Chapter 19

Knowledge of the Mind

Kassidy landed on one of the larger beams that her friends and Zephyr were on when she made it back inside the gargoyle statue. It was hard to believe that she actually managed to trick the pigeons. It was also hard to believe that she didn't even need to use her magic. She was slowly breathing trying to catch her breath and as she did she then saw her friends looking at her.

"Kass," all three of them said and then they flew over to her and then landed near her. Holden landed behind her while Marina landed next to her with Shade by her side.

Kassidy saw that all three of them were looking at her worried. Marina then hugged Kassidy. "Kass, you alright?"

"I'm fine, Marina," Kassidy said.

"Holden told us that you guys got chased by pigeons and then he told us that you were distracting them. We were worried the pigeons caught you."

"Hey, no one's taking me anywhere. I'm a fighter and I can fight my way through things."

"Wait, you fought off those pigeons?" Holden asked. "All three of them?"

Kassidy looked at Holden as Marina stopped hugging her. "I actually didn't fight them or use my magic on them. Rather I used my wits to outsmart them so I could get away."

Holden was looking at Kassidy with his eyes widened but in an inspiring way like he was staring at his idol. "Kass, you are very surprising a lot."

Kassidy then noticed Shade standing off to the side looking at her guilty. He had his ears drooped to the sides of his head. Holden and Marina noticed that Shade was staring at Kassidy and when they did, Shade slowly made his way to Kassidy. When he got to her he looked down at the ground and sighed. After a few seconds of silence, he then looked back up at Kassidy.

"Kass… I'm sorry for what I did," Shade said quietly. "I really didn't mean to I just… I just don't know what came over me…"

Kassidy looked at Shade sadly and she knew she couldn't stay mad at him for long. Like her he's been through a lot and he lost a Dad that he never even got to meet. If she didn't apologize now she may never get the chance to do so later.

Kassidy then sighed. "It's okay, Shade… I know you're just upset at how the owls and pigeons were treating us. I'm sorry for yelling at you."

Shade looked at Kassidy surprised. "Really?"

Kassidy weakly smiled. "Yeah, but aren't you and Marina scared of what I did?"

Shade smiled weakly. "It was surprising but we know you didn't mean to do that. Besides I deserved to be yelled at."

Kassidy's smile turned into a friendlier one. "Yes, yes you did."

Shade shook his head as if he heard someone say the sky was yellow. "Hey!"

Kassidy then laughed. "I'm just kidding, come here." She then hugged Shade and Shade hugged her back. "You do realize though you need to apologize to the pigeon as well."

"I know."

"Good, then you know."

Kassidy and Shade then heard Marina clear her throat and they looked at her. "Okay, now that you two made up we should probably talk about why Kassidy mentioned her parents." She then looked at Kassidy. "That's if you want to though."

Kassidy and Shade got out of their hug and he and Marina were waiting for Kassidy to answer. Kassidy looked at Holden and he nodded his head for her approval. Kassidy crossed her arms and sighed but then looked back at Shade and Marina. "It's okay, I'll tell you."

She then went on to tell the same story she told to Holden and as she did, Shade and Marina listened and didn't interrupt her but they were shocked when she got to the part of her finding out that her parents died. She also told them why she hid this secret from them. This time she even managed not to cry. Holden was standing by sadly listening to the story again but he kept supporting her as she continued with the story without speaking. Kassidy then finished her story and she waited for Shade and Marina to respond.

Shade then flew over to Kassidy's other side and he placed his hand on Kassidy's shoulder as did Marina on her other shoulder. "Your parents must've meant something to you," Marina said. "Even though my parents didn't do anything to help me at least you had parents that cared a lot about you."

"Exactly," Shade said, "and you also at least have some good memories to cherish."

Kassidy smiled weakly at Shade and Marina. "Thanks, guys." The three of them then hugged. They then got out of their hug after a while. "So what happened while Holden and I were gone?"

"I was gonna ask the same thing," Holden said as he got next to Kassidy.

Shade and Marina looked over next to them and they were smiling at Zephyr. He was standing off to the side but Kassidy knew he was listening-he after all had incredible hearing. Kassidy and Holden looked at each other confused because they had no idea why they were smiling at Zephyr. Shade and Marina looked back at them.

"Nothing much, really," Shade said and Kassidy saw that something was up because Shade and Marina looked like they were trying to hold in their laughter.

"What?" Holden said.

Kassidy then saw a feathery wing near and then she also saw another wing next to Holden and Kassidy thought she was hallucinating. But sure enough, when she and Holden turned to see what it was it was a pigeon. She and Holden yelped and they jumped away from the pigeon and then Kassidy pictured fire in her hands getting every detail right and then fire formed in her hands. She was about to use the fire to chase off the pigeon but all of a sudden the pigeon just disappeared into thin air.

