Chapter 40

Blood's Sweetness

Of all the dreams Kassidy's ever had in her lifetime this was by far the strangest dream she's ever had. It wasn't her usual dreams with her being in a car crash with her parents or anything related to that, this dream was much more different. She remembered being in a black void like she sometimes usually was in and like in all the black voids it was just her in it, the only thing was she heard something, a voice for that matter. It sounded deep with a thick and cold edge to it and this particular voice sounded as if many voices were speaking simultaneously. This voice even felt as if they were trying to freeze Kassidy in place but there was just something about that voice… Kassidy wasn't sure what but that particular voice was giving her déjà vu.

This voice didn't say a lot, it only said two words and the voice repeated these two exact words: Welcome back.

What did this voice mean by welcome back? Kassidy wasn't sure but she thought it was just some weird dream that was trying to haunt her like the other dreams she's had. She didn't want to think too much about it and would rather at the moment focus on trying to get away from the giant bats with her friends.

A small gust of wind coursed its way through Kassidy's blue fur, bloody red hair, and light red mane as she still had her eyes closed. It was pretty cold and even as it was cold, Kassidy made no signs of shivering and it was mostly because she was bundled up cozily in her blue wings. It would've been a whole lot nicer for her if she was in her gothic bed sleeping with her ebony black blanket covering her and her head rested against the comfy pillows. At this moment though she wasn't worried about her bed; she was worried about if she and her friends would be able to escape from these cannibal bats.

A little bit of the moon outside of the roost was seen but most of the moon was covered by some puffy clouds. A full moon would appear in some days but as of now, there would be no full moon. Even as there would be no full moon at least there was a moon to be glanced at for comfort.

What Kassidy hated when she woke up in the morning was feeling a dry throat and as of now, that was exactly what happening as she was now waking up at night. Her jaw was dropped as she was sleeping and sometimes her jaw was dropped when it came to sleeping and when the jaw dropped that's when the drool starts. It was annoying to Kassidy at some points but it was even more annoying when she felt a desert in her throat and as of now what Kassidy wanted was lots and lots of water.

The wonderful ocean blue eyes of Kassidy's opened and when they did there were no bloodshot eyes or bags to be seen. She felt pretty good and that was rare for her to feel good when she woke up after some sleep. She thought for sure she would've had an awful sleep, considering the state she was in. She started to rub one of her injured arms and when she did she started to feel that something was off. Her arm didn't feel injured. Rather, it felt like nothing happened to it.

Confused, Kassidy then looked down at her arm and her eyes widened when she saw no wound to be seen. To be sure this wasn't a hallucination the Silverwing witch reached her hand out to where the wound was Martin made on her and she lightly started to brush the place with her fingers and as she was she didn't feel any signs of tenderness no matter how light or hard she was touching the area where her wound was. Speaking of wounds, Kassidy noticed some other spots on her body that no longer showed any signs of wounds and this was getting her very confused as she should've woken up feeling dreadful with a lot of wounds and dry blood on her. Instead, she woke up to see that she was feeling better than yesterday and was not seeing any nasty wounds or dry blood crusting her fur.

Kassidy still hung on the ceiling upside-down thinking about this with her brow furrowed. Did Martin sleepwalk yesterday and managed to accidentally heal her? Or perhaps Martin was trying to trick her so he could humiliate her once more. She thought that maybe she was drugged but how could she be drugged? Either way, Kassidy did not trust what she was seeing one bit. There was no way she could have even healed herself while sleeping and even if that happened, the golden snake on her would've used its strange magic to hurt Kassidy so she couldn't use her magic.

Unless… Kassidy remembered a couple of nights ago the wound she received from Martin after she saved Holden and Shade's life healed out of nowhere when she woke up and it was indeed strange. Could it be possible that this strange magic healed her wounds once more? This strange occurrence happened twice now and Kassidy wasn't sure how to feel. Was she supposed to feel glad that her wounds healed? How could she feel glad when this happens out of nowhere?

As Kassidy was lost in her thoughts a smooth Spanish voice spoke pretty loudly. "Wake up, the sun's now rising."

