Chapter 5: Challenges
(Tyler's P.O.V.)
"Hmmmm, oowwww! I wish I could stay awake for 12 hours for once instead of ending my day with me falling face first… it gets annoying!" and it didn't help that my gun was serving as a bed, and digging into my stomach. I was faintly aware of a stirring presence next to me, but I was more concerned on getting this gun out from under my gut. It was a little bit before sunset, and I could've sworn a wing brush up against my arm.
I pulled my arms up so that I could perform a semi-pushup so I could get this gun out from under me, but I wasn't paying attention to were my hand was going and after I managed to move it from under my gut, my finger spasmed, and a shot was pulled off. BANGGGgggg….. "HOLY SH**." I couldn't help but make the involuntary action of jumping away from the source of the noise, and now I was fully awake.
A feminine voice next to be caused me to jump again, "EEP! *sigh* that is one way to wake up, please don't do that again…" I turned and saw a brown owl with spots over a white chest. "Sorry about that, it wasn't on purpose. Is your name Outillisa?" she nodded. "I remember seeing you yesterday." I said as I stood up, I had left my gun on the ground; along with my radio somewhere off to my right near Outillisa. I went over to where the bullet should have struck, and there in the tree stump, was a bullet hole.
I ushered Outillisa over to me so that I could show her another way my gun worked. As she was walking over to me, I looked around and didn't see any other owls, which caused me to slightly frown. "OK, so you see that hole right there, that is what the bullet can do, but worse to living things. I'm just glad it didn't get you or some other owl." I said. I wasn't really sure how the residents would feel about that wakeup call, but I'm pretty sure that Outillisa's politeness wouldn't be reflected on them that well.
I had a small but constant nagging in the back of my mind, so I had to just ask it, "Hey Outillisa, before I passed out, what happened to Soren? Did the same thing happen to him?"
She seemed to think it over, and then answered, "Yes…"
(Soren's P.O.V.)
"Awwww, why does my head feel like someone hit it?"
"You fainted, and fell off our dining area; luckily twilight was able to fly you to the infirmary." I looked over and saw Gylfie studying me closely, "How do you feel?"
I had to think about that, I had to sort out my thoughts before I replied. "I feel like a rock hit my forehead, and someone pulled my wings to far back. And now that I think about it, like my stomach is empty. But what about you, are you OK?"
The ground in the hollow was soft, and warm, but I felt a slight chill in the air, as if I had done something I wasn't supposed to. Gylfie looked towards the entrance and said so quiet, I almost missed it, "just worried."
"Why are you worried, what happened?" when I asked this, Gylfie's feathers ruffled up, "You weren't supposed to hear that…"
I was shocked at Gylfie for having said that, I didn't want to be rude, even with my thoughts, but after hearing that, I guess she never knew Tyto's had really good hearing. I slowly got up, but kept quiet so she wouldn't suspect a thing, and crept up until I was next to her, and that was when she turned to see me. I wrapped my wing around her, albeit a little jerkily, and held her close. I didn't look, but I could see her feathers slowly go back down. "Don't worry, I'm not offended in any way," I assured her.
*BANGGG* A faint but audible sound of thunder went off, even though there wasn't any clouds in the air. Gylfie pressed herself tighter to my feathers in a frightened way, and I just held her to calm her down. "I guess we can go see Tyler, he might be able to explain what Gluax meant by his message." I only felt a shudder in response, Gluax showing up out of nowhere when Tyler showed up had scared many owls. I released my hold on Gylfie and heard her sigh. "Why are you always so warm Soren?" Gylfie half-jokingly asked.
"Ha, I guess it is just because I'm an," I had to deepen my voice for this, "All powerful Tyto!" I couldn't help but churr along with Gylfie. With that done, I had made Gylfie smile, and now she didn't seem so down. I leaned down and nuzzled her beak with mine and saw her feathers ruffle, then jumped out of the hollow and flew down to the dining pavilion. I don't know why, but I was slightly frightened, why else would Tyler need to use his weapon. I had just alighted when Gylfie landed next to me, out of breath.
"What's wrong Gylfie; it wasn't that far of a flight?" I asked.
"I wasn't paying attention when you left…" she replied as her feathers once more ruffled themselves up again.
Just then I heard a voice from inside the pavilion, unmistakably Tyler's asked, "…happened to Soren? Did the same thing happen to him?"
"Hold on Gylfie, I think I hear Tyler talking about me."
"…Yes…" I heard Outillisa say.
(Tyler's P.O.V.)
… Outillisa decided to now look at me, but she looked a little bit angry from what I could tell. "What did Gluax mean when he said 'you will either help us live on through the approaching storm, or will let us sink and perish' last night before you fell down?" she asked, with her voice lightly dripping with anger.
"I really don't know. Not even a week ago yet, I didn't know owls could talk, or anything about a Gluax. But I'm serious, what has happened to Soren? I think we may have something important that we two must do together." I had been thinking about it, and why was it that only he and I had things happening the same time as each other. I heard a whisper somewhere near the ground entrance behind me.
As I started to turn around, I saw Soren and Gylfie step from the other side so that I could see them clearly now. "wha-…" Soren was cut off as king boron and queen Baran landed next to Outillisa and asked for all their attention. "We are calling a parliament meeting; you four are welcome to join if you wish.
(3RD person P.O.V.)
As the parliament was gathered in the hollow, Tyler was sitting on a branch outside; he had climbed up the tree only to find out the parliament hall was inside the tree.
King Boron: "We have received information that our scouts have found a large Pure One army gathering across the sea. They seem to preparing to attack the tree."
Ezlryb: "Do we have an estimate on how many owls they have this time? And when will they attack?"
Queen Baran: "The scouts report 10 Pure Ones to every 1 Guardian, so we are severely out-numbered. As for when they will attack, we believe tomorrow when the sun will set we should be seeing a large number of enemy troops."
Tyler: "Excuse me, but is there any form of armor that is stronger than the Pure Ones? I might have a solution, if it helps clear your thoughts about me betraying you."
King Boron: "Only our armor and our guard's armor are made good enough since it takes so much materials."
Tyler: "Is there any way I could get one set of that armor? I can help with your upcoming fight."
While King Boron and Queen Baran were talking about it, Tyler slipped and fell 20 feet down to the ground below.
(Tyler's P.O.V.)
"OWWWW! I'm alright… ok; I'm a little bit hurt…"
I heard a muffled voice from above me, but made out, "…fell from the branch."
Soon, Soren had landed with Gylfie and Outillisa behind him, he asked, "Hey Tyler… how did you manage to fall from that branch? I thought it was big enough."
"Ha ha. I was getting sore so I tried to get comfortable. So what did the King and Queen say?"
Outillisa was the one to answer his question, "They said they will lend you only one chest plate to help you out."
I chuckled, and then said, "Okay, well lets go to my camp and wait for that armor, I'll show you guys how I can help you fight those other owls."
A.N.: ok, I hope you guys liked the chapter, it was sort of like a filler, but I needed to progress my story a little bit faster so that I could get to the last chapters also. I'm not planning on making this a 20 chapter story, but I do plan on making a sequel for this story. I'm also trying to put some form of humor into the story, weather it is rudeness or romance, humor is humor. Read and Review (R&R).