Chapter 12: Wolf's Arrival

(3rd P.O.V.)

The previous night had been hectic for Tyler, when he had finished telling his best friend/ girlfriend, Outillisa, about his mission, she had initially refused it to be true. There had been much argument over the matter, but she had ended up losing the discussion and wasn't all that happy about it. The couple had gone to sleep, and as their world ticked by, events would enfold that would once again confuse the owl world with another unexpected change.

(Tyler's P.O.V.)

Ahhh… that was some good sleep, but that was a strange dream… come on, Wolf? I never even talked to him that much. He would love this place though; he always said he wished he could fly like a bird. He always was a better pilot than most anyways, just didn't think things through that much… I guess I had better get going, don't want to keep my guide waiting. I slowly stood up and leaned over and hugged Outillisa gently, she didn't want me to wrap my wings around her after I won our… 'Argument'… last night. She mumbled in her sleep and shifted slightly. I pulled away leaned over near one of her ear slits and whispered, "Love you Outillisa."

I withdrew from my position and slowly started to get out of the nest we shared, and I hopped down onto the floor. As soon as I was sure Outillisa wasn't going to wake up, I started to walk over towards the hollow, but I did something I wished I hadn't ever done… I tripped over my feet, and landed with a loud thud and a 'UMPH'.

Outillisa had started to wake up from what I could hear, and then I heard her giggle. I stood back up, and looked at her with my raised feathers, "S-sorry about that."

After she stopped giggling, she spoke up and said in a sleepy voice, "It's ok, now you get going, and hurry back."

I flashed her a smile and turned outside and flew out of the hollow, but not before I swerved to the side and snatched my knife. I slowly angled myself in a lazy glide towards the dining pavilion, and I was going to meet my guide, and get some milk berry tea before we left. Soren hadn't even told me her name, so I wasn't sure who to look for.

I alighted on the ground in the Dining area, and I asked a blind snake, "Can I get some tea, please?"

The snake turned towards me and hissed, "Sure dearie."

The snake turned away from me and slithered off to some other place to get, or make the tea, I turned around and saw a smallish bark wall and walked over to in and leaned into it with my back. It was usually a while before the snakes could make tea, it was almost first dark, so no one else was really here yet, so I closed my eyes to think about my dream in better detail.

Wolf was flying a hang glider with a pistol on his hip, and his favorite knife was strapped onto his left arm, held in place between is shoulder and the inner part of his arm. He almost always carried it somewhere, depending on how he was feeling, and where he was. He showed it to me once, and it was about five inches long and 2 inches wide. He was looking around, and wasn't paying attention to his surroundings, when a tearing sound berated the calm, quiet landscape, it was then tha-

What the… woahhh… someone had ran a feather tip across my chest that sent chills through my body and my eyes shot open. I reacted with an unnecessary amount of force and pushed the unknown owl down, brought my face close to theirs and grabbed my knife in a talon, and was about to bring it into view, and was about to ask in a cold voice, when I recognized the stunned eyes of Spot.

I dropped my knife and kicked it silently away and picked her up. After she was up I looked away and asked, "Um… sorry… and why did you… r… run a…," I looked back her, to see her grinning slightly, "Never mind. I'm just waiting for someone." I couldn't finish asking the strange question, so I had just skipped it entirely.

She looked at me with a strange look and said in an innocent voice, "I don't know… oh, and I'm your guide, are you ready to leave yet?"

Wow, is it me or are all the girls acting… hmm… it is spring… HAHA, that's it, spring, mating season, how did I not think of this before? Oh wait… that's actually really bad…

I saw a snake with a tea cup on its back slither over to us with some milk berry tea. After thanking the snake, I looked at Spot and said, "Bottoms up…" and I downed the tea in one swig. When I looked back at Spot, she churred. I said, "Now I'm ready."

"Ok, follow me," she winked before she took off.

I just shook my head and walked over to my knife. I picked it up and took flight after Spot.

(Wolf's P.O.V.)

I'm really… really… sick of this Routine. I wonder what ever happened to Tyler, he had gotten himself into an adventure… I'm sure of it. Lucky son of a gun, I'm always doing dangerous things to break out of my routine, but nothing ever works… this next one will be ballsy… who would ever think to take a hang-glider through the Bermuda Triangle? My luck is always there for me, I'm sure I can pull this off.

