Chapter 17 Kookaburra
Nightingale was acting a bit strangely today, and she sounded different, I was slightly worried about her, maybe she's not feeling alright.
"Nightingale, are you feeling alright?" I asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine, why?
"You're just acting a bit wierd."
"Oh, no I'm just a bit tired."
I walked over to her and went to hold her hand, she whipped her hand away.
"What is it now?"
"Sorry, you just startled me."
"I always hold your hand. Are you sure that you're alright."
"Yeah, I'm fine."
She then slipped her hand in mine, I moved closer to her, leant forward and went to whisper something in her ear.
"You know, sometimes I wish that I could stay up here with you twenty four seven."
"Cool." she replied.
There was most definitley something wrong, I grabbed Nightingale at the top of her arms and turned her to face me.
"Babe, there is something wrong isn't there? You know that you can tell me anything, I'd tell you anything and you said that you'd tell me anything when we first got together...Nightingale, I thought that you..."
Before I had a chance to finish my sentence Nightingale threw her arms around my neck and kissed me very firmly on the lips, even her kissing was different, I was a bit startled first of all, but as the moment sunk in, I started to relax, until a loud, startled and angry voice shouted from the left side of us.
"Kook! What are you doing!"
Oh no, if this is one of the other defenders we're doomed, I was surprised when I heard that voice, but not as surprised when I saw who it was, stood there at the top of the tower stairs, looking shocked, startled, angry and upset was...Nightingale, at least, I think it was Nightingale.
"What?...But...who...N-nightingale? I stammered struggling to realise what was going on. "What's going on here?"
"I was asking you the same thing, what are you doing kissing my sister?"
"But...I thought...so you're...and this isn't...I feel sick."
I was so confused, I didn't know which was the real Nightingale and which was her sister, I had to find out somehow.
"Come on Kook, surely you can recognise your own girlfriend."
"I don't even know which one of you is my girlfriend." I paused, then I came up with a great, simple way to sort this out. "I've got it, I know how to tell which one of you is the real Nightingale, what did I write in the first note that I left for you?"
The Nightingale on the right was silent for 20 seconds before giving her answer.
"Err...you are the best girlfriend that a Kookaburra could have?"
I turned my gaze to the Nightingal on the left, she gave her answer straight away.
"They say that a picture tells 1,000 words, but when I see yours all I see is three, I...love...you."
"You're the real Nightingale."
I walked over to the real Nightingale, and wrapped my arms around her giving her a big hug of apology.
"I'm so sorry babe. I seriously thought that she was you."
"It's alright, I know that you'd never do something like that, it's an easy mistake to make, we look so alike."
"Where were you anyway?"
"She tied me up so that she could tell our secret, make us lose our jobs and probably make you leave me."
"I'd never leave you, I love you."
Smiling, I leant forward and gave her a quick kiss, while we were distracted, Nightingale's sister tried to make her escape.
"Not so fast sis." said Nightingale grabbing her sisters right arm. "You've gone too far this time.
"Okay, I'm sorry."
"Sorry won't cover it this time, and if you think that I'm going to forgive you anytime soon, then you've got another thing coming."
"I suppose that you'll want me to leave."
"Not before you understand, sure you don't have a job as good as mine or everything I've got it ten times better than what you've got doesn't mean that you can just go around trying to compete with me, if you just try as hard as you can you'll find a job and a guy that makes you happy, just like I'm happy now, the key to your happiness doesn't lie in someone elses pocket."
"Yeah, you're right Nightingale, there's something else that you've got from mum, her advice."
"Are you going to be able to leave without supervision so you don't cause trouble or do you need me to follow you?"
"No, it's alright sis, I'm not going to do anything like that anymore, sure I'll probably play the odd prank at Christmas, but not anything like this."
"Okay."
Nightingale's sister then turned and slowly walked down the tower steps, it was 5 minutes until we saw her walking out of the door, I turned to Nightingale and she was crying.
"You alright babe?" I asked.
"Yeah I'm fine."
She got her handkerchief out of her pouch on her belt and wiped away her tears, I walked over to her and gave her another comforting hug.
"Why can't I have a normal family?" she said sobbing.
I pulled her close to me and kissed her on her forehead.
"Don't worry about it babe, everyone has problems with their families every now and again."
When the day was up we went back downstairs, we would normally just go straight to bed but this time Thorne was stood by the door waiting for us.
"What's up Throne?" I asked.
"I was just wondering if I could speak to Nightingale for a second."
"Oh, yeah okay." said Nightingale.
"Well I saw your sister leaving the castle this morning, is everything okay?"