Literally disappeared into thin air.

Then to Kassidy's surprise, Zephyr started to laugh and so did Shade and Marina. Kassidy and Holden looked at each other even more confused and then they looked back at the three of them and Shade and Marina were still laughing their heads off.

"Why are you guys laughing?" Holden asked. "There was a pigeon here." He then looked around him. "Where'd it even go?"

Kassidy's eyes widened and she looked at Zephyr and then she diminished the fire from her hands. She didn't know if it was what she thought he did but she had a feeling that what he did was something a moth could do. "That bat we saw disappear outside… that pigeon that disappeared as well… Zephyr were those… were those echo projections?"

Zephyr nodded his head.

"Holy migraine," Holden said, not cussing for once. "That was awesome! Can you teach me to do that?"

Shade smiled at Holden. "That's the best part. He's going to teach us how to do it!"

"Now hold on boys," Zephyr said and the boys looked at him. "You need to listen to what I'm about to say. What I have to show you, you must be ready to see. Only one in a million bats can echo project."

Holden whistled a low whistle. "Damn, and to think I can't even do calculus."

"Calculus?" Marina said.

"It's a subject in school that we humans need to learn about," Kassidy said. "We always need numbers to help us out."

Zephyr then cleared his throat to get the four friends' attention. "First, there are a few skills that you need to master."

"Like what?" Shade flew over to Zephyr and landed near him as Zephyr was sorting through some more herbs.

"Oh, like uh… sound mapping, uh… star navigation, and uh… herbal remedies."

"Wait a minute," Holden said as he flew over to Shade and landed next to him a little irritated. "We need to learn about that stuff? Come on, man, I don't wanna learn about that stuff. I'm already stuck with the worst stuff to learn about I don't need to be stuck with learning more stuff that's going to make my brain explode."

Zephyr looked at Holden. "You must have patience, Holden. The more patient you are the more likely you'll get to the best parts."

Kassidy knew that if Holden wanted to improve at school he needed to put a lot of effort into it. She also knew Zephyr was right about having patience. When she and Holden got back home she was definitely going to make sure Holden meant what he said about improving himself. She was going to help him get all his late work turned in and help him get better grades, besides this lesson might even do him some good.

"What do I do if I get cornered by an owl?" Shade asked. "Throw leaves at him?"

Shade and Holden then started to laugh but the rest didn't. Kassidy rolled her eyes and knew that the boys had to be serious about this. She and Marina flew over to Zephyr and landed next to him and when they did, Zephyr used his echo vision on Shade and a book that was sticking out.

"You obviously cannot use your size to overpower the enemy," Zephyr said.

"He's sensitive about his size," Marina whispered to Zephyr.

"She's not even joking," Kassidy whispered to Zephyr.

Zephyr then looked at the boys and walked over to them. "The more you know. The better chance you'll have against much stronger opponents."

Holden rolled his eyes and he crossed his arms. "Tch."

Without even realizing it, Zephyr put his leg behind Holden's leg and he pushed him and Holden yelped and he fell to the ground. Shade looked at Zephyr surprised at what he did and Kassidy knew that neither he nor Holden saw it coming. Holden looked at Zephyr surprised. "Do you understand?" Zephyr asked.

"Oh… I think I get it," Holden said as he then smiled. "I'm ready."

Shade helped Holden up and then he smiled at Zephyr. "So am I."

Kassidy and Marina smiled at each other and looked back at the others. "I think we all are," Kassidy said.

Zephyr then smiled at the four friends. "Then let us begin."

A couple of nights have passed and Zephyr taught the four friends the skills they needed to learn on their journey and there was a lot to learn. Kassidy made sure to do the sight-seeing spell on her friends and she was glad of doing that. Shade apologized to the pigeon and she accepted his apology and that satisfied Kassidy and the four friends then found out her name was Grace. The four of them were hanging under the inside of the gargoyle's mouth as Zephyr was teaching his lesson to them. Kassidy and Marina were getting most of the answers correct and the boys were really not happy about them being star students.

Zephyr was teaching them some herbs and even though Kassidy knew all of them she wanted to at least make sure she didn't forget about them. Zephyr then showed them another herb and Kassidy smirked as she crossed her arms and she knew what it was but she decided to let someone else answer.

"Stinging nettle," Marina answered with a smile.

Shade looked at Marina with his eyes narrowed. "H-Hey! I was going to say that." Shade protested.

"Sure you were," Kassidy said.

"I was!"

