Chapter 2 befriended two bats

I kept chasing the raccoon though the dark woods with my flashlight. I growled and used both of my legs to go much faster while dodging though some trees.

"YOU LITTLE THIEF GIVE IT BACK!" I screamed, "DROP MY PHONE RIGHT NOW!"

The chubby raccoon sprinted to circle around a tree to try and avoid me. It gave me an idea. Right as I zoomed to go around the opposite side and was just about to ambush it, I felt myself being caught in some kind of net. I yelped and squirmed around like I was in some kind of a spider web. While trying to get out of it, I made myself fall and landed hard on my butt. The net tore and created a huge hole behind me. I groaned in pain, rubbing my head. I looked up and searched for the little thief until I spotted it very far away. I had no choice but to watch it disappear into the distance. I huffed in frustration, panting.

"Well, there goes my 120 bucks down the drain," I grumbled and begin to untangle myself from the net. "That little pest," I managed to get the net off of me when I heard something squeaking. I spun around with my flashlight in confusion, looking for the source of the sound. The squeaking grew louder and more desperate, as if whatever was making it was in trouble. Realizing that it was very close to me, I got up and shined my flashlight towards the sound. It was coming from the broken net that I was caught in. I followed down along the net until I gasped. In the light of my flashlight, a tiny bat was squirming around, trapped.

I saw that its wings were twisted in the net, in knots. It tried to bite the ropes off with its small sharp teeth. Noticing the light, the runtish bat stopped in his tracks and glanced at me sharply, frightened. I could just barely see a slight rope burn on his forearm. I lowered my flashlight down a little as not to blind him.

"Poor fella, you must have gotten caught by this trap," I said, feeling much pity for this small creature. I fumbled around in my pocket looking for something that could help me get him out. Luckily, I found my pocketknife in my blue sweater and plucked it out. Suddenly, the bat began squeaking even louder and began to thrash around crazily, flapping his wings even harder. I guess it thought I was going to kill it with my knife. I shook my head and walked over to the bat. It growled at me, trying to appear threatening. I flinched away a little, not wanting to get bitten, but I shook my head in attempt to reassure him.

"Hey, hey, I want to help you." I reached above the small bat and begin to cut some strings away. I hoped that he understood what I was doing. However, the runty bat was still struggling, making it hard for me to concentrate. "Easy, easy! Please, stop moving!" I fumbled my fingers to get a steady hold of the net string. "I'm not going to hurt you, honest."

"GET AWAY FROM ME! HELP!"

I yelped and backed away. I looked around to see if anyone else was here, but I didn't see anyone. It's just only me and the small bat. The bat continued to panic, struggling hard against the net. To my astonishment, I realized that his squeaking was turning into... words?

"CHINOOK! HELP! MOM! MERCURY! HELP!"

"You can talk!" I gasped.

The bat stopped and looked at me funny. "You heard what I said?" he asked.

I nodded in reply, but then shook my head, unable to believe it. "How can you talk? You're a bat. Bats can't talk."

The bat snorted. "Well, I am speaking to you now, right? Then, if you can understand me, I want you to stay away from me with that knife of yours!"

I shook my head again, not knowing if I was dreaming or not. Despite his pleas, I moved in closer with my pocket knife. "Come on, surely you can understand that I'm trying to help you."

The small bat shook his head fast and growled at me, trying to put on a brave face. "No! Stay away! Don't eat me, please!"

I blinked. He thought that I was going to eat him?! I couldn't stop myself from bursting into a fit of laughter.

He frowned at me, "what's so funny?"

I covered my mouth to stifle myself, but I giggled behind my hand anyway. "It's just... where in the world did you get that crazy idea? People don't eat bats, that's just gross!" I made a sick face and chuckled softly.

The runty bat looked at me puzzled for a second before going back to glaring at me. "Whatever, but i don't want you to come any closer or I'll bite you hard!" he snarls, gnashing his tiny teeth to try and look more vicious.

"Look, little fella..."

"It's Shade," he corrected forcefully.

"What?"

"Shade Silverwing. That's my name," he answered. "You don't have to call me 'little fella,' I'm not short."

"Okay, okay. Shade it is. I'm Ashlie. Now, can you please let me help you? I promise that I won't hurt you. Really, I promise."

"How do I know if you can keep your word?" he demanded.

I rolled my eyes at his stubborn attitude. To show him that I meant him no harm, I took my pocket knife and inched away from him to the farther end of the net. I cut through through it as an example to him.

"See? This is what I will do to set you free. I'm just cutting some strings." I let the pieces of the net scatter off my hands and onto the ground. "And after I'm done cutting all the strings that are holding you, I'll put the knife away in my pocket."