Kassidy didn't even need to guess who that voice belonged to as she then looked at the Prince with her brow furrowed. She so badly wanted to retort at Goth but she held her words against her tongue like she was sealing a lid tight so she wouldn't have to deal with Martin or that stupid golden snake on her. As much as she'd love to retort at Goth she didn't want to risk something as to get herself killed. Who knew how long Martin and the other three giant bats would even keep her and her friends alive the more they were stuck with them. Kassidy hoped that she and her friends could somehow find a way to escape these giant bats.

As Kassidy looked at Goth she noticed that only he and Throbb were still in the upper part of the cave in the mountain they roosted in with her and her friends. Martin and Dianna were nowhere to be seen. Kassidy wondered where Martin and Dianna were and why they weren't in the roost they were all in. Did they suddenly decide to leave them all here and continue getting back to the jungle on their own a different way? Somehow, Kassidy could see Martin and Dianna getting back to the jungle while not taking the brothers with them. It was very obvious that the mated couple did not like the brothers at all.

Then, Kassidy started to hear murmuring and she looked to see that her friends were waking up. They looked like they didn't get good sleep at all and Kassidy could understand that. Sleeping with giant cannibal bats would probably be a lot of people's nightmares. Holden was groaning as he rubbed his face and slid his hand in his brown hair, Shade was rubbing his neck, while Marina was rubbing her eyes.

"Martin took down his spell on the cave entrance and he said that you can all go hunt but all four of us will still be watching all of you," Goth said. "We're leaving soon so I suggest that you all get moving and do your hunting." With that, Goth then left the cave.

"See you later amigos," Throbb said then he too left the cave.

The four friends hung there in silence for a few seconds looking at each other. From all the looks in their eyes, they all wanted a plan to get out of the situation they were in. However, one wrong move, and one of them was likely going to be gone. They would have to plan carefully and not risk having one of them getting killed.

What was also noticeable was that Shade, Marina, and Holden were mostly looking at Kassidy from time to time. Sometimes it looked like they wanted to say something about what they were seeing on Kassidy but then they'd shut their mouths. Kassidy was about as confused as they were and when one of them would ask about how her injuries were instantly healed, Kassidy already knew that she was going to tell them that she wasn't sure.

"I really don't think I can eat…" Holden said, breaking the silence. "With us being stuck with them I don't have an appetite."

"Same here," Marina said. "But if we all just stay in here and not eat we're not going to have enough energy when we start flying again."

Holden furrowed his brow at Marina "What do you expect me to do then, eat dirt?"

"Holden, Marina's right," Kassidy said. "We need to eat and if none of us have enough food flying's going to be difficult for us. Flying on an empty stomach is not the best idea. If you wanted to dance at a party or something like that would you dance on an empty stomach?"

While Kassidy waited for Holden to answer, Holden was thinking about the question, and the more he thought about it the more she could see that Holden was having second thoughts. Holden then sighed. "No… but fine I'll eat something."

"Good, then we should go hunt before any of the giant bats notice that we're still in the cave."

"Guys, I think I may have an idea for… you know…" Shade was saying.

The other three looked at Shade and Kassidy was curious in knowing about the idea Shade had. "What's the idea you have?" Kassidy asked.

"I'll tell you guys about it later, right now like Kass said we should go hunt."

"Well, then let's make the hunt quick so we can meet up quicker," Marina said.

With that, the four of them took off from the ceiling and they split up to go do some hunting. Kassidy thought about telling her friends that they should stick together while they hunted but Kassidy didn't have the time to do that because by then her friends already went to do their hunting. She was left alone to hunt but Kassidy didn't mind as she thought that she needed to a lot of thinking. When Kassidy thought she was always lost in her thoughts and that could instantly tell you that she tried to think things very carefully.

As Kassidy was flying she really wasn't finding anything that insectivore bats could eat. All she could mainly find were a couple of mangy mosquitos and that wasn't enough to fill her hunger. She needed to eat more so she wouldn't be having problems while she flew. If Kassidy could she would've had a piece of toast with butter on it for breakfast and on rare occasions, she'll eat something else for breakfast. However, she always made sure that she got a good amount of food in, and right now that was exactly what she was trying to make sure to do. On the bright side, she found some water to drink for her dry throat.

