Chapter 27

Witchnapped

Holden never felt more scared than he already was. Here he was right now with Shade, hiding behind a tree from Throbb. Throbb and the other giant bats actually did eat bats. He felt like he was going to throw up again like he did a couple of days ago.

He then heard sniffing and he immediately knew that Throbb was sniffing the air and he looked at Shade with his eyes widened as he bared his teeth skittish. Shade put his finger to his lips and mouthed to him to stay quiet. The boys then didn't move and Holden could feel his heart racing like it was ready to explode any second now.

"Shade? Holden?" The boys looked at each other when they heard Throbb calling their names and they knew that they were screwed big time. "Is that you?" Immediately, the boys took off from the ground fast and they flapped their wings as fast as they could. "Hey!"

The boys stayed below the tree line and Holden could hear Throbb's wing beats. He didn't know if they could escape him but the more he thought about getting grabbed by him the more he could feel his face sweat. The boys' breathing was not out of breath but rather of being afraid. To Holden, it felt like he was in a video game trying to survive but this was no video game.

Through the tight weave of foliage, the boys flashed, flipping from side to side, almost over onto their backs sometimes, to avoid getting impaled on pointy twigs or dashing themselves against a trunk. Holden didn't want to look back because he didn't want to know if Throbb was catching up to them or not but he wasn't intending on finding out.

Holden could hear Throbb cursing and sending sound waves towards them through the leaves and branches, trying to get a fix on them. Holden then saw Shade pull his wings together and he flew headlong. Holden didn't know what to do but he copied off what Shade did. They did it silently, not grazing a single leaf, they banked tightly-Shade did a better job of doing that-and they darted back the way they came. Then, twice more they made quick changes in direction until they could no longer hear Throbb's crackling wingbeats.

"Holy crap," Holden said out of breath. "Kass was right… they do eat bats!"

"I can't believe we didn't listen to them," Shade said. "We need to find them and get out of here."

"Okay, but where could they be by now?"

"I don't know but hopefully we can find them before Throbb tells Martin, Dianna, and Goth what happened. I just hope that Brightwing wing we saw back there wasn't Marina's."

The boys flapped their wings around the forest hard and fast to find Kassidy and Marina. Holden felt like an idiot for not listening to them and he turned his back to them, especially Kassidy.

Eventually they saw a Brightwing roosting all by herself on a branch. The boys sighed in relief when they saw that it was Marina. Marina was still alive.

"Marina!" The boys shouted towards her.

Marina looked up at the boys and she scowled at them as they roosted next to her and she crossed her arms. "Well, if it isn't tweedle dee and tweedle dumb."

"Marina, listen-"

"Listen to what?" Marina said cutting off Shade. "Another one of those stories from your giant bat friends? Forget it and go bug someone else."

"That's not what this is about."

"Then what is it about then? How you feel glad that you chose them over Kass and I?"

"No," Holden shouted. "It's not that! We saw something disturbing."

Marina looked at the boys confused. "What?"

"Marina, we should've listened to you and Kass," Shade said. "We saw Throbb eating a bat and we thought it was you he was eating. Kass was right about them."

Marina looked petrified as her eyes widened and her jaw hung open. "Oh, my god…"

"Marina, I'm sorry. This was a huge mistake bringing Martin, Dianna, Goth, and Throbb with us."

"Damn it, I wish I listened to you guys," Holden said guiltily. "Then none of this would've happened. I'm so sorry."

Marina looked around her but there was no one in sight. She then looked back at the boys. "What happened when you guys saw Throbb eating… you know…"

"Throbb knew we were there," Shade said, "and he was trying to catch us but we lost him."

"But we don't know where he is," Holden said. Holden then looked around him confused. "Where's Kass at? Wasn't she with you?"

"I don't know where she is," Marina said. "But she did tell me she was going to go get some water."

Holden looked at Shade shocked. He didn't know where any of the giant bats were but he knew that they had to find Kassidy before something bad happens. The giant bats were pretty ruthless so he didn't know how Kassidy would handle it. She was pretty good at fighting and she knew some magic, but his main concern was how she would handle Martin. Martin was a big guy and he knew a lot of spells.

He knew they had to get to Kassidy and fast.

"We gotta find her," Holden said.

