Chapter 16: Orestes

''Hurry! We have to find my colony before Goth and Throbb do!'' Shade cried out, his voice filled with panic while flapping his wings as fast as he could, ''They'll all be eaten! It will all be my fault.''

''But we don't even know where the fire towers are!'' Marina said, trying to reason with him. She was clearly worried about the Silverwings as much as I was. Though, we couldn't just run off into the blue without knowing where we needed to go at all.

''Try your sound map again,'' she then suggested and Shade landed down on a nearby branch together with me and Marina. He closed his eyes and called up his sound map. He frowned, concentrating hard to see the needed information while placing a claw on his head. Just seconds later he reopened his eyes.

''Now, did you see anything new?'' Marina asked frantically, ''Where there mountains? A river maybe?''

''There were these other giant towers that led along the cut line'' Shade said, ''You know those places where the humans steal all the trees.''

''Do you mean a road or something?'' I asked, kinda confused at what he was talking about.

''Uh, I guess...'' Shade said, obviously not getting what I was talking about either.

''Well, whatever it is. It shouldn't be too hard to find. Let's go!'' Marina said and plunged herself back into the air without waiting for a response. To my surprise, she grabbed my hands with her own feet this time instead of letting Shade carry me around like usual.
The Silverwing seemed a bit perplexed about this too but didn't bother to say anything, so I said nothing.

Just a few miles away from Vanessa and her two bat friends, a young adolescent great-horned owl covered with dark brown feathers on his body and long red feathers on his head, stood in front of a cobweb watching it curiously.
Suddenly a small green spider crawled over the web towards the center and the young owl, filled with fascination just by looking at the arachnid, couldn't help himself but gently touched the web a bit with the tip of his wing to see what would happen. As a result, the web started to shake and startled the spider, causing it to jump straight onto the owl's face without a warning.

Screaming in fear the young owl stumbled backward from the low branch he stood on and fell down onto his back. Luckily he didn't get hurt and quickly got back up again and shook his head to get the spider off of his beak. Right then he heard laughing and turned around to see two owl soldiers pointing and laughing at him after watching what happened.
Feeling embarrassed, the young male looked down at his feet just as another owl flew down to them on top of the stump of a tree.
Noticing it was no other than General Brutus himself, the laughing of the two owls quickly died down.

''Lieutenant Atlas, report!'' the general commanded

One owl, a male with white feathers, dark-colored wings and a black Fu Manchu-styled mustache over his beak stepped forward. ''General Brutus, we have a colony of Greywings pinned down in the west, but still no sign of the Silverwings.''

Brutus nodded. ''Alright, then take two scouts and survey the eastern perimeter.''

''Yes sir,'' Atlas bowed his head towards his general and was just about to leave when Brutus stopped him.

''Oh, and take Orestes with you,'' he said.

The young male looked up in shock at the mention of his name while Atlas seemed unsure what to say about this. ''But sir, ...I uhh...''

''That's an order!'' Brutus commanded.

''But father!'' Orestes protested, ''I can't go.''

''Oh really?'' The general turned to his son, slightly glaring at him, ''Why?''

''I'm not finished observing this arachnid,'' the young one tried to explain and pointed at the spider he encountered earlier and which was now hanging down from a thread right next to him.

''We're at war, son! Stop acting like a nervous pigeon and do your duty!'' Brutus growled, his patience with his son slowly running low.

''But-...but my wing still aches from yesterday's maneuvers!'' Orestes protested, holding his left wing like he was still in pain with it.

Brutus merely rolled his eyes and threw his head back in agitation, ''Oh for the love of Phoenix!'' he exclaimed, ''What's next? Beak rot?!''

''Father…please!'' Orestes pleaded.

''Fine!'' Brutus growled. ''Go play with your insects then!''

Atlas couldn't help but chuckle by those words. Though he quickly shut himself when noticing his commander glaring at him.
With a deep sigh, Orestes turned around and walked away while Brutus and his soldiers flew off to continue scouting the forest.

After flying for hours through this stupid forest, Goth's initial confidence started to wane, so he decided to take a short stop on a small clearing.
Immediately Throbb looked around for food under a rock while his cousin tried to figure out if they were at least somewhat close to those so-called fire towers the runt had talked about earlier but it seemed they were lost.
Goth growled as a moth fluttered past him and looked up into the sky trying to orientate himself, but that was impossible. Those sparkling dots in the sky were nothing like the once by his home.