As I looked at the clock in the hanger, it showed I had a few more hours at most before I tried my stunt. I had studied every possible way to do this stunt, looked were updrafts were common, wind patterns the flowed through the hostile sea, and even went as far to look through how to survive should my luck fade for once. I tried to keep the thought from my mind, but I always admired how in books, shape shifters could change into an animal and do things, if I was a bird I wouldn't need this stunt to be happy.

I turned to face my hang-glider, I had 'borrowed' some ideas and materials from my air division to make this all happen. I had angled the wings like a regular hang-glider, but instead of rounded edges, I curved them back to improve aero dynamics and flight coverage for better gliding for my size. Secondly, I used a fabric that is known to be extremely resilient, and it is perfect for flight, it was thick, but light-weight so that I got a bonus lift without any extra weight. And finally, the best part, I used Aluminum rods as the under bar, with the two side bars angled so they would create a less of a drag, and form an air pocket around where I would be to also reduce drag.

A noise alerted me of someone entering the hanger through the door near the armory, and with one last admiring look at my modified hang-glider, I turned around and snapped to attention. What is the General doing here? I mentally screamed. What had I done this time?

The General stopped and looked up slightly and said, "At EASE."

I relaxed my position, and the general looked around me at the hang-glider and stated, "You do know… you are asking for a death wish for attempting this… stunt… in such a dangerous matter?"

"Yes sir!"

Since when did the General care about safety? He enjoys danger more than even me.

"Permission to speak, SIR!"

"Permission granted." He answered in a coarse voice.

"Sorry to sound impolite sir, but what are you doing here?"

He looked at me and said, "Why, I'm here to wish you luck. You're doing something I'm too old and important to do. Also, you will be loading your… plane… onto the transporter so that you can leave soon."

He held out his hand, and I took it. While we shook, I said, "just in case… it's been an honor sir."

We were now at 5,000 feet in the air; I had just found a comfortable way to hook my rebreather up without my thermal suit getting in the way. I had made the rebreather for another stunt where I would had swam under the English channel from bank to bank, all without surfacing. It had done the trick, but it hadn't prevented me from being tired.

I looked behind me and gave the flight officer a thumbs up, and I gripped the underbar of my hang-glider. The back ramp was lowering, and as I looked out, I remembered what the instructor had told me earlier, they had lowered the speed to less than 200 MPH and they said it would be risky if he lingered with the door open to long. This is what I was thinking about as I ran forward, and pitched myself through the back, and hung on tight, the initial transition would be rough with a hang-glider.

The wing that buffeted me wasn't quite as bad as I thought it was, the biggest problem I was experiencing though was a thick fog that had just rolled in from nowhere. I was looking around, trying to see anything, but I absolutely couldn't.

A breeze came through, and it's like that was it, the fog seemed to lift, and I was above the ocean. I saw an island with a tree not too far ahead of me, but I wasn't sure how big. The tree seemed blurred, but big in the distance. I know it can't be long before I reach it, I had tested my hang-glider, and I had recorded it to go well over the speed of a small bi-plane.

Is it me, or is that tree huge, it's been like five minutes, and I'm still not their yet…

The air around me seemed to burn up suddenly, and I zoomed off even faster than I thought possible… "What in the hell was that?" I had no idea something like that could be possible, but it seemed to have made me cross a large distance, because I was soon, soaring around the tree… and boy, was this thing huge… and I mean HUGE. I tilted myself to the left as I was soaring around it. I saw what seemed to be two birds standing on an out-cropping in the water, so I leaned forward and tilted towards them. When I was within the proper height and path towards, I leveled out and was about to zoom by when a low, but still shrill, SCREEEEECCHHH, seemed to sound off just to my other side, and I turned to see a fairly large cream colored barn owl just miss flying into the wing of my hang-glider. Its eyes seemed to lock with mine, and I heard a gong sound off to my left, I looked in time to swerve around the smaller tree, and gong, out over the ocean.

