Chapter Two: The Power of the Spiritwings
Murk, are you here?
Shade, you know that I am always here.
Good. Have you any more news from the pyramid?
Yes. Goth and Phoenix have started regular sacrifices. They kill all they can find. I managed to speak through a rat to King Romulus. He told me that already over a hundred of their kind have been killed in the south. The owls are in just as much trouble, with at least fifty of them gone. Even the little hummingbirds have lost many of their kind.
I see... this could be very bad.
You think?
Java! I thought you had gone to meet some more Foxwing Spiritwings!
I did, and then I returned, just in time to hear of our Vampyrum friend's trouble.
Hey, it's not my trouble, I'm already dead, but Shade's old colony... King Goth has a particular hatred for the Silverwings.
This is your fault, Shade, m'boy. If you hadn't gotten on his bad side-
Yorick! Stop being so grouchy! You've no need to, now you have no wings to feel pain through!
Java, Java, Java, some day you'll learn that YOU DON'T NEED AN EXCUSE TO BE GROUCHY!
Yorick! Shut up!
What were you saying, Murk? Please, continue.
Thank you, Shade. Yes, I believe Goth is planning something. I think he's preparing for the next eclipse, so that Zotz may rise again.
If only there was some way to go back to the underworld and tell everyone that they needn't mope about, that the Tree could take them back to the lives the once had.
Not completely, mind.
I know, Yorick. But still, I can be with my mate and son, and I can speak to my parents and brother, Chinook.
Hey, why do you think Nemo's not here?
Seriously, Java? He's trying to find a way back down there?
Yes, he has a theory that if he enters a bat's body just as they're about to die, he'll be dragged down with them.
That's a good theory, but it's a different reality.
That... doesn't make any sense, Yorick.
Trust me, Shade, it does if you're me.
But I'm not you.
But if you were, you'd understand.
But-
STOP!
Let's get back on track. We have to stop Goth. Again. I'm really getting sick of that bat. When I was alive, he wouldn't leave me alone, and now I'm dead, and he won't leave me alone! Where's the fairness in that?
Sometimes life isn't fair, Shade. And death's not too peachy either. Hey, I fancy a peach right now... Mmm... peaches...
JAVA! Stop fantasizing about fruit! I have to go back to my colony. I have to tell Marina about Goth. With our help, I'm sure they can do anything.
What do you mean, Shade?
I mean, with every bat that returns as a Spiritwing, our power grows. Eventually, we'll have enough power to do some of the thing we could do when we were alive. Like, we don't need to eat, but I bet one day we'll be able to taste our favourite foods again-
Nemo'll like that.
And I bet I'll be able to use sound again. I could use sound to take on Zotz again. I could destroy his fantasy land down under and show those poor dead souls the truth - the Tree. And then our power'll be even stronger. I bet... one day, we could make anything possible.
For ourselves, and for every creature, alive or dead.
That is the power of the Spiritwings.