The Jungle. Trying to make sense of them was just a complete waste of time and only exasperated him more.

''Argh! I cannot understand these northern stars! There is no order to their constellations! I am sick of them!'' Goth clenched his fists tightly together while still looking up into the sky.

Throbb swallowed the last bit of the mouse he just caught and turned back to him, ''Sick of the stars? Try eating these scrawny mice''

''Why not stop?''

''Because you can't eat just one!'' Throbb replied and belched loudly in Goth's direction. ''Just try, it's impossible.''

The grin on his face quickly disappeared as Goth roughly grabbed a fistful of his fur beneath his throat. ''If you weren't my primo, I would have eaten you a week ago,'' He pulled him closer glaring at him. ''Then at least one of us would have enough energy to make it back to our beloved jungle.''

Throbb chuckled nervously and averted his eyes, ''Yeah, maybe I'll just go get some more mice…''

''Nevermind the mice,'' Goth let go of Throbb and let him drop on the ground, ''Soon you will feast on Silverwings, mi amigo. That little show off Shade told me about his colony's next stop. Fire towers.''

''But-...how will we find them?''

Throbb's question was valid, but then Goth looked ahead and grinned with satisfaction.
''Zotz helps those who help themselves.'' He chuckled and pointed into the direction behind his cousin who then turned around to see a large area without trees. Instead, there was a long empty path with strange poles constructed by humans and connected to each other which lead towards a large glowing area in the distance.

Meanwhile, Mercury flew over to Frieda's side, having noticed the exhausting running through almost every bat in the colony from their nonstop flight.
''Frieda,'' he said with concern, ''even the stronger fliers are beginning to tire. We need to roost.''

The elder knew well about her colonies suffering and wished she could stop and rest her tired old bones as well, but she was also aware of any possible danger. ''An unknown refuge could spell certain doom. We will have to wait to roost until we get to the fire towers.''

Mercury nodded, trusting her judgment and continued to fly by her side with the rest of the Silverwings huffing and puffing behind them.

My friends and I kept flying around for quite a while, but the so-called fire towers were still nowhere in sight.

''Maybe I was wrong?'' Shade said, looking crestfallen, and I too was beginning to lose hope. Just then I notice something below us in the fog and as it cleared out I saw a long road with a line of utility poles. With a gasp, I realized what that meant.

''Hey guys, over there!'' I called out and pointed down towards the road with my foot and heard them both sighing in relief as they spotted it as well.

''That must be it. Let's go!'' Marina said. She was just about to speed up a little when a sudden shriek of distressed hit us unexpectedly.

''What the...?'' I looked around, trying to figure out what was going on.

''Help! Help!''

''Somebody's in trouble!'' Marina gasped, ''We should check it out.''

I looked up and saw Shade furrowing his brows. ''That sounded like a bird,'' he said and turned his face away in disgust. Obviously not happy with his reaction Marina let out a huff and grabbed my hands tighter before diving back down into the forest leaving the Silverwing behind.

''Hey! Hang on...'' he called out and hurried after us.

Soon after we reached the source of the terrified cries and found a young horned-owl, all tangled up in a net set up by my kind.
I felt bad for the bird for getting caught into that trap that hung there between two trees and wondered how we could help him get back out.

Struggling desperately the owl turned around as much as he could and eventually noticed us.
He looked at us pleadingly and begged for assistance, ''Help, I'm strangling here. Please, I never hurt a bat in all my life. I'm practically a vegetarian!''

''Liar!'' Shade snapped and pointed at the poor bird, causing him to flinch back.

''Shade,'' Marina hushed him but the Silverwing just huffed and roosted upside down on one string which bound the net to the trees.

''Come on, we have to help,'' I said, trying to reason with Shade. ''Who knows if that's a poacher's net? He might die if we leave him here like that.''

The young owl gulped, hearing me say this.

Shade scoffed, ''So? Who cares?! He's an owl.''

Hearing this, the owl shut his eyes and trembled a bit like he was about to cry.

''Do you seriously want to leave him to his fate just because he is an owl?!'' I asked and glared at Shade.

Marina was also upset with Shade's attitude and frowned at him as well. ''Nice to see Zephyr's lesson with the pigeon had an impact on you.''

''Lesson?'' he asked.

''You know, never underestimate the power of a kind act, even towards one's enemy.''