I watched as Shade studied me as to try and spot any hint of deception. Finally, he sighed and nodded."Alright, you can help set me free."

I smiled and walked up to him before carefully cutting near where his wings were.

"It will only take a second," I said while cutting. "Just need to get a couple more strings…" All of the sudden, before I could even finish speaking, something hit my face at top speed. It was like a heavy baseball but...soft. I cried out and toppled backwards onto the ground. I realized that it's another bat, but this one was a little larger than Shade and darker. I tried to push it away with my hands to avoid its claws and teeth but this bat was determined to sink its teeth in my face. I only managed to get it off of me by grabbing it with my two hands and pulling it away.

"HEY! CUT THAT OUT! STOP IT!" I yelled, coming to the grips of how this bat came very close to biting me.

"YOU LEAVE SHADE ALONE YOU FURLESS MONSTER!" the bat shouted right back at me while trying to claw at me.

"Hey pal, I'm not a monster. I'm just a girl!" I snapped.

"Chinook, stop! She's a friend."

We both paused and turned to see Shade pull the rest of the loose net off him. Once that was off, he flew over quickly towards us, "she's the one who helped me get out of that trap."

The bat, whose name apparently was 'Chinook,' looked at Shade and me, back and forth a couple times with disbelief before his eyes widened. He glared sharply at me. "Wait, does she actually understand us?" he asked.

I huffed and let go of Chinook before getting up and dusting myself off. "Of course I can. You called me a 'furless monster.'"

Chinook gasped and looked at Shade sternly, "Shade, you know that the law of the forest proclaims that we are never to speak with humans in our language."

Shade only just rolled his eyes as if he heard it a bunch of times. "So what? One stupid broken law isn't going to hurt anyone. And it's cool that she understands what we're saying," he smiled at me.

I smiled back slightly.

"And besides, I couldn't help it if she heard me calling for help," he added.

Chinook let out short sigh, looking troubled. "Runt, you're going to get both of us in a lot of trouble one day with your stupid stunts."

"Ah, quit worrying, you big mouse. It's not like an owl will come out of nowhere and snatch us," Shade smirked at Chinook.

"Who are you calling a big mouse? I'm not scared of anything!" Chinook snapped.

While the both of them were bickering, I decided to check if this whole situation was truly just a dream. I pulled out my pocketknife and switched it with a needle. I poked myself and grunted from the pain. It caught the attention of the two bats and they turned to see what I was doing.

Shade looked at the needle and then me, wearing an expression that clearly asked, 'what the crap are you doing?!'

"What are you doing..? Chinook was the one who asked directly.

"I'm seeing if this is all an illusion. I'm poking myself to try and wake myself up," I explained and poked myself again, getting the same result. I looked at both of them, shocked. "Okay, I'm not dreaming, this is freaky," I gulped.

Shade looked at me strangely. "Um, it's not that freaky. I think it's pretty cool. I always like to learn more about humans," he admitted, flapping his wings.

"Oh, is that so?" I can't help to smile a little but yawned all of sudden and looked at my watch to realize that it was getting close to 3 am. "Hey guys, I'd love to stay and chat longer, but I need to get back to my camp and get some sleep. I don't want my dad to wake up and see me gone." I turn, but then glanced back at them with a smile, "it's nice to meet you two, see ya." I was about to go but Shade blocked my path.

"But we just met!" he protested.

I shook my head. "Come on, Shade. I have to get back and I'm sorry, but I can't stay up with you guys." I pushed Shade out of the way gently, but being the stubborn bat that he was, he only got in the way again.

"We can follow you to your campground! You can tell us what humans are like along the way," he added quickly.

"Come on, runt. Let her go back. You heard her, she needs to get some good night sleep. So far as we know, she's not nocturnal like us," Chinook said and flew by me.

Shade only shook his head and looked at me pleadingly. I couldn't help but groan when I saw his pouty bat face. Already I felt my willpower disintegrate into ash and slip away from my fingers. I glanced at Chinook and then at Shade, having some second thoughts and then I huffed. I ruffled my hair, finally coming to a decision.

"Aw, alright! You two can come along and I'll tell you some things along the way."

Shade beamed and swirled at my side. "Alright!" he cheered.

I giggled and glanced at both of them. "Come on, my camp is this way." I grabbed my flashlight and shined the way through the darkness as the two bats that I had befriended followed me.

"We're going to be in a heap load of trouble," Chinook groaned.

HERE'S ANOTHER CHAPTER! HOPE YOU ALL LIKE WHERE THIS IS GOING, IF NOT NO MEAN COMMENTS! I DONT OWN ANY SILVERWING CHARACTERS EXCEPT OC ENJOY XD