Night arrived fast. Shade's dreams of Goth never came anymore, and life seemed like he could finally live in peace.

Ataria was sleeping on a limb not far from Shade's roost. Later, she would tell Marina and him how she ended up alone, even though she seemed troubled to talk about it.

"Really, you don't have to tell us if you don't want to, if it's too personal." Marina and Shade said almost at the same time.

"I think I should, I haven't talked to anyone in a while." Ataria replied.

Shade and Marina waited a few moments for her to begin…"Well…my colony of Moonwings lived quite a ways from here, in the southern forests; about two million wing beats from here. I was sort of the popular bat, everyone said that I would be the most promising female hunter, and I was considered to be very attractive. Not meaning to sound cocky, but a lot of the males paid me a lot of attention, and I can't say that I didn't enjoy all the attention. My parents thought I was destined to mate with the other promising male hunter. Everyone thought we would make a great couple, but I didn't want to mate with him because I already had a male in my sights. I fell in love with a bat named Cesar. He was sort of a loner, and a very quiet bat. We were friends until he asked me to be his mate, and I of course said yes. My parents really didn't care for the idea of me mating with him, but respected my decision. About two months later, we set off for our migration. We decided we would try to have a child after migration. After about three days into our migration, we flew right smack into a storm. We ended up lost, and found ourselves in a jungle. About fifteen bats from our colony were missing. We had no idea where we had ended up, but soon found out it was a very hellish place. There were beasts we had never seen before, the bugs were three times bigger than what we were used to. We lost about another thirty bats, all of them eaten. Even the plants ate us. Terrified, we looked for a safe haven, and found a huge towering structure that looked as if created by humans, but unlike most human creations I had seen, this was strangely different. The shape of it was odd. We made it our haven for awhile and found a safe way to get food and water. Eventually, many of us became sick from overheating. I too, became sick. I couldn't hunt, so Cesar had to bring me food for me. One night, him and some other males went out hunting and never came back. I waited for days, but still nothing. I feared the worst. I figured they had died. A week later, half of our colonies remain. But the worst was still to come. Eventually, we saw bats off in the distance, and thought we were finally saved. As we got closer, we realized there were hundreds of them, and they were huge. At first, we thought they could help us, that was until one of the bats lunged itself at one of us, tearing and thrashing him open. They were cannibals. We tried to flee, but were caught. They ate most of our colony, but the rest were going to be sacrificed to their god. At first, I thought that they were sacrificing us to Nocturna, and the thought made me sick. But then I learned their god was named Zotz. When it was time for the sacrificing, they lined us up, and what happened next was so disturbing. The head cannibal priest approached the first Moonwing, reached into his stomach, and pulled out his heart. Blood spilled everywhere, and the priest ate his heart, while chanting something. They then tore off the Moonwing's flesh and ate the rest of him. I was petrified, and I knew I would not be able to escape, nobody could. When it was my turn, I closed my eyes as the priest raised his hand, preparing to kill me. But all of a sudden, the wind picked up, the day darkened, and I heard a hissing voice say, No, do not kill her. I have other plans for her. Bring her to the slave chamber. The cannibals seemed to fear the voice, and quickly took me away. I looked at my colony for the last time. I had no idea what they planned to do with me. They left me in a small chamber like room. Suddenly, I heard the same voice I heard earlier say what is your name? I didn't answer. Speak! Ataria, I shouted. Do you know who I am Ataria? I thought the voice to be the god Zotz. Very Good. Now, as you see, your colony is not going to be alive any longer. I have just spared your life, and now you will do something for me. What…do you want? I hate those who don't worship me, and they must be punished for their foolishness. You will roam the world and kill all those who oppose me. I won't! You will. I'm afraid you really don't have a choice. Suddenly the air became very cold. I felt myself fainting, and when I woke I found myself back home. I was alone, and felt joy as I had unexplainably escaped. I felt dread come quickly, for I knew my colony would be dead now.

Shade and Marina were stunned. Shade had an encounter with the Vampyrum Spectrum, but he managed to escape with his family.

"I…I'm so sorry." Marina said nuzzling her.

"Thank you." Ataria replied, her face covered with tears.

"I can't believe that, you experienced worse than I." Shade said.

"I heard about all that you did, from other colonies that I stayed with. The strange thing was they all disappeared." Ataria said.

"Well, we won't disappear. Stay with us as long as you need." Shade said.

"Is it true that you killed them all?" asked Ataria.

"Yeah"

"Good," and suddenly there was an intense anger in her, "I hate them, they took everything away from me."

"I know, they were horrible creatures.' Marina said.

"So…you haven't killed anyone, have you?" Shade asked.

"Off course not, I don't really know why Zotz let me go." Ataria replied.

"Well, at least your o.k. and I hope you recover from that horrible incident." Marina said comfortingly.

"Thank you so much for letting me stay with you all."

End of Chapter 5