"Then we need to go," Shade said.

"Already behind you," Marina said.

Together, the three of them flew off their roost and made their way to try and find Kassidy before it was too late.

Kassidy drank from the lake and she let the water flow down her throat, soothing it. It was just what she needed when she felt her throat dry for a while. Plus it was a good way for her to get some alone time.

She then started to think about these last few days of migrating with these giant bats. It still sickened her that she had to travel with them. Getting rid of them would be a dream come true for her, but the problem was she couldn't because of Holden and Shade and they definitely would've gotten on her. She then thought about why she would think this after what they said to her. It's not like they could stop her. Kassidy then decided that she would have to get rid of the giant bats one way or another, even if it meant that Martin might have a way to help her and Holden to return to their human selves.

She then stopped drinking the water from the lake and she wiped the water from her mouth. She then tried to think of how she would get rid of them. If there was one thing for certain it was that Kassidy always tried to find a short cut to some situations and right now she needed that short cut.

As she was thinking she then heard someone land behind her and without hesitating she grabbed the hand she saw and she flipped the person over her back. She saw that it was Goth that she flipped over her back. Goth groaned in pain and before he could move, Kassidy got on top of him, she put her hand on his chest and she had her fist out in front of his face. Goth looked at Kassidy surprised.

"You," Kassidy said with a growl.

Goth had his hands up. "Easy, señorita. I don't want any trouble here."

"You're not going to get any trouble unless you were planning on having me for lunch."

"Okay, calm down. Just give me a chance to apologize."

"For what?"

Goth then immediately pushed Kassidy off of him and Kassidy hit the ground with a thud. Kassidy looked up and Goth was smiling down at her. "That for example."

Kassidy got up as she snarled. "You sneaky son of a-"

"Ah, ah, ah, you might want to watch your language there."

Kassidy mockingly smiled as she got closer to Goth. "Are you always this charming or am I just lucky?"

Kassidy then punched Goth to the throat and Goth choked shocked and he covered his throat. He coughed for a little bit as Kassidy had her arms crossed.

Well, that was easy.

Goth looked at Kassidy as he continued to cover his throat. "Okay… that was much… sneakier."

"And this is what happens when you try to sneak up on me two times."

Goth put his hand down from his throat and he cleared his throat. "Clearly, but I wasn't trying to."

"I'm sure you weren't, Fancy Wings."

Goth crossed his arms. "Can I ask why you keep calling me Fancy Wings?"

"Well, for starters you're a Prince that has good food, good shelter and a nice place in the food chain where you're from. You have a lot of things that a lot don't usually get and your wings are very large with no markings, rips, dirt or anything like that. So that would pretty much make you Fancy Wings."

For a second there, Kassidy felt like she was talking like Sherlock Holmes. But she always had her way with her words when it came to a lot of situations, even when it came to writing on her laptop or a piece of paper.

Goth slowly nodded. "I see, but I was actually trying to find you to talk to you."

Kassidy blew a strand of hair off her face. "Is that right?"

"Yes, and like I said I wanted to apologize. I wanted to apologize for yesterday."

"About?"

"About what I said to Marina. It was very rude of me-even though I still thought it was…" Kassidy scowled at Goth and he cleared his throat again. "Anyways, that's why I wanted to find you."

"Well first of all what you said to her was damn wrong and you should've kept it to yourself. Secondly, I'm not the only one you should apologize to. You still owe Marina that apology. Also, if you think I'm going to apologize to you about what I said to you yesterday forget about it because I don't regret what I said to you and your companions."

Goth sighed. "I kind of figured that you would've said something like that. Quite frankly I don't blame you. I would've done the same thing."

Kassidy drummed her fingers on her arm as she stared at Goth. If Goth could apologize to her then why couldn't Martin? Kassidy thought that Goth at least had some manners, unlike Martin.

"Well… thanks anyways for the apology," Kassidy said. "Maybe if you keep this up I'll think about trusting you."

Goth smirked. "I think that's fair."

"You two having a nice chat?"

Kassidy and even Goth jumped when they heard Martin's voice. They looked at Martin and he and Dianna were looking at them. This was the last thing Kassidy needed: seeing Martins's face. Kassidy saw that Goth didn't look like he was in a good mood to see those two because his brow was furrowed at them.