"Oh, erm...yeah, everything's fine, she just needed to go home early."
"Why?"
"She...erm...had to get back to work, there was a problem."
"What was that?"
"Err...I don't know, she didn't tell me."
"Oh, shame. I'm a bit sorry that she had to leave, she seemed rather nice."
Well that was wierd, I hope that Thorne didn't have a crush on Nightingale's sister, putting that to one side we went to bed, when we arrived at Nightingale's bedroom, we stopped at the door before I held her in my arms once again, this time I didn't want to let go, she looked into my eyes, I could see that she didn't want to let go either.
"I wish that I could be with you twenty four seven." I repeated.
"I with exactly the same."
"That's a million times better than your sisters response, when I said it to her by mistake."
"It's alright, I forgive you."
I smiled, stroked her on the cheek, cupped her under her chin, leant forward sn kissed her gently."
"Well...goodnight." I said.
"Goodnight."
I walked away, before I went round the corner, I turned around to look back at Nightingale, she was still at the door, she gave me a little wave and blew me another kiss, I did the same back, , despite all these problems that are facing us, we were still as close as ever. That night I even dreamt of Nightingale, she was stood at the top of the tower calling my name, I was at the bottom and was running up the steps trying to get to her, but no matter how fast I ran, I wasn't getting any closer, she was now screaming for me, I ran faster and faster, but I couldn't get there, I suddenly woke yp in my room, it was still dark and Gildar was standing over me.
"Kook, wake up!" he shouted.
"Huh? What is it? What's the emergency?"
"We think that there's someone in the castle, one of the soldiers has been murdered."
"What!"
"Everyone's down at the king's quarters, hurry up."
I got out of my nest and dashed down to the king's quarters, everyone was there talking and panicking, Nightingale looked terrified, when she saw me, she calmed down slightly.
"Are you alright?" I whispered to her.
"No, I'm really scared Kook."
"It's alright, we're going to find them soon enough."
Everyone was very concerned about what was going on, even the king was on his guard, I could tell because he had more than the usual number of guards around him.
"Okay everyone, here's the plan, we're going to have to find this intruder, the last time that he was seen was at the armoury, so we're all going to split up and search around the castle, Gildar and Thorne, you two are going to be checking the armoury, Kookaburra and Ballista, you two are going to be checking the storeroom and oratory, Nightingale and Faetal, you two can check the dungeons, Vane, Tinkor and Skabb you three can check the great hall, Knightriss and Madeva you two can check the kitchen, buttery and bottlery and Shaiden and Crocness, you two can check the gatehouse. Good luck everyone."
This was terrifying, no one has ever broken into the castle before, we grabbed our weapons and ventured out into the castle, I didn't know what I was going to do if I found the intruder, what if he tries to murder me too, me and Ballista checked the storeroom first, it was quiet and dark, Ballista reached over to the right, and picked up a lantern that was stood on the nearby shelf, lightinga a match the lantern soon lit up the whole room with light, it was still very quiet, even me and Ballista were silent for around 20 seconds.
"Did you hear that?" Ballista said suddenly.
"No."
"I just thought that I heard a noise."
"Are you trying to scare me?"
"No, I'm serious, I thought that I heard something."
I listened very carefully, I couldn't hear anything, I brandished my sword just in case, we were starting to walk further away from each other, it was now rather dark where I was and I had no idea where I was going, I soon stopped walking when I accidently walked into a bunch of baskets knocking them over, I heard Ballista brandishing her sword behind me.
"Sorry, my bad. It's hard to see where I'm going."
"Well get a light of some sort."
I felt around me for a lentern, eventually coming across one, I reached into my pocket and pulled out a small box of matches, now I had a light, I could look around properly, there was no sign of an intruder anywhere in here, so me and Ballista moved onto the oratory, there was light there so we put our lanterns to one side, it was still very quiet, we walked forward slowly and carefully, soon a loud crash came from my left.
"Was that you again Kook?" Ballista asked.
"No, no it wasn't."
My heart started to beat faster, I didn't take my eyes off where i heard the noise come from, my hands started to tremble and my legs started to shake.
"Calm down Kook, it's probably nothing."
"Yeah, you're probably right."
I put that out of my mind and focussed on the task in hand, after three minutes of silence I heard another crash, this time further ahead, I couldn't take it anymore and I had to find out what it was.
"That's it, I can't take it anymore, I'm investigating that noise."
"Careful Kook."
"I thought that you said that it may be nothing."
