~ chapter 3 ~

Amara's eyes nearly popped out of her head, she needed to get out of here, but her wing reminded her that would be impossible, she was stuck here with Goth's son. She needed to distract him,
" w-why a-a-are you h-here ?" She shivered, Ares opened his wings, spanning 3 feet in length, thats when she saw it from the top of his shoulder all the way down to his waist. A scar the mark of banishment, his wounds were still bleeding and he began to groom himself ignoring her question.
" W-why a-re you here? " wincing as she saw his wounds bleed blood onto the branches of the tree. Ares realized he wouldn't be able to ignore her again.
"After my banishment I had to escape from the south so I came here, besides... my kind don't last long in this weather."
"You came up here to die?" He nodded slowly, going back to cleaning himself. She frowned. "Why not start another life away from your father's kingdom?" He gave her a look.
"Surely your parents have told you of my father's persistence, even up here he sent scouts to finish me off."
"My mother mentioned it...I haven't met my father yet." Ares looked up for a moment, then continued grooming.
"At this rate you won't get the chance, I'm from a warmer climate and even I can take the cold, you're shivering like a dead leaf."
"I am not..."
"Not to mention you can't fly so you can't hunt so you can't get warm...you tiny bats and your problems." He sighed. She wrinkled her nose at him. Spreading his wings again he took flight.
"Wait Ares you can't just leave me here...what if more scouts show up?"
"Tiny bat, I'm going hunting you may be denied food but I am not, adiós" He then flew off. Amara's mouth widened and she glared as he flew into the distance.
"Spoiled princy bat..." Amara stayed put freezing, and crawling along the branches looking for a warm roost. she got lucky indeed she found a medicine leaf, it was green with a white trim and she mulched it up streaming it onto her wound, and carefully stuffing some leaves under her wing for later, she had found a few beetles and ticks to feed on , nothing that wouldn't keep her stomach from grumbling, the warmest roost she could find was on the south side of the tree close to the trunk protected by from wind, and yet she still shivered. Ares came back much too her surprise well feed and warm he landed on the branch beside her but far away. She noticed his wounds were still bleeding,she wrinkled her nose and spoke firm and loud.
" Your wounds are bad they're going to get infected, so I might as well clean them up because you don't know how too" He looked at her.
"I'm aware of that will happen daughter of Shade, if you remember I came up here to die."
"My name is Amara and your acting like a big baby, Let me help you" She crawled closer to him. The vampyrum prince looked at her carefully before unfurling one of his wings to give her access to his wounds. She quickly crunched some up and made a poultice over the wound, she then crawled back to her partly sheltered roost. He curled his wing around himself again.
"Thank you Amara." He told her softly. She smiled and closed her eyes. He yawned quietly but continued to stay awake a little longer. He noticed her shivering in her sleep and moved closer. His body heat helping to warm her up. When she stopped shivering he closed his eyes and was soon asleep.
Amara woke up feeling slightly confused, then memories flooded in and she wished they hadn't. Her fur was matted her eyes sore and well she felt gross. Her eyes looked for Ares; when a earsplitting squeal filled the air. He was hunting. She groomed herself quickly, and began crawling along the branch feeding on bugs, she looked around and saw hovering above her a tiger moth, her mouth watered and she jumped spreading her wings then falling back down under pain. She sighed ready to give up, when a huge black wing slapped the tiger moth onto her head, she quickly grabbed it and ate it filling herself with warmth and looked above and saw Ares perched above her chuckling, his wounds already looked better, she looked over at hers; the medicine was dry and flaking off she would have to re-apply it to herself and Ares. She looked up again,
" thank you "
" You don't need to thank me, You need food as well." He looked at her wing for a moment. "And at the moment you can not provide for yourself," She nodded.
"How do your wounds feel?" She asked him.
"Much better,"
"I'm gonna have to put more poultice on it later," He nodded. She thought of a question she'd been meaning to ask. "Ares, since you don't eat bats what do you eat?"
"Different small animals and birds, the weak and old usually, I know what happened last time my kind were in your forest."
"Why not eat insect like my kind?" He shuddered at her response.
"Believe me I tried... but I find it nauseating...I'm a carnivore by nature's design."
"I see..." She starting crumpling up more leaves. "Let me take a look at your shoulder again."
He flew down next too her still careful then landed close to her on the branch spreading his wing , she went forward and began applying the the medicine , her nose sucked in his scent which by nature she expected to be repulsive, his scent was actually musky, and nice to her lungs. She pulled back and crawled away down the branch a little bit, apply some of the medicine to her wound. She looked at Ares and saw his lips where pressed together like he was trying too hold in laughter.