"We were just finishing up," Goth said.

Kassidy was now scowling at Martin. "Yeah, what he said."

Martin slowly nodded. "Well, I suppose we should probably look for everyone and continue on with our journey." Martin then walked up to Kassidy as Goth got out of the way and Martin's shadow casted on her as she continued to scowl at him. "Wouldn't you agree?"

At the end of his sentence, Kassidy thought it sounded like a snake hiss. Kassidy thought he was creepy but even though she did she rolled her eyes but thought that maybe it was time to go find the others. "Sure."

All four of them were about to fly off the ground but all the sudden Throbb came bursting through the opening. He looked out of breath even when he landed. The four of them had their brows furrowed confused.

What the hell? Kassidy thought. Did he fly a marathon or something?

"What the hell's wrong with you?" Dianna asked.

Throbb saw Kassidy and his eyes widened. Kassidy didn't understand what his deal was but there was something going on with him to make him act like this.

Throbb looked at Goth, Martin, and Dianna. "Uh… can I talk to you three alone?"

Goth, Martin, and Dianna looked at each other still confused. Martin then smiled at Kassidy. "Excuse us. We have matters to deal with here."

Kassidy watched as Martin, Dianna, and Throbb walked far away but Goth stayed put and he looked at Kassidy. Kassidy stared at Goth as if to ask what was going on. Goth simply shrugged his shoulders and he made his way over to the other three. Kassidy watched as they were whispering and she saw that Throbb looked really nervous about something but she didn't know what. But then she noticed that Martin, Dianna, and Goth looked really angry and they were still whispering.

Kassidy growled, she had enough of this and couldn't take all this whispering anymore. She walked up to the four of them. "Okay, I've about had it with all of you!" The four of them stopped whispering and they looked back at Kassidy. "All this whispering has really been getting on my nerves lately, which tells me that there's something that you don't want me or the others to know about." The four giant bats looked at each other as Kassidy crossed her arms. "So tell me, what's going on?"

The giant bats were silent as they stared at Kassidy and Kassidy just kept looking at them in anger. She wouldn't leave until they told her what was going on.

"Well, it's…" Martin tried to say something but he couldn't and Kassidy kept waiting for his answer. Martin then sighed annoyed as he furrowed his brow. "You know what? Screw this shit."

Before Kassidy could do anything, Martin was quick enough to grab Kassidy's arm and put it behind her back. Kassidy then felt Martin push in on her arm and she could feel the pain flowing through her arm and she growled in pain. Kassidy was shocked by what was happening.

"You idiot," Kassidy heard Martin say as he pushed in on her arm more and Kassidy tried to hold it in but she had to yell out in pain. "If you hadn't of ate that bat this wouldn't be happening right now!"

Kassidy's eyes widened but she knew she was right all along. But then she snarled and with the back of her head she slammed it right in Martin's face and Martin yelled out in pain as his grip on her arm was now released. Then, she got the details down and she used her wind spell on Goth, Throbb, and Dianna and they flew in the air screaming until they hit the ground. Then Kassidy flew off the ground and hurried away from them. She heard Martin yelling in anger but she kept on flying.

She knew she couldn't lead them to the others so she flew in a random direction just so if they were trying to chase one of them she would be the first one they would chase after. She flew by branches and foliage at a fast speed and as she did she also flew in and near dangerous obstacles. Her heart raced but she kept going.

All the sudden she felt something slice a bit of her hair and she gasped but all the sudden she felt someone get on top of her and she screamed when she saw she was falling towards land. She then felt the impact when she crashed and she groaned in pain but she couldn't move. She tried to move her arms and legs but she couldn't move them, not even her upper body. She looked up but she saw no one and she was confused.

But then, Martin materialized before her as he had his hand near him and he was looking down at her with his brow still furrowed. Kassidy's eyes widened and she couldn't believe she didn't hear Martin coming. How did he not make any noise while he was chasing her?

Martin then smiled and it was very disturbing to Kassidy. "Lights out, orphan."

Then, Martin used his hand to move it down near Kassidy's eyes and Kassidy tried to stop him but all the sudden she felt drowsy. She tried to keep her eyes open but the force kept closing them. She was then asleep.