I cautiosuly walked over to the direction of the noise, I was metres away when I heard exactly the same noise, it startled me making me jump back one metre, I looked back at Ballista, she wasn't that far behind me, I got closer, the noise was coming from behing the curtain covering a small corridor, I slowly reached over and pulled the curtain back slightly, from behind the curtain, and black and white cat ran out scaring me.
"What's up with you?"
"I hate cats."
"Why?"
"I'm a bird, do the math."
Ballista laughed, but it wasn't funny, I truly was scared of cats, it started as a young chick when one attacked me.
Well there wasn't anyone in here either, so we went to check the corridors, we were walking down the corridor leading to the dungeon, we were about to turn around and go back when we heard a scream come from behind us, it was one of the girls, we rand down the corridor to see what was wrong, the scene that confronted us was Nightingale and Faetal stood near a narrow, dark corridor in front of them, both of them were pointing their swords in the direction of this corridor.
"What's wrong?" Ballista asked.
"There's someone down there." said Faetal.
"I'll go and get the others."
This was really scary, the girls had spotted someone down that corridor, I could see by Nightingale's face that she was petrified brandishing my sword I stepped in to help while Ballista ran off to get the others.
"Who's down there?" I shouted, there was no reply. "Show yourself."
After 10 seconds of silence, we saw a dark figure walk towards us.
"Kookaburra, just the person I was looking for." They said.
Faetal and Nightingale looked at me in shock.
"Me? What are you looking for me for? Who are you?"
They moved forwards, eventually revealing themselves, when I saw what they looked like my heart skipped a beat, it was Falcon, but I'd killed him in that battle ages ago, how can he be here?
"Falcon?"
"Yes."
"But I killed you."
"No, you killed my brother, he's the Falcon that you knew, I'm his twin and i swore that I'd get you back for killing my brother, now I'm ever so close."
He stepped towards me and brandished his sword.
"Be careful Kook!" Nightingale shouted.
Falcons brother then lashed at me with his sword he had a look of hunger in his eyes, hungry for revenge, I had a feeling that killing Falcon was going to come back to haunt me, every single swipe of the swords I could hear Nightingale panicking, soon I heard the sound of her brandishing her sword, I couldn't have her get involved in a fight like this.
"No, Nightingale don't, I can do this." I shouted pushing Falcon's brother away.
He lashed forward with his sword again but I jumped out of the way, he swung his sword but I ducked just in time.
"Come on Kookaburra, I thought that you'd be a bit harder to fight than this."
He paused to think, looked at Nightingale and a mischievous grin started to grow on his face, he dashed past me running over to Nightingale, he grabbed the top of her arms and pulled her towards him kissing her, I felt my blood starting to boil, my heart beating faster and my face going red with rage, I gripped my sword and ran over to Falcon's brother, no one does that to my girlfriend, when he saw me running over he picked his sword back up and did his best to fight me off, I grabbed his sword and yanked it out of his hands and threw it on the ground along with mine, I clenched my fist and hit him across the face knocking him out cold. I turned back to Nightingale, she dropped her sword, ran over to me and threw her arms around me.
"Oh Kook, I thought that I was going to lose you." she said burying her face into my neck.
"It's alright, you know that I would have snapped if he kissed you, I couldn't accept that."
We were in the middle of this romantic moment when we suddenly realised, Faetal was still in the room, I let go of Nightingale and stepped away from her.
"What's all that about?" Faetal asked.
Busted.
"Erm...well...we, err...we can explain."
"You two are dating in secret aren't you?"
"We might as well tell her Kook." said Nightingale.
"Yeah, I guess you're right." I took a deep breath and revealed everything. "Me and Nightingale have been together for a number of months, we din't want anyone to know, so we've been keeping it a secret."
"You mean behind our backs? Breaking the rules? You do know that you're going to get the sack if people find out don't you?"
"Yeah, we know, please don't tell the others."
"I don't know, they probably should have the right to know about this."
"Please Faetal, we beg you, we've done so well to keep it a secret, please don't ruin it for us." said Nightingale.
"Well...alright, I'll keep quiet, and I won't tell the others, but I think that you guys will have to announce it sooner or later."
Ballista arrived with the others 2 minutes later.
"What happened?" she asked.
"Kook fought him off, he's just been knocked out that's all." Faetal explained.
"Who is he?"
"He's Falcon's twin brother. He came here looking for me so he could kill me." I said
Today has been a really hectic day, first Nightingale's sister nearly revealed our secret, and I was nearly killed by Falcon's twin brother, plus Faetal now knows about mine and Nightingale's secret relationship, hopefully things will be much quieter from now on.