"This isn't even any fair," Holden said frowning. "This is like Mr. Francis's biology class all over again."

"Used for what?" Zephyr asked as he looked between the boys. "Shade? Holden?"

Holden and Shade looked at each other and didn't answer. Kassidy then sighed. "It's obviously for aching joints."

"Oh, come on, Kass" Holden shouted. "That was at the tip of my tongue! He didn't even ask you!"

Kassidy looked at Holden. "Well someone had to answer eventually."

"Maybe if you paid attention more and not complain you'd be getting some of these answers right," Marina said.

"Up top," Kassidy and Marina then high foured each other.

"Oh, yeah," Holden said mockingly as he turned his scarred back to everyone. "That herb will so be useful. When I'm a grandpa!"

"We've been at this almost two full nights and you still haven't gotten around to echo projections," Shade said. "Just constellations and boring herbs."

Zephyr picked up another herb and then he poked holes through it. "Boys, you will need this knowledge for the journey ahead." Zephyr then extended the leaf towards the four friends. "What is it?"

Holden looked at the herb annoyed. "A leaf?"

"And?" Marina took the leaf from Zephyr and the four of them inspected it. They then smiled at each other and they all knew what they were thinking. Marina held up the leaf towards the sky and when she did they could see stars through the holes Zephyr poked through. "Well done. The four of you are beginning to use your brains."

The four of them looked back at Zephyr. "Now can I learn echo projection?" Shade asked. Zephyr used his finger to indicate to them to follow him and he wobbled into the throat of the gargoyle. Shade swung his fist into the air as he smiled. "Alright!"

The rest smiled as well and they took off from their roost and followed Zephyr back inside the gargoyle.

"Capture the object with your heart," Zephyr began with the echo projection lesson and the four friends were sitting down listening to Zephyr. "Listen to it form in your imagination. Once you can hear it, sing it."

Shade immediately went to go first. He closed his eyes and had his claws on the sides of his head. Kassidy, Holden, and Marina waited to see what would happen as Shade scrunched his eyes as he was trying to conjure something. They waited… and they waited… and they waited. Still, nothing seemed to have happened.

"Can you see it?" Shade asked.

"See what?" Marina asked.

"A… a giant bat, like the gargoyles… uh… huge claws and teeth?"

The three of them looked around and saw nothing. Kassidy knew Shade was trying too hard. "Yeah, that would be a no," she said.

Shade opened his eyes and he narrowed them and grunted.

"Alright, my turn," Holden said. Holden scrunched his eyes closed and he then put his claws on the sides of his head and began to concentrate on trying to conjure something. They waited, but like the echo projection Shade tried to conjure, they saw nothing. "Can you see mine?"

"What are we supposed to be seeing?" Kassidy asked.

"It's supposed to be me," Holden said. "You know a tall, handsome human version of me."

The three friends looked at each other and then they looked back at Holden. "Yeah, no," Marina said. "No human version of you here."

Holden opened his eyes and he grunted with his eyes narrowed.

Kassidy hummed to herself and thought about how she wanted to do her echo projection. It was kind of like magic but a whole lot different. She had to concentrate on what she wanted but she wanted something simple. She then closed her eyes and before she began she took a couple of long deep breaths and then slowly exhaled. After that, she placed her claws on the sides on her head and focused on autumn leaves falling with their colorful red, orange, and yellow mixed together as she hummed. She imagined the way they were falling slowly just waiting to reach the ground to make the ground an even more colorful environment.

Then suddenly leaves started to fall around the four friends and Holden, Shade, and Marina gasped as the echo projection of leaves was falling everywhere and Kassidy couldn't even see them. She then opened her eyes and as she did her echo projection disappeared. She looked at her friends and they looked amazed. "Did I do it?" She asked.

"Kass, you made a whole bunch of leaves falling around us," Marina said smiling. "That was incredible."

Zephyr smiled at Kassidy while the boys were looking at her pretty jealous. "Well done, Kass, that was very excellent." He then looked at the boys. "Now boys, try something simpler like what Kassidy did but it doesn't have to be over the top."

This time both Holden and Shade scrunched their eyes shut and began to concentrate on making their versions of leaves. They hummed and bared their teeth as they did it. As they did Kassidy and Marina began to notice two looking leaves on the floor but they could barely see them. The echo projections then disappeared and the boys sighed in disappointment as Kassidy and Marina laughed.

Holden looked at the girls annoyed. "Yeah, hardy harr, laugh it up for the top worse echo projections on this planet."

"You have nothing to be mad about, Holden," Zephyr said. "It was a good start for the both of you."

Shade sighed. "But I couldn't hold it. It's gotta be longer, and bigger, and scarier."