" What's so funny ?" She asked looking around her,
" You have some stuff on your face " Her face turned hot under her fur,
" What do I have on my face?" Ares chuckled,
" Everything" Amara began franticly grooming. Ares sighed. "You'll never get it off like that, here let me help." At first she was scared at the idea of him grooming her, those sharp claws and his teeth... but as she felt him combing through her fur, cleaning it, she relaxed. It reminded her of her mother and the others at tree haven. She suddenly felt very homesick and sniffled a little. Ares noticed almost immediately."Are you alright?" He wondered if it was something he did, maybe he smelt bad to her. She smelt absolutely amazing to him, like the flowers that grew at the entrance to his family's cave in the jungle. Her fur was wonderfully soft. He absolutely loved grooming her. Amara looked up at him.
"It's nothing...this just reminds me...of home." He nodded slowly, quickly finishing the task.
"You're clean now." He told her.
"Thank you"
" your welcome" Ares shuffled down the branch giving her room to sleep it wasn't long before the branch started shaking again. Ares sighed and groomed himself trying to get comfy but the consent trembling of the branch set him on edge.
He looked over at Amara who was curled up unnaturally trying to stay warm.
" Are you cold?" She looked at him shaking like the wind, Ares looked at her for a moment before climbing and flipping upside down beside her his back facing her, it wasn't long before both of them were warm and content under the sunrise.
The next Twilight Ares awoke slowly, feeling a small and slightly uncomfortable weight on his chest. As his eyes opened he saw Amara latched on to his chest like a newborn. He blushed wondering how she could've moved to her position. She couldn't have crawled over his head to that would mean... his blush increased. "Amara..." he whispered in her ear. "Amara wake up..."
Amara's eyes slowly opened and her grip tightened, then her eyes popped wide open, her scrabbling off frantically hitting and kicking Ares by accident
" Sorry, s-s-sorry" She stuttered, ares unfurled his wings and Amara fell off the branch, instinctively Ares lunged forward grabbing the scruff of her neck in his teeth and placing her back on the branch. He looked her over carefully.
"Are you alright?" He asked. She nodded.
"I'm sorry..I..I..."
"It's okay...I'm just gonna go out and hunt..." He quickly left the roost. Amara sighed.
"why on earth was I clinging to him like some helpless pup? She shivered again not realizing how cold it was without his warmth. She tried going back to sleep as she hadn't been quite ready to wake up. Ares arrived back to find her sound asleep, he put the beetles and caterpillars he'd found in a furrow in the branch, watching to make sure they didn't escape. He also watched Amara as she slept. So peaceful, he'd only wished his dreams could've been the same. Memories of his banishment and the jungle flooded him.
"Curse you Coma Zotz" he muttered to himself.
The next night, Amara saw Ares crawling along a branch inspecting some frost that had collected there, she was also feeling a numbness spread through the tips of her wings, they didn't have a frostbite but she knew if she didn't fly soon she would. She spread her wings , beating them and then with a little stiffness she rose twisting and and shooting thought the branches stuffing herself with insects. She could hear Ares powerful wingbeats quickening, and then with a crash there was a muffled squeak. Amara twisted and saw Ares roosted with a rat in his claws, she could see the revulsion on his face as he ate, then he tossed the carcass away and began grooming ; cleaning the flecks of blood matted to his fur. She landed beside him flapping hard so he would hear her coming. He looked up from his grooming, mildly ashamed of himself. He smiled at her.
"Your wing's healed." She nodded.
"Yeah, we can finally start the migration now."
"We?" He tilted his head to the side.
"Yeah... I'd like you to come with me."
"I doubt that'd go over well with your colony, especially not with your father..."
"Please Ares?" She did a puppy dog look. He folded his wings and looked away.
"Fine, but only cuz I don't want you freezing to death out there." She smiled and hugged him. Ares was in shock at this strange new feeling. Vampyrum didn't do this... "What are you doing Amara?"
"Hugging you silly"
"What's a hug???" She looked up a bit shocked,
" well, a hug is when.. uhm certain degrees of bonding causes people to express themselves physically like kissing but less, it's to show friendship and stuff. umm like that" Ares looked puzzled; a mournful hoot filled the air causing his fur to stand on end. Owl. They were friends of the little bats, not the meat eating ones. Amara must have realized that too because she lifted from the branch silently with Ares. Both weaved through the undergrowth and branches before they reached a old barn south of the tree, thousands of wingbeats away, they hunted, groomed and roosted on the old wooden pillars in the barn. Amara summoned her sound map and realized this was one of the landmarks.