The Silverwing looked away, grumbling a bit to himself and crossed his arms before his chest.
I shook my head watching him then turned to Marina, wondering if she had an idea on how we could free the owl.

''Hey...,'' she suddenly said, ''This is the same kind of net the humans used when they banded me!''

''It is?'' I asked looking at her.

She nodded. ''Yeah! All we need to do is spread it open.''

''Sounds good but how should we do that?''

Marina fluttered around, studying the net a bit more. ''That's it.'' she finally said and pointed at the strings, ''You grab one of those as hard as you can and I pull by holding you by the legs.''

''Eh, okay,'' I said, though not quite liking the idea of dangling upside down in the air.

The Brightwing first landed me on a branch, so I could have my hands free and then grabbed my feet with her own and flew back to the net. I gulped, trying my best to stay calm and focused on grabbing a string on the bottom of the net while also hoping that Marina wouldn't let go of me.
To my delight, Shade decided to help after all and started to pull the other string with his feet.

We tug on it as hard as we could, but the net just stretched and stretched, not opening even one bit.
''This isn't going to work.'' I thought with my hands starting to hurt.

''Are you sure you know what you are-'' the young owl began to say just when suddenly Shade and I let go of the strings, causing the bird to get shot out from the net like a slingshot, ''DOOOOIIINNNGGGG!'' He did a few backflips through the air until he crash-landed on a tree and lost consciousness on a branch.

''Ouch!'' That must have hurt.

We quickly flew over to see if the owl was alright and landed in front of him on the branch.
Shade tore off of a twig and began poking the bird with it.

''What are you doing?'' I asked looking at him with displeasure.

''I'm just checking to see if he's okay,'' Shade said.

''Not like that! You...'' Just then I hear a moan and turned around to see the owl blinking his eyes open. I smiled watching him wake up but then got confused when he let out a gasp with his eyes widened in fear.

''Hey, it's okay we are not...'' The sudden sound of wings rustling right behind us froze the blood in my veins. Slowly, me and my friends turned around just to see three adult owl soldiers glaring down on us from a higher branch. Shade chuckled nervously, still pointing his twig at the young owl. This certainly did not make a good impression.

''Eh, this is not what it looks like,'' I said trying to save the situation, but I knew for sure. We were doomed.

As expected, the owls captured us and brought us to a clearing in a different part of the forest. There they held us captive by two more owls, one of them being no other than General Brutus himself.

''You again lawbreakers?'' he growled while staring down on me and Shade then looked at Marina. ''I see you've brought your don't quit do you?!''

''We didn't do anything!'' Shade protested, ''We were trying to help this runty owl!'' He pointed at the smaller owl, who stood uncomfortably next to the General.

''That ''runty'' owl is my son, Orestes!'' Brutus retorted.

Now that he said it I finally noticed that the owl we saved had the same striped markings on his wings like the General but besides that, there didn't seem to be much resemblance between the two of them.
Just then a small green spider lowered itself down right next to Orestes, who shrieked out in alarm as soon as he saw it. I pressed my lips tight together, trying my best not to giggle at the scene.

''We stopped to help him!'' Marina replied, trying to reason with Brutus, ''He was caught in a trap-''

''Enough Brightwing!'' he thundered, interrupting her and spread out his wings. ''You'll soon regret you ever joined up with these-these... pipe-sized, owl killing barbarians.''

''Say what?''

''Barbarians?'' Shade asked in disbelieve and pointed at Brutus. ''You burnt down Tree Haven! And we're not killing owls, Goth and Throbb are! They're giant bats from the jungle down south!''

Obviously not believing his words, the owl General rolled his giant yellow eyes with a smirk. ''Oh, yes,'' he said sarcastically, ''The giant meat-eating bats.''

''Actually, they're cannibals,'' Shade said.

''So, now they're cannibals,'' Brutus repeated, playing along.

I frowned. This was pointless there was no way he would believe us without proof.

''If we were owl killers, would we have saved your son?'' Marina now said and to our surprise, Orestes spoke up to our defense.

''Father, they did save me.''

''Quit defending them, boy!'' Brutus snapped at him.

''You never listen to me!'' Orestes exclaimed, unfurling his wings. I felt bad for him for having a father like that. But at the same time, I was happy to notice that he seemed so much different from the stern general who, as expected, ignored his son and turned his attention back to us.

''Tell me where Frieda has your colony stopping next,'' he demanded to know and leaned his head down to Shade.