Goth, Throbb, and Dianna followed the trail in which Martin flew off to, to chase down Kassidy. Goth's throat was not only hurting worse from yesterday's incident and the punch Kassidy gave to it a while ago but now his back was hurting all thanks to a spell that Kassidy did. He wasn't weak, he was still strong and he knew that's how Zotz wanted him to be. He wanted to be angry at Kassidy for what she did but he couldn't help but be impressed again with her like he was in the city. She really did know how to put on a show.

They then caught sight of Martin and Goth saw him pinning down Kassidy. However, he saw that Kassidy didn't look like she was moving. When the three of them landed near Martin, Goth saw that Kassidy's eyes were closed.

"Did you kill her?" Goth asked.

Martin got up and he looked at Goth. "No, she's just asleep, but I will kill her soon."

"Well… at least we still have one of them," Throbb said.

Goth, Martin, and Dianna slowly turned to Throbb with their eyes narrowed and Throbb was smiling nervously. Goth stood over Throbb and Throbb's smile went down. "How could you have been as stupid as to let two mangy bats see you eat a bat?" Goth lifted his hand and wanted to strike Throbb. "Your brain is in your stomach!"

Throbb lowered himself in fear. "T-They can't be far," Throbb said before Goth could strike him. "If we split up we can-"

Martin then started to laugh and Goth and Throbb looked at him confused. "Gentlemen, gentlemen, unless your stomachs and brains have forgotten, the runt did give me the directions." Martin then put his hand out. "To the towers of fire." Martin whispered in a creepy voice and fire formed in his hand. He then looked at Goth. "And let's not forget that he gave you the directions as well."

Of course Goth knew the runt also gave him the directions and while he and Martin got the directions, Throbb and Dianna were flying farther back from the group. For Throbb he could get why because he was sniffing out for food and as for Dianna he didn't know but he didn't care.

The fire in Martin's hand then demolished and Dianna smiled. "A very nice demonstration, darling."

Martin chuckled. "Yes, but it's just too bad that the orphan couldn't be awake to see this."

Martin and Dianna then started to laugh. Goth sighed and couldn't wait until the deal was done and over with. Martin and Dianna then wiped away the tears of laughter.

"So what of the others?" Goth asked.

Martin looked at Goth. "I know they'll be trying to find the orphan so we'll meet them there. They'll be in for a nice get together with the colony when they arrive."

Goth looked at Kassidy's sleeping body. "Who's going to carry her then?"

Martin looked at Kassidy and then Goth could see an idea form in his snake eyes. He looked at Throbb and Throbb could only blink his eyes. Martin then pointed at him. "You, you're carrying the girl."

Throbb shook his head and he looked at Martin shocked. "Wh-Why do I have to carry her?"

Martin furrowed his brow and he stood over him when he got near him. "Because you're the reason why we're now exposed, because you're smaller than us, because you're weaker than us, and because if you don't I will pummel you so hard you will not see it coming. So it's either the girl-" Martin then had his fist up near Throbb's face, "or your face."

Throbb gulped and he looked at Dianna and Goth and they just scowled at him. Goth knew that Throbb had no choice whatsoever.

"Kass!"

Holden, Shade, and Marina have been searching for Kassidy for a long time now and they couldn't find her as they were calling out her name. Holden was beginning to worry about Kassidy. So many thoughts were in his head that he tried harder to find her.

"Guys, look," Marina flew towards something and the boys followed her.

Marina landed on a tree branch and the boys landed near her. Marina picked up something on a twig and all three of them looked at what Marina had in her hand. In Marina's hair was a lock of red hair. They looked at each other scared.

"You don't think…" Marina said.

"It's… Kassidy's," Shade said and he looked at Holden and Marina. "Guys… I think they have Kass…"

"I was hoping you wouldn't say that," Holden said. All the sudden Marina gasped and the boys looked at her worried. Holden could tell that Marina was thinking about something. "Marina, what's wrong?"

Marina looked back at the boys. "Guys, they know about the towers of fire!"

The boys gasped. Holden realized that not only was Kassidy in danger but the colony was as well.

A/N- This is by far the quickest chapter I've accomplished in this story and I enjoyed writing this chapter because things are getting bat shit crazy. Next chapter will be out soon, later.