Then, Kassidy started to pick up on something with her sense of smell. She sniffed the air some more and when she did she started to smell something sweet but tangy at the same time. The more she smelled the more it was making her mouth water. Whatever the smell was, Kassidy wanted to search it out and with that, she started to fly in the direction in which she smelled the scent.

It didn't take her long to find the source as she then came across blood splatters on the ground. This made her stomach start to churn in places and not because she saw blood but the fact that this scent she smelled was what was making her mouth water. It was like yesterday when she saw Goth eat his catch.

Ever so carefully, Kassidy landed near the blood splatters on the ground and she started to follow the trail she was seeing. She knew that this was a bad idea following a blood trail but she couldn't help but follow it. The more she followed the trail the more the blood splatters were starting to get bigger and noticeable. Kassidy had the feeling that this was not going to be good and by the blood splatters, she was seeing it indeed did not look good at all.

Then, the blood trail was seen going towards a bush. A pool of blood was seen coming out from under the bush like the bush was bleeding fresh blood. Kassidy, then carefully walked towards the bush and as she did she was holding her breath. One part of her wanted to forget about this and continue her hunting but another part of her wanted to see what was in that bush. Whether it was for the bad or the worst she wanted to see what was in that bush. She hoped that whatever was in that bush wouldn't be anyone she knew.

When Kassidy got closer to the bush she then pushed aside a branch and looked in it and when she did her eyes widened when she saw a gray rabbit that was easily enough seen to be dead. Its side of the stomach had a big tear in it and a lot of blood, organs, and the ribcage could be seen. Kassidy cursed in her head but she felt really bad for that rabbit. The killer of the rabbit didn't even finish eating it. Kassidy wanted to perhaps bury the rabbit somewhere and give it a farewell. However, something was stopping her from doing that. She couldn't take her blue eyes off the rabbit and the more she stared at it the more it made her mouth water.

Kassidy all the sudden shook her head. Why was her mouth-watering towards the rabbit? She was an insectivore bat, not a meat-eating bat… right?

She didn't want to do this but a voice inside her head told her to taste the rabbit. The other night after Martin forced her to eat a piece of flesh from that Brightwing, Kassidy wasn't expecting the taste she got from that bat. The taste was different… The taste she got didn't make her gag or even barf. Instead, it settled in her stomach like a lot of other foods she's eaten.

Making sure that no one was watching her, Kassidy looked at her surroundings and when she was certain that no one was watching her she pulled the carcass from out of the bush and looked at the spot where the big tear was. Kassidy inhaled the scent and it smelled very divine, which made Kassidy confused once more. Slowly but carefully she leaned her head towards the tear and ripped a chunk of flesh from the rabbit and slowly started to eat it. The silence was surrounding her as Kassidy continued to slowly chew on the flesh and after a slow time of chewing she then managed to swallow it. Kassidy was surprised by the taste she got and it was pretty similar to the taste she got from the bat she ate only the tastes were very different from each other.

The flesh to Kassidy tasted like she was eating a good protein.

Kassidy loved the taste she got and this very much confused her. Why did she love the taste of this meat? Shouldn't she have spat this out? Every night ever since she and Holden accidentally transformed into bats things have been getting crazier by the second. This might be the craziest thing that's happened since she's been a bat.

Either way though, Kassidy actually wanted more of this rabbit and she thought she could think about this later, but first, she wanted to continue to eat this rabbit and she wasn't sure who this dead rabbit belonged to but it was their loss now because now this rabbit was hers. With that, Kassidy drove her teeth back into the carcass and ate as a carnivore would. She knew this looked wrong but she couldn't help it as she ate her meal, the blood was like juice and the flesh was like chicken. Eating this rabbit was like eating a bowl of spaghetti. Blood was now smearing on Kassidy's face as she now ate up more of the rabbit and whatever her teeth grabbed she ate it and she was careful not to chip her teeth on the bones. It was like eating a turkey leg or barbequed ribs, as long as you ate them carefully then no problems would occur.

Unbeknownst to Kassidy, someone was indeed watching her and the figure was now quietly approaching and when he got close enough he then spoke in that smooth Spanish voice of his. "I knew it." When Kassidy heard that voice she froze in place for a few seconds but she then slowly turned her head and her eyes widened when she saw Goth looking down at her. "I knew there was something about you that you were hiding."