"Yeah, if that will ever happen," Holden scoffed.

Zephyr walked up to the boys. "You're letting your emotions get in the way. The reason Kassidy was able to do it was because she didn't think about anything else but her echo projection. All of you should take a break and stretch your wings." He then began to walk away.

"But-" Shade began but Zephyr interrupted him.

"You can pick some stinging nettle for me," Zephyr said as he looked back at the four friends. "A patch of it grows in an alley not far from the cathedral." Without arguing with Zephyr, the four friends made their way out of the cathedral but not before Zephyr said: "Keep alert and listen."

The four friends then made it out into the city and flew to the alley that Zephyr was talking about. When they reached the alley they all saw the stinging nettle and landed near it where all the filthy garbage was. Flies were buzzing everywhere and Kassidy could smell a lot of the disgusting garbage that was rotten food.

"Okay, Kassidy and I pick and you two can stand guard," Marina said.

Shade and Holden looked at Marina like she was crazy. "What are we going to guard against, this plant?" Shade said and then he plucked out the stinging nettle and when he did he then bumped into Holden and they both yelped and they crashed to the ground and they both groaned. "Sorry, Holden."

The girls got over to the boys and they helped them up. "Right now I think you two might need bodyguards in case one of you actually gets hurt," Kassidy said.

The girls then noticed a big shadow and when they looked to see what it was they gasped. The boys looked at them confused. "What's wrong with you two?" Holden asked. "What's with the faces?"

When the boys turned around to see what the girls were looking at they gasped. Standing right in front of them was an angry-looking owl. Kassidy cussed in her head as she stared at the owl but she then snarled at the owl and waited for it to try and do something. She was ready for it to try and attack them and when it did he was going to be sorry he ever tried to mess with them. Especially Kassidy.

All of the sudden the owl screeched and was about to attack one of them and Kassidy was about to attack it herself but then Shade swung the stinging nettle into the owl's face like a baseball bat and it hit the owl square in the face and the owl screeched out in pain. The owl then took a couple of steps backwards and then it collapsed to the ground and disappeared into thin air.

"Huh?" Shade said as he and the others were confused.

They then heard clapping and laughing and they looked up to see that Zephyr was dancing on an old and rusty shopping cart. The four friends sighed relieved smiling and they were laughing as well. Yet again, Zephyr got them.

Kassidy woke up early the next night and she then yawned. She and her friends were roosted on different beams and her friends were still sound asleep. She looked at a beam that was very far away from them to see Zephyr asleep. She then looked at Holden to see if he kept his word about keeping one eye opened from now on and as expected he had both eyes closed. Kassidy rolled her eyes with a smile.

She then stood upright and began to wash her face with her own spit. Usually, a lot of girls would be disgusted by this but not her. She was after all pretty much like a tomboy. She then stretched herself for a few minutes.

Kassidy then looked at the beam above her where she could see the same pigeon, Grace in the same spot where Kassidy placed her. Zephyr was doing all he could to help this poor pigeon and Kassidy wished she could do more for Grace. She wasn't experienced with healing spells but she was good with healing herbs. Then a thought came to her, maybe there was something she could do for Grace. She did mention something attacking her family but what could it possibly be? Could it actually be giant bats? She had to know.

She flew up to Grace and then landed near her and she looked peaceful in her sleep, not having to worry about what attacked her. Kassidy sighed and then she gently shook Grace. "Grace?" Grace mumbled and Kassidy tried again. "Grace." Grace shot open her eyes and she gasped scared but Kassidy quickly shushed her. "Grace, it's me, Kassidy."

Grace relaxed and started to calm down, putting her uninjured wing on where her heart was beating. "Oh, you scared me."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to."

Grace smiled weakly at Kassidy. "It's okay, I guess ever since that attack I've been jumping at the littlest of things."

Kassidy then sat down in front of Grace. "About what you got attacked by… did you actually get attacked by giant bats?"

Grace's smile went down and she then looked down at the beam nervously. "It sounds crazy I know but I really did see giant bats."

Kassidy took a strand of her hair and she put it behind her ear. "Did you get a good look at them?"

Grace looked back at Kassidy. "Not really… but their size was unlike any bats' I've ever seen before. However, I did catch something on one of them."

Kassidy leaned forward now curious. "What was it?" Grace gulped nervously and looked around her as if something was going to try and hunt her down again. "Grace, whatever it is you can tell me, no one's going to hurt you. Not on my watch."

Grace looked back at Kassidy and she seemed calm about Kassidy's words. She then sighed. "Thank you, you are too kind." Grace was then silent for a few seconds as she looked back to when she got attacked by what she claims were giant bats. "I saw not one but three scary-looking snakes on one of the giant bats. They weren't real but they looked more like drawings kind of like yours but they were way different."

