• Previous Chapters:
    Chapter One - 'Thoughts'
    Chapter Two - 'Rebirth'
    --------------------------------------
    ‘Flying Nightmares’

    -Noxx-

    **Two Months Later**

    More darkness…is that all I’m destined to live in? I know I’m allowed to see the sun, I’ve flown in it’s warmth many times, night just seems to be ideal for hunting. Though, I know…I know this isn’t a natural darkness. I’m flying, but I don’t feel myself going anywhere, my echoes seem to dissolve the moment I bark them out…it’s like I’ve fallen into a place where nothing exists…no sound, no light…nothing.

    …Maybe not…

    My ears twitch as a soft wind brushes their tips. I could finally hear something…but not much…the wind carried a low hiss. It was just a hiss, I’ve heard snakes before…but never has the noise they made sent such a wave of terror over me. This noise…it sounded as if it were trying to form words. No matter how hard I strained my ears, I could not make them out…it was just nothing more than a hiss.

    Without realizing it, I had stopped flying, I was merely floating there and, it really didn’t surprise me. In the darkness in front of me, something finally began to appear. Two long, thin lines slowly opened into hollow slits. I gasped when I saw that they were eyes…two hollow eye with no pupils…I know I’ve seen these before…but I don’t know where. My heart felt like as if it were going to beat right out of my chest, how could something like this scare the fur off of me?

    Like always, I quickly received my answer; below the eyes, a terrifying image, possibly more frightening then the eyes, came into view: a ‘living’ bat skeleton. The skeleton and the eye moved as if they were speaking; the skeleton held itself proudly, but the ‘expression’ it held showed that the eyes were clearly something to be feared and respected. The eyes narrowed and opened, most likely showing emphasis on what it was talking about.

    I watched in fear, not daring to speak…I didn’t want to draw any attention to myself. After a while of silent talking, the skeleton nodded, only to turn to me and smile wickedly before it dissolved into the darkness. My heart beat even faster, they knew I was here…I began to wonder if it was me they were talking about. Soon after, the eyes turned their attention to me. They narrowed as if they were angry with me…but they disappeared as well, leaving me in total darkness…

    “Noxx, look out!”

    “Huh?!” the shout of another bat broke Noxx from his trace-like state; he blinked once to clear his hazy vision and gasped, he was flaying straight for the truck of a tree. Quickly, he angled his wings and banked sharply to the left, narrowly missing the tree. Suddenly feeling exhausted, he roosted on a nearby branch in the middle area of the tree he just missed.

    “What’s with you, Smallwing?!” spat Mist, a fellow newborn, as she roosted beside him, “It didn’t even look like you were watching where you were going!”

    He grunted when she called him ‘Smallwing’, everyone seemed to torment him about his small size. His mother, and even the elders, had said that it was a miracle that he was even alive and that his size should not be made fun of…yet all the newborns did it anyway. “I don’t know…” he said through a sigh, “…I wasn’t looking…I think I was dreaming.”

    “Dreaming?!” she huffed, “you keep us all awake in the day because of your dreaming, and now you’re dreaming while flying?! You could really get hurt!” her last sentence had a genuine twinge of concern, which made him smile. Even though she was hard on him, and she picked on him like all the others, she was actually very nice when his health was concerned.

    He sighed again, rustling his wings uncomfortably, “…I’m not sure I would call it ‘dreaming’, now that I think about it…I still say it’s more like a vision. I don’t know what it means yet, but it’s a vision…and it’s going to happen, I just know it.”

    Mist also rustled her wings and tilted her head to the side questioningly, “Really now?” her eyes glinted with curiosity as she reached out her wing to gently touch his face, “Why don’t you tell me about it, then?”

    “Well…” he shifted nervously on the bark, his claws making a soft scratching noise in the silent night air. He didn’t want to tell her because he knew that, the minute he told her, her concern would fall away and she’d start making fun of him again. But, he had to tell someone, keeping this bottled up any longer would surely drive him mad. Even though he was sure he was going to regret it, he took a deep, shuddering breath and began to tell her everything he saw; the total darkness, the pair of hollow eyes, the living skeleton, and the conversation the two seemed to be having. When he finished, she did exactly what he had thought she would…she began laughing hysterically .

    “So,” she managed to speak through her loud laughter, “a pair of floating