Kassidy quickly stood and cursed in her head that she wasn't being careful and now Goth saw her eating that gray rabbit. However, she then looked at him confused. "Wh-What're you talking abou-"

"It all makes sense now, señorita," Goth interrupted Kassidy. "Why you're feared by many animals, why you have those drawings and that thing around your neck, and how you know so much about the jungle." The giant bat then grinned. "You're a half Vampyrum."

Kassidy hated that Goth was grinning at her, however, when he said that she was a half Vampyrum she thought that was wacko. She wasn't a half Vampyrum, she was just a Silverwing and not a mix of that and the Vampyrum species. At least that was what Kassidy thought. "I-"

"Make up any excuse for this but you and I both know that your friends would be shocked if they saw you eating this rabbit I caught."

Kassidy looked at Goth angrily when he said that he caught that gray rabbit. "Why did you leave it in that bush a little eaten up?"

"I saw you coming in my direction as I was eating that rabbit and while you were I wanted to see what you did when you saw the rabbit, so I hid and continued to watch and…" Goth then shrugged his shoulders. "Well, no need for me to explain any further as the next action you did plays out the rest of my story." He then walked up closer to Kassidy. "As I said before, your friends would be shocked if they saw you eating that rabbit and it would be a shame if this got out to your friends." His grin then turned into one that would tell anyone that he got you right where he wanted you.

At what Goth said, Kassidy couldn't help but bite her bottom lip. The giant bat made a point. Her friends would've been shocked if they saw her eating that rabbit and she was lucky that her friends didn't mind what she looked like, that she had magic, and such other things but how would they even react if they found out she ate a rabbit? The thought made Kassidy sick to the stomach as she had the feeling that her friends would very much so judge her and probably would think that she would eat the Silverwing colony. She would never hurt any of those Silverwings. They were like family to her.

Kassidy bared her teeth angrily at Goth as she then thought of something. "You don't even have any proof to them."

Goth's smile didn't disappear as he continued to look at Kassidy. "I may not have proof, señorita but still having them hear that information would be quite the news for them. I could already imagine how your friends would look at you if the information got out to them. However, I won't tell them, if you tell me about your family's history. I'm so interested in knowing about your and your family's history and if you tell me all about it I won't tell your friends about what you did."

As Kassidy was staring at Goth angrily the fire inside her started to slowly grow and as it was fire could be seen in her blue eyes. This giant bat was blackmailing her. He wanted to know about her and her family's history? This was bad for Kassidy because she and her family were not bats as they were all born humans so how could she possibly come up with a backstory?

"You piece of-" Before Kassidy could say anything further a stinging pain started to course through her arm where that golden snake was and that painful hissing was throbbing her eardrums once more. She got on her knees, covered her ears, and started to growl in pain. She cursed out loud as she almost forgot that the firepower that's connected to her anger was part of the snake that was keeping her from using her magic. She was like a dog that had a shock collar on it.

"Since that snake is also on your arm this gives me an advantage since you won't be able to stop me with your powers." As Goth spoke, Kassidy managed to look back at him and he was still grinning at her. "I'll let you have time to think about this and I shall see you later." Goth turned his back to Kassidy and before he took off he looked over his shoulder at Kassidy with that grin Kassidy hated. "Awfully a shame that you didn't live in the jungle. You might've been as tall as us Vampyrums and you really could've been one of Zotz's best followers." With that, Goth then left Kassidy alone.

As Goth was leaving the pain in Kassidy's arm stopped throbbing and the hissing in her head stopped as well. She watched angrily as he left and when he was out of sight Kassidy then started to get a worried look on her face… She had no way to stop Goth from telling her friends about what she did and using her magic was useless now since that stupid snake was still secured to her. If she even tried to hurt Goth, Martin would beat her up real good like he did those couple of other times. At this point, Kassidy was pretty much screwed.

Kassidy couldn't stop washing her face. She had been washing her face for a while now near a small looking pond. At first, she only went to a pond to quickly clean any of the blood off her so her friends wouldn't expect anything but now she couldn't stop washing her face. She couldn't stand herself and even looking at her face made her feel disgusted. Karma was a bitch to her as now she was being blackmailed and she ate a rabbit. Her face started to feel tender from how hard she was rubbing it with her hands and splashing water on it but she didn't care as she continued to do it.