''I don't know,'' he replied half-lying.

''Very well,'' Brutus replied calmly as if he had just expected such an answer coming from him.
He then lifted his head and faced his owl soldiers. ''Lock them up!'' he commanded.

''Yes sir,'' one of them replied.

''Orestes and I need time...to think of the most excruciatingly painful way to loosen their tongues.''

I gasped hearing this and then felt myself getting painfully picked up by my hair and my hood while my friends were also roughly dragged away by the scruffs of their fur.

Soon after we found ourselves being looked up in a hollow tree with thick twigs blocking the way out and an owl soldier guarding the entrance. I let out a sigh and sat down on the floor with my back leaning against the wood while rubbing my head a bit after that painful endurance earlier.
I surely did not want to know what Brutus had in mind to make us talk in order to give him the answers he wanted to hear.

Shade bared his fangs while clenching his fists, ''If we hadn't saved that owl, this would have never happened!'' he said.

''We did the right thing,'' Marina insisted with her arms crossed, ''If we ignored Orestes, he'd be dead! And we'd all feel terrible.''

I sighed once more, knowing well she was right but right now it didn't matter at all. What we needed was a plan to escape. Unfortunately, that seemed to be an impossible task.

A little further away, the Silverwing colony had eventually stopped to rest and hunt.

One of them, the elder Bathsheba caught a small tiger moth with her jaws and gulped it down before flying over to Frieda who was roosting on a tree.

''Hello, Bathsheba,'' the chief elder greeted her politely. ''Full already?''

''Let me tell you it wasn't easy with this low mosquito count,'' the old bat grumbled, although she just caught a rather good catch, ''Your choices are starving the colony! Honestly Frieda, what are you thinking?''

Frieda glared at Bathsheba but before she could say something Mercury flew over them.
''Do you hear the dawn chorus? We have to go now or decide to roost.''

Looking up at the brightening sky Frieda let out a heavy sigh. ''Alright,'' she said tiredly. ''Prepare to leave.''

Mercury nodded and flew off to alert the colony of their leader's decision, while Bathsheba just shook her head and flew off, growling a bit to herself.

Still, in our cell, Marina and Shade sat down next to me on the floor while we awaited our gruesome fate. Just then I heard talking outside and wondered what was going on when suddenly Orestes head peaked into our cell.

''Psst, You three!'' he whispered, trying to get our attention. ''You want to get out of here?''

Shade frowned distrustfully, ''Uh, no thanks.''

''Say what?'' I asked while Marina looking at him with disbelief.

''Don't you two get it?'' Shade said angrily, ''The minute he lets us out, he cries for help, we get torn to shreds, and he gets a medal!''

Orestes looked hurt by Shades accusations and turned around as if he were about to leave.

''Wait!'' Marina said trying to stop him, ''Why would you let us go? Your father would kill you.''

The young owl narrowed his eyes bitterly. ''My dad wouldn't care if I was dead anyway. All he cares about is this stupid war!''

''You got that right,'' Shade went up to the bars and gripped them tightly with his hands, ''That guy's out of control! He's a maniac! He's...he's a warmongering lunatic! He's a-...'' I cleared my throat to interrupt him and nodded towards Orestes who hung his head down in shame.
''Oh ... sorry. Eh, would you mind opening that latch for us?''

Orestes looked around to be sure nobody was around then unlocked the cell with his foot.
With a sigh of relief, we quickly went out. ''Thanks,'' Marina said, smiling up at Orestes who happily smiled back.

''Okay, let's get out of here now!'' Shade said, wanting to leave as quickly as possible.

''And go where?'' Marina asked.

''To the fire towers,'' he reminded her.

''But we don't know where they are. We don't even know where we are.''

She was right, but we also couldn't stay here for much longer, or we would get spotted.

''Hey! I know where that is,'' Orestes exclaimed happily.

''You do?'' I asked, looking at him in surprise.

''If by that you mean the electrical power relay station constructed by some of your kind?'' he replied leaving me quite speechless.

''Uh, I guess ... Can you tell us how to get there?''

''It will be quicker if I took you there. Come on!'' Orestes flew up, leaving us no choice but to follow him.

AN: Yay another chapter ^w^

Anyway, I wanted to say thank you for all the reviews, faves and follows this story is getting so far. I'm really glad you guys like it so far and I hope you will enjoy this one and the future chapters as well. :)