I looked back, and I could see multiple owls starting to fly around the tree, maybe 20 or 30, but still more than I wanted to wait around for. A sound like tearing fabric sounded and I looked up to see a large tear appearing in my hang-gliders sail. I guess that turn put more stress on it… or I grabbed the wrong fabric… again. I guess I better turn around… or else I'll end up in the water… and I'm losing speed fast. This is going to be hard and risky, but I saw Tyler do it with a plane…

I pulled back and spun halfway through the loop, and turned right side up, and took off into a steep dive to regain some lost speed. I heard more tearing, and felt a jolt move through my arms from the bar, it's a good thing I was still close to the tree. I started to spiral, and it was starting to make me dizzy. I reached up pulled my knife out and cut the restraints holding me to the hang-glider. I sheathed my knife, and after I did that, I pushed up sharply, and my hang-glider did to, but the rip was so bad already, I was flung forward while it just fell down into the water.

I held my hands out in front of me, and when I hit the ground, I bent my elbows and rolled into it, and as I came out of the roll, I angled my feet and skidded across the dirt. Something hard slid into my foot and a sharp pain rolled through my ankle, and I lost balance and tumble hard until I hit the tree trunk, and with a loud thud, I hit my head and began to see black. Right before I passed out I saw a few large owls land in front of me and make some hooting and soft screeching sounds. I felt myself slipping, and I landed on my knees, and fell over side-ways I closed my eyes, and welcomed the blank blackness that took all my pain away.

(Spot's P.O.V.)

I was thinking about where we would stop first, I was going to ask Tyler, but when I looked at him, a haze took over my mind, and I just felt giddy. I know it is wrong, and that I was only like this because of spring fever, but the rational side of my thought was quickly being over-run with thoughts of how handsome he was and such.

I twisted my wings until I was flying wing and wing with him, and as I opened my beak to say something, I heard the gong being rung, and I turned around just as Tyler did, and I saw a strange sight indeed. I wouldn't know how to describe it even if I was closer.

I heard Tyler mumble, "Is that… a HANG-GLIDER!"

I just stared at him and asked, "Uhh… what?"

He just stared at me, and said, "Just come on," and we started to fly back, but the thing turned around in a weird way, and Tyler said, "Hey, that's my move. Only a few know of that… and are that daring…"

We kept flying, and within minutes, we were near the tree, and saw a… I think Tyler said human… go flying across the ground, but was quickly slowing down. A rock was sticking up put of the ground, and the human went tumbling, but was still moving fast as it hit the trees trunk. I heard a loud thud, and we were just passing the sentry post. I looked over and saw Tyler put on a burst of speed, and land near the human, and he gasped, "Great Gluax, its Wolf…"

(Soren's P.O.V.)

I was enjoying a quick flight around the tree, just thinking how bad it would be for Tyler. I had made sure to request a female guide for him. It was spring, and with spring, came how all females, of any species, acted strangely. It was my type of payback for the insult he had used on Gylfie, even if she had already forgiven him. I was so lost in thought, I felt a gush of wind that buffeted me, and it scared me so bad, I almost went yeep, and a strange sight raced past me; it looked what Tyler had looked like before, except this human was below a weird… well… thing.

I saw the guards start ringing the warning bell for first night, but then they saw the yoinks human flying towards them, and changed the warning to a louder one that signaled a different meaning. A noise like tearing sounded, and suddenly, the thing was back, but the human ended up tumbling and made a loud noise as it hit the tree. I couldn't believe it, but I think I saw Spot and Tyler land near the human, with the guardians not far behind them. As I came into a landing next to Tyler, I heard him finish, "… it's Wolf…"

A.N.: And there you go, a newly finished chapter, with an added twist to the story, now, for a review, answer this, who believes shape shifters are either real or once upon a time were. Or even wished they were real, I will use your answers for later on in the story. I know this chapter isn't my best work, but it is the best I could give with my current condition… I'm unable to sleep longer than 5 hrs, I'm drained emotionally, and physically, and want some dang sleep already; its making me think wrong… I messed up in math class with a simple multiplication question for example. But it is finally the weekend, so I typed this up. I will try to amp it up with the story…

Tic234stars: thanks for reminding me about libraries, I went to my library after school and managed to find book 1, I finished that thing in a day. Hope you have a good day.

Soren2526: I'll keep that in mind, but I am thinking the books are more down to reality now that I read the first one, and I like to read fantasy.

P.S. if you don't like what I write, fine, don't read it, but this is a 'T' rating story, and I see 'T' games with cussing and all those others things in them. Also, I respect your individual opinions, but after finishing book 1, I just think Kludd is a complete dick. I'm entirely serious; he basically ruined his brother's life, but did give him a new one…