Eating a rabbit was the worst thing she did and now this was what she got for eating that gray rabbit. Not only was her life on the line but now it seemed like she was going to lose more than just her family. It didn't seem like eating a rabbit was a big deal but her friends knowing that she was a bat and ate a rabbit that's pretty much a different story. They could probably turn her away like she was a monster like those giant bats were and if they even found out she ate a rabbit Kassidy was scared that she was going to lose them. She promised herself she wouldn't let anything bad happen to them and she may not have been able to save her parents from death or help her family not get kidnapped but she was not bound to lose her friends now too. Perhaps though she should tell the truth to them but what would that bring to her, loss or support? At this point, Kassidy doubted that her friends would even trust her again once they found out that she ate a rabbit. If she thought keeping her secret about her anger issues when it came to fire was bad this secret was much worse.

At this point, Kassidy wasn't sure what she was going to do. Goth was letting her decide to either tell him about her and her family's history or he would tell her friends about what she did. Kassidy was trying to come up with any type of story for her family's history but she wasn't sure how she would tell this fake story to Goth because some details she might say would get that Prince suspicious and Kassidy didn't want that. Time was ticking and Kassidy still didn't have a story that would satisfy Goth. She was surprised though that Goth didn't ask about her healed injuries and that did get her suspicious. Kassidy hated that Goth now had the advantage over her and Kassidy couldn't do anything… At least that's what she thought.

"Kass," Kassidy heard the voice of Shade calling to her and she looked to see that her friends were flying towards her.

She quickly dried her face off with her arm and stood up as her friends were landing next to her. "Did you guys get enough to eat?" Kassidy asked.

Shade nodded. "Yeah, we did."

"Kass, you won't believe this but Shade has an idea," Marina said.

Holden nodded agreeing with Marina. "It's a pretty good idea I can tell you that."

"The problem is though we need to do it at the right time," Shade said. "It's all or nothing."

Kassidy furrowed her brow confused. "What's the idea?"

Kassidy's friends smirked at each other and then they showed Kassidy what they had in their hands. Kassidy's eyes widened and her friends didn't even need to explain what the plan was because at that Kassidy couldn't help but smile.

It was the leaves that could knock you out cold.

The four friends found the four giant bats and they were all in the same area eating their meals. Martin and Dianna were sharing their meal and at one point they held the same piece of flesh in their teeth but then they tore it in half with their teeth while they also kissed. This kind of got Holden disgusted but he tried not to focus on that. Holden was pretty nervous about this but he trusted that Shade's plan might just work. If they could get away from these giants then Holden would be glad. He and Shade would distract the four giant bats while the girls drugged the giant bats' carcasses. It was going to be a risk but like some would say, "Risk is a gain."

As they were watching, Holden couldn't help but notice that Kassidy's been acting strange this night. He couldn't put his finger on it but it looked like Kassidy was worried about something. Was she worried about the plan they had? He wanted to ask her but he didn't want to get her upset or anything. Another thing that was on his mind was not seeing Kassidy with her wounds on her that Martin gave her. He, Shade, and Marina wanted to ask her about that but with the plan, they now had it would have to wait.

It was now time to put on a show.

The girls nodded at the boys and the boys nodded in return and they started to walk towards the giant bats as they were now ready to act. "How many times do I have to say? Stop stealing my opportunities at catching a tiger moth!" Shade shouted.

Holden furrowed his brow at Shade. "Oh, please, I took that moth fair and square!"

"No, you didn't! You saw me going for that moth and you knew that I wanted it!"

At that point, the giant bats saw the boys pretend to argue and they stopped eating while they hadn't noticed Kassidy and Marina getting ready to drug their food. The acting was good and as long as Shade and Holden could keep it up then the girls would have the opportunity to drug the giant bats. One wrong move in their actions then the plan would very much so fail.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Holden then crossed his arms. "You really must be seeing things."

"I don't know who's worse, you or Chinook."

"Pft, and I don't know what's smaller your body or your brain."

At that, Shade then pointed his finger straight at Holden. "You better take that back."

