Chapter 3: Eeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrchhhhhhh—Onyx's POV
Eeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrchhhhhhh. The high-pitched, whistling noise rouses me from sleep. What was that? I wonder. Unwrapping my wings from their entwined position, I leave just enough space for my eyes to peek out between the leathery membranes. Only the darkness of the cave. I unfold my wings almost completely, and then drop down. My ears are still ringing from whatever that noise is. I morph them into bat ears, hoping that I will be able to detect wherever it came from with my ultrasonic hearing. Eeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrchhhhhhh.
I swivel my head to the direction of the sound. I start running towards the mouth of the cave out of sheer instinct. My feral side tells me I need to find out what the sound is and where it came from. As I reach the cave entrance, I leap off the ledge, unfurl my wings, and coast through the night air. Eeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrchhhhhhh. I wince. The sound hurts, it's a noise that shouldn't exist. But I continue on, driven by those pesky natural instincts. I keep my eyes closed to focus better. Eeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrchhhhhhh. Eeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrchhhhhhh. Eeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrchhhhhhh. Ouch. I clamp my hands over my ears. Eeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrchhhhhhh.
Why won't it go away! I scream in my head. Much more of this and my ears will bleed. I press my hands over my ears again, harder. Eeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrchhhhhhh.
It hurts! I think. It hurts so much! This pain isn't nearly as bad as when I got my throat wound, but pretty close.
It hurts too much. Giving up after another five minutes of torture, I morph my ears back to normal. Eeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrchhhhhhh. The sound is still there, but not nearly as painful. Tiredly I fly about a mile away from the lake, to a campsite. Time for dinner, time to take my mind off of the sound. A tent is set up in a gravel square, beside a smoldering fire pit that sits by a cooler. My mouth twitches. Pathetically easy to get this meal.
About a minute later, as I'm just closing up my now full, also now fifteen pound bag, there is rustling in the tent. I freeze. The rustling stops, and I take a few quick, light steps away. Zip. More sounds, a yawn, a grunt, reach my sensitive ears. What's going on? Are they coming out of the tent? Are they coming after me? I bolt immediately for the lake, flinging myself into the air and flying like mad.
I'm now over the lake. In, out. Inhale. Exhale. Breath in. Breath out. Calm down, I order myself. Time to relax, Onyx. Time to get a hold of yourself, Onyx. Good girl, Onyx.
As I touch down softly in my cave, I pull out a pack of dried fruit from my pack and munch down. Thanks to my ten percent Egyptian fruit bat genes, eating meat was impossible. Even seeing meat makes me feel ill. In, out. Chew, swallow. Everything is fine. The people in that camp weren't Erasers. They weren't from the School. They weren't out to get me, I tell myself over and over.
I don't believe myself.