Kassidy looked at Grace confused. "Snakes?"

"Yes… two of them were on its arms and one of them was on its back. It was like those snakes were going to come off the giant bat and attack me…"

Kassidy took a moment to think to herself. A giant bat had drawings on it and they were of snakes. This didn't seem right but it did sound crazy. Giant bats or not she now had a description of one of them.

"Could you tell me exactly where you and your family got attacked?"

Grace nodded her head slowly. "Of course, you can find my roost a few flights from here. There will be a nest on a tall building. Although I don't know if I should even be calling it my roost… it's a bloody mess."

Kassidy got up and went over to Grace and then she gently took the wing that was not sprained and she put her other hand on top of her wing and smiled weakly at the pigeon. "Everything will be fine. Just know that I'm not your enemy nor will I ever be."

Grace smiled weakly at Kassidy. "I know."

Kassidy then gently placed Grace's wing on the beam and she took off from it and she flew out from the cathedral through the gargoyle and into the city. She used her sound vision to navigate to the building Grace spoke of with her roost being there. She made sure (and really made sure) to stay in the darkness so no pigeons could see her and she hoped no owls would be hunting her down tonight.

Then she saw a tall tower standing in the distance and as she did she then started to smell something strong. It wasn't garbage, it was much worse than that. She had a strong feeling of what it was.

Then when she made it to the top of the tower her eyes bestowed upon the most gruesome sight she's ever seen. Blood was everywhere and there were scratch marks all over the place. When she landed she looked around her and she has never seen anything like this. Sure she saw this in horror movies but not in real life. She then saw a nest and she slowly walked towards it and when she got close enough to it she looked inside it and huge amounts of blood stained the inside of the nest. Kassidy sighed and knew that Grace lost her squabs. She didn't know if the husband was alive or not but her high guess was that Grace's mate was killed.

As Kassidy kept staring at the nest she then heard something whoosh by her and as fast as lightning she did what she always did with magic and conjured fire in her hands and she snarled in the direction of where she heard the whoosh. She used her eyes and her hearing to try and detect some sort of presence around her. She also tried to use her sense of smell but all she could smell was the blood and the smoke coming from the fire in her hands. Kassidy got confused and then thought that maybe it was just her and she was hearing things. She demolished the fire from her hands and she was about to take off but before she did, she looked behind her one last time to see if something or someone was actually watching her.

There was no one.

With that, Kassidy took off and made her way back to the cathedral. She wondered if her friends were awake or not and if they were she wondered how she was going to explain this to them. But if they weren't maybe she should keep this to herself, considering she didn't want them to worry.

On top of another building that was near the building the bat named Kassidy was on, Goth watched as the Silverwing made her way back to the cathedral. He saw her flying in the city when he was out hunting alone and when he did he followed her. He was watching her when she was looking around the bloody top of the building. It was amazing when he was watching her that she still had no fear in her eyes. Usually, when these sorts of animals saw anything like this they usually got afraid and scurried off but not this one. She was looking at the scene like she's seen it before in her lifetime. She wasn't even afraid when she saw what was inside the nest.

When Goth went to land on top of another building so he could actually watch her and not let her see him he saw her form fire in her hands and he got lucky she didn't see him because if she did he could've probably guessed that she would've turned him into a roast bat. When he saw her looking around her bravely while snarling with the fire in her hands, Goth didn't see a dangerous creature but rather he saw the same beautiful bat that was smiling and glowing. The fire illuminating on Kassidy made her look as though she was actually part of the fire and the way the fire was rising and dancing in her hands near her face made her eyes pop those beautiful ocean blue eyes and it looked as though the fire was actually in her eyes. Since he first saw her he couldn't get her out of his head and it made him furious because she was his enemy-even though he barely knew anything about her. He didn't tell Throbb or their new partners this and he was going to keep it that way.

He still didn't know why she was important to Martin and Dianna and all he could get out of them was that she was something special. Whatever the case was all he wanted to do was eat a colony and return to his beloved jungle. Whatever risks and sacrifices he was willing to take he would do it. Even if he had to make a deal with Cama Zotz himself just to get home.

A/N- Sorry for the long wait, guys. I was busy studying for these very important tests and recently I've been going through a depression but I'm all better and I'm back. I was very happy when I got back to writing this story because I had a lot of stuff going on and all of it wasn't too bad but my only complaint is that I hate getting up early in the morning. A lot of you can probably relate to that and I'm mostly a night person. Anyways I hope you enjoyed this chapter and chapter 20 will be here soon.