As the four giant bats were watching the show all four of them were finding it quite amusing and as they continued to watch as Kassidy and Marina carefully walked towards the carcasses with the crumpled up leaves in their grasps and when they got close enough to the carcasses they quickly hid the crumpled leaves inside the carcasses the best they could. As they were doing that, Marina was getting uncomfortable with what she was doing and it was a good thing that Kassidy was willing to get the crumpled up leaves in two of the carcasses otherwise Marina might've passed out by now. When they hid the leaves very well in the carcasses it was time for the boys to put on the final act.

"Or what, runt?" Holden said.

After Holden said runt, Shade yelled in pretend anger and attacked Holden to the ground and the boys started to put on another good act as they were now wrestling each other. As the boys wrestled the girls quickly got back to their posts and hid without anyone noticing them go back to hiding.

Then, Dianna rolled her eyes and she and the other giant bats looked back at their carcasses. "They'll tire out," Dianna said and she and the other giant bats got back to eating their carcasses.

Holden saw the giant bats eat the carcasses with the leaves in them and he wanted to whoop with joy but right now wasn't the time as he and Shade continued to pretend to wrestle each other. The purple Silverwing was mostly winning this pretend wrestling though but right now wasn't a good time to know who was doing better in this pretend wrestling. Right now, the plan seemed to have worked as now the giant bats were eating their meals with the drugs in them.

Then, after a few minutes, the boys pretended that they were worn out from wrestling each other. The two looked towards the giant bats and they waited for the drugs to knock them all out cold but so far nothing happened yet. Holden hoped that the giant bats ate the flesh and the drugs because if they hadn't the sleepiness wouldn't kick in. How could they not have swallowed the drugs though? They had to have swallowed the drugs.

After a couple more minutes of waiting, they then heard Throbb groaning and they looked at him to see that he was wobbling some and then he had fallen onto his knees. The three giant bats were looking at the overweight bat confused as to why he was acting like he was sick. The four friends didn't even need to look at each other as they were now smiling that their plan worked.

"I don't feel so good…" Throbb said slowly as he then groaned once more.

Then, the three other giant bats were then looking surprised and confused at the same time as they were looking around their surroundings. They were getting dizzy and were getting pretty sleepy and they were trying to stay awake. However, the drugs that they didn't know they swallowed down were already doing their magic on them.

They were slowly falling asleep.

"Wh-What the hell is happening?!" Dianna shouted.

Then, the four friends couldn't contain themselves and they started to laugh as they walked towards the giant bats. The giant bats were looking at them confused as to why they were laughing at them. It was time to reveal what they did to the giant bats.

"How do you like it?" Shade said. "We drugged your food and now you're falling asleep."

The four friends laughed once more and the giant bats looked at them shocked and gasped, all except for Throbb. By now Throbb had fallen to the ground and was now in a deep sleep. He was snoring very loudly but no one paid attention to Throbb's snoring.

Goth looked at the four friends in outrage. "They tricked us!" However, before Goth could even do anything he was wobbling in place and he tried to keep his balance but by then he fell onto his knees and was slowly slipping onto his stomach and by then he was now fast asleep.

Martin and Dianna were trying to keep their balance in place and were trying to keep focused and had better success than the brothers did. The two then growled at the friends with a monstrous fury in their eyes and Holden now was starting to get nervous. It seemed like the brothers got enough of the drugs but he wasn't sure that these two did. Holden cursed in his head as the two remaining giant bats stared at them and growled.

"You stupid mangy bats," Martin barked at the four friends. "You're dead!"

At that, the two went at the four friends and the four friends yelped and tried to get out of their reach with the mates scratching at either the air or making deep cuts towards the ground. Dianna was by now starting to get more tired but she kept going at the friends furiously like Martin was. They were blinded by rage that they didn't notice something advancing towards them and the four friends.

Dianna had Marina where she wanted her but before she could even try to kill her something attacked her and made a hoarse-screech. The female Vampyrum freaked out and tried to swat the figure away but the figure was outsmarting her and was pulling at her hair. As Dianna was trying to swipe viciously at the figure she started to get sleepier and her hand was now on her forehead. Then, Dianna fell to the ground face first and fell asleep.

With Martin, he saw Holden and he instantly went for him and by then he had him pinned to the ground and Holden yelled in fear as Martin had his teeth ready to sink into the purple bat's throat. Martin grinned at Holden evilly and tiredly. "I think it's time for the lights to go out for you, Chatty Bat." Then Martin readied his snake-like teeth and Holden thought that he was actually going to die as he could only stare at the snake-like bat in fear.

But then, Holden saw Kassidy and she had a rock in her hand and all the sudden she yelled in anger and slammed the rock on the side of Martin's head and Martin yelled in pain as he then dropped to the ground and held the side of his head. A gash was seen on the side of his head and blood was already dripping down his face. Before Martin could even do something he fell flat on his back with his eyes closed and whether he fell asleep or got knocked out unconscious all the giant bats now had their eyes closed.

Kassidy was breathing hard as she then dropped the rock to the ground. "That's for all you did to me, snake ass." She then looked at Holden concerned. "You okay?" She then extended her hand out towards Holden.

Holden looked at Kassidy's hand and he then looked back up at her and nodded. "Yeah, thanks." He then took Kassidy's hand and she helped him up.

"Don't mention it."

"You guys alright?" Shade asked as he and Marina made their way towards Kassidy and Holden.

Kassidy nodded. "Yeah, we're fine."

Then, the four of them heard the same hoarse-screech that was attacking Dianna and they looked to see a bird was flying towards them. The bird then landed near them on the grass and it was staring at them. It was a red-tailed hawk and it was a medium-size and it had long, broad wings and a short, wide tail with a reddish-brown color. The feathers on it were dark brown, light brown, and white and it had a white chest with its belly to its underwings and it had brown lines and spots on it.

Then Holden, Shade, and Marina gasped. "Guys, it's a hawk," Marina said.

Shade's fur bristled and he bared his teeth at the hawk and growled at it. "Be careful guys, we don't know what this hawk is capable of and he could be here to try and turn us in to the owls."

"Wait," Kassidy said as she approached the hawk. "I know that hawk."

Holden, Shade, and Marina looked at Kassidy surprised. "You do?" Marina said.

"Yeah, I met him a couple of times now. It's okay, I don't think he's gonna hurt us, besides he helped me."

Shade looked at Kassidy like she was crazy. "Are you sure we can trust him? What if-"

You don't have to worry about me. Shade, Holden, and Marina's eyes widened when they heard the hawk talk to them through their minds and they looked freaked out.

"Did he just…" Holden hesitated to say anything else as he wasn't sure what to say. He was sure that hawk talked but he didn't see the hawk move its beak.

Yes, I spoke but through my mind, the hawk said in Holden's head, and once more he, Shade, and Marina gasped as their jaws dropped.

"H-Holy shit… He talked in my head…"

"S-Same here," Marina said.

"How are you able to do that?" Shade asked confused but amazed at the same.

That will be saved for later, Lightning said in all four of the friends' heads. Right now the best thing to do is to get as far as we can away from these four. It was a smart idea what you four did but right now we should get out of here. I will answer any questions you have but right now we must go.

After Lightning spoke in their heads, Kassidy looked at the three. "Guys, Lightning's right. We need to go before these guys wake up. Who knows how long they'll be asleep for? We need to get going."

Holden, Shade, and Marina looked at each other and still couldn't believe that red-tailed hawk could do what he just did. However, Kassidy and that hawk were both right and they indeed needed to get out of here before those crazy giant bats woke up from their slumber. They would all much rather get moving than stay here any longer.

"Alright, let's go then," Shade said.

With that, they all took off all except for Holden. He looked at Martin and when he did an idea formed in his head and he couldn't help but smile mischievously at his idea. It might get him in deep trouble but he thought it was worth it. Holden quickly got to Martin and when he did he brought one of the giant bat's fingers out and he then started to lift the arm towards Martin's nose and started to do what he wanted to do.

"Holden, come on," Marina shouted towards the purple bat.

Holden looked up towards the ground and brought his hand near his mouth and called back to Marina. "Coming!" He then took off and when he did the four giant bats were left to sleep on the ground with Martin having his finger up his nose.

A/N- Finally got this chapter done. It took me a while to plan this whole idea out and I hope my idea worked. I hope to post the next chapter sometime soon but until then see ya!