and hopped over some pebbles with my arms stretched out, trying not to fall off.
Then I looked up to see the sparkling stars in the sky above. For a while I just stood there, admiring the beauty of the nightsky until the wind picked up again.

I jumped down from the pebble and walked over to a patch of grass. There I sat down with my back leaning against a small rock and scribbled some random picture into the sand with a stick.
With a soft sigh, I glanced back up at the starry sky and felt my eyes getting heavy. Letting out a soft yawn I made myself comfortable against the rock and closed my eyes for a short nap. I barely fell asleep when suddenly I heard Shade screaming in panic. Immediately I spun around, now fully awake, and looked around to see what was going on.

The two bats were flying over the sea as a killer whales came seemingly out of nowhere and charged towards them with its mouth wide open.

''MARINA!'' I shouted in alarm, see the whale was swimming straight towards her, but it was too late. The orca snapped its mouth shut around the Brightwing before she could fly away and plunged into the water.

For a moment I just stood there in shock, not knowing what to do while Shade circled over the sea.
Just then the whale showed up again, blowing its blowhole free from water which got me an idea.

''Shade!'' I called, ''Quick! Cover the orca's blowhole on top of its head. So it opens its mouth.''
The Silverwing nodded, showing that he understood the plan and dived towards the orca's head, where he threw his small body on top of its spout, clutching on to it.

''LET HER GO!'' he grunted. Immediately the whale felt like something was wrong and twisted and turned its body around to get the pesky bat from its blowhole. Like glue, Shade stuck on its head and kept his hold while the killer whale plunged underwater trying to lose or drown him.

Mesmerized I watched the whole scene from the coast, unable to help. Then finally, the whale's strength faded. Tired and beaten it had no choice but to open its mouth to get some air and Marina flew out as quick as she could. Her fur was covered in saliva, but she lost no time to wash herself and rushed back to the island.

I sighed in relief and watched Shade releasing the whale by getting shot up from its head by a fountain of air. He rolled over a few times in the air, but then caught himself quickly and came to me in order to grab me with his feet and followed Marina towards a totem pole close to the fishing hut. There he set me on top of one of its stone wings and roosted underneath next to the Brightwing.
She had already shaken of the yucky spit from her fur looked at Shade with admiration written on her face.

"You saved my life," she said.

''Oh, that was nothing,'' Shade smiled humbly, ''Besides it was actually Vanessa here you should be thankful at. She told me to block the blowhole from the whale.''

''...I see,'' Marina said and glanced up at me shortly, seemingly unsure what to say. I just nodded telling her it's alright. It was clear we wouldn't automatically become friends just because I supposedly helped Shade rescue her from that whale.

''Anyways,'' Shade started again, probably getting uncomfortable with the silence between us three, ''Marina, you didn't let me finish what I was saying about the band.''

''Oh, that...'' Marina looked away visibly unhappy about the fact that he brought up that topic again.

''Frieda, our elder, has a band just like yours,'' Shade said quickly before Marina could even think about flying off again. Instead, she stayed where she was, glancing at the young male with astonishment.

''An elder ... banded? Like me?'' she asked with disbelieve.

''Well, maybe not exactly like...''

''And she is old?''

Shade nodded with a smile, ''Practically ancient,'' he said then flew up to me on top of the wooden wing with Marina.

''Then maybe the bands doesn't mean certain death,'' Marina said thoughtfully.''

Shade shrugged, ''Well, that orca didn't get you,'' he said. Marina nodded, still thinking about it.

''Maybe,'' she said, ''it means that I'm destined to be an elder too.''

''Elder Marina,'' Shade smiled, ''I like the sound of that.''

I had to admit it had a nice ring to it though it probably won't ever happen if she stayed on this island especially with no other bats around.
Shade, however, didn't seem to worry about that and told Marina everything from what we learned from Frieda in the Echo-Chamber and about Nocturna's great promise.

''I knew about Nocturna,'' Marina said thoughtfully, ''and I've also heard something about the great battle but in my old colony, they never told us anything about this promise. You really think we can come back into the sun?''

''I don't know how but it sounds like something worth to fight for. It can't be that the owls and other animals keep us in the dark just because our ancestors didn't take a side in that stupid battle of theirs,'' Shade said frowning with determination and I nodded agreeing with him.

Marina chuckled with a grin. ''You really are quite the little troublemaker, aren't you? Go see the sun, scare your mother to death, get your roost burned down by the owls. You really aren't the most popular bat in your colony I bet.''

''He he yeah, probably,'' Shade chuckled.

''Alright you guys, when do we leave?''

''Leave?'' Shade asked.

''Yeah, to join your colony, so I can meet this Frieda.''

''I ... I can't,'' he said, shaking his head. ''I can't face my colony. Not after losing Tree-Heaven.''
I sighed softly as he looked away in shame of what happened, knowing it's my fault as well.
Marina looked at us compassionately before putting a hand on the small Silverwings shoulder.

''Come on Shade, don't be so hard on yourself. At least your colony didn't banish you.

''Or feed you to the owls'', I added in thought.

''I just wish you could have seen Tree-Heaven Marina. It was the biggest hollow oak ever with the gnarliest roosts and all kinds of chambers and roosts and ... and...'' Shade stopped sighing once more while telling her about his old home. Marina's face lighted up a little as if she got an idea and flew up from the roost and us to follow her.
Shade and I looked at each other, wondering what she was up to before following her into the forest.

''Hey, where are we going?'' Shade asked as we kept flying deeper through the thicket.

''Just a little further.'' Marina sang cheerfully and just a few wing beats later we came to a clearing with a giant bare tree right in the middle of it.
Shade and I were amazed by its size. It looked way much bigger than the tree the Silverwings had used as their nursery home.

"So?'' Marina asked looking at us with a grin, ''What do you think? Its big, it's hollow, it's gnarly-.''

''It's amazing!'' I said as we checked the tree from all sides inside and out. It was huge with several small entrance holes in the bark and enough room for more than hundreds or more bats to fit in.

"It's perfect! This can be our new Tree-Heaven," Shade said joyfully and landed me and himself beside Marina on a branch of another tree close by. "We've got to let the colony know about this Vanessa.''

''Of course,'' I said smiling. Shade smiled back and turned to Marina. ''I guess you get to meet Frieda after all.''

''Then it's settled,'' the Brightwing said happily, ''we head for the mainland. Together.''

''But, which way is mainland?'' I asked. Instead of answering Marina just grinned and pointed out towards the open sea. I looked and gulped with my heart sinking down. This was going to be one long flight.

AN: Another chapter updated ^w^ The major change is: I took out the song, like I said I would do and shortened the interactions with the orcas,