"Mating still got you stirred?"
Shade looked up to see Marina fluttering down to him. He had been hunting off from a distance to get some peace and quiet.
"Did I really ever say I was? Shade replied.
"Well no, but I know you better than anyone else. And sometimes, you're a very hard bat to understand. I also know you're not a very intimate person when it comes to stuff like this." Marina said.
"Yeah, well, are you? Shade asked offendidly.
"Off course!" And at this, Marina put her leg around him, pressed her body against his, put her wings around him, and began slowly rubbing up and down on him, purring like a cat, enjoying itself.
"Whoa, hey!" Shade almost yelled being caught off guard. He pulled away.
"What are you doing, you can't tell me that you're not at least the slightest bit liking this, right?" Marina said smiling.
"Well….
"I knew it, you are afraid." said Marina unsurprised.
"I'm not afraid!" Shade said lying.
"Really?" Marina asked doubtfully.
"Uhhh yeah."
"O.k. then," she said, "Kiss me then."
"Fine…but..you may not like it." Shade said shaking.
He moved his head closer to hers, shaking even more. He hoped noone was secretly watching them, because he knew if anyone was, they would get a kick out of watching him humiliate himself by being very un-intimate.
He got closer and kissed her, only to miss and hit her nose.
"Come here will you." Marina said putting her wing around him and kissing him.
Shade didn't know what to really expect. It was certainly wet. Sort of pleasing; or, at least it would be, if he weren't so shaky.
He pulled back looking at her. She opened her eyes and then her jaws dropped, looking petrified. Shade knew she must have been disgusted, "I told you that you wouldn't like it." Shade said upset.
"No, look." Marina said.
Shade saw that she wasn't looking at him, but beyond him. He looked at what she was looking at, and the sight disgusted him.
Bats lay out on a nearby branch, five of them. They were turned inside out, membranes and blood had gushed everywhere. All of them completely had their wings torn off. They were Silverwings, and Shade knew them all: Flitz, Palma, Jewel, Sovia, and Tredle.
"We need to tell the elders immediately!" Shade said.
" Well, obviously they were killed by a living thing." said Lucretia, head chief off the elders.
The news of the bodies spread through the entire colony. Right now the whole colony was in an assembly. Ataria, Shade, Chinook, and Marina roosted by each other, listening to the elders. The families of the ones murdered were being comforted. The good thing was the bats had no mates before they died.
"Was it the birds?" someone shouted.
"I thought we had established peace with them." someone else shouted.
"I can't believe they would do such a thing." another bat shouted to make his voice heard.
"We inspected the bodies carefully, and they were indeed killed by a living thing, but it wasn't the birds," the speaker now was Shade's mom Ariel, "However, they were killed by a another bat."
The colony shuddered with surprise and aghast.
"Cannibals, but I thought they were killed." someone again shouted.
"We do not know whether or not the Vampyrum were all killed in the explosion that I'm sure you've all heard off already. There may be other colonies of them out there that we just don't know of yet. Their may be hundreds left." Lucretia said.
Back in the jungle, Shade faced countless numbers cannibals, and the thought of even more of them alive sent a chill through him.
"We will be speaking to the birds soon to talk to them about what has just occurred, and to warn them in case this is a bird eater too. We also must set high caution when hunting. Make sure to keep close watch over all of our children. These deaths will not be taken lightly, and our sympathy goes out to the families of those who have been killed." Lucretia said.
"What a way to stir up a colony." Chinook said.
Shade, Marina, Chinook, and Ataria roosted inside Tree Haven, talking about what had just recently occurred.
"Sort of gives me the creeps, knowing that there's something out there, killing bats close by." Ataria said.
"Don't worry; we should be protected as long as were in Tree Haven. I doubt anything big enough as a cannibal would be able to even fit in here." Shade said.
"But what if it isn't the Vampyrum, what king of monster kills their own kind?" Marina
asked.
"I don't know, but whatever it is, it isn't a friend of mine." said Ataria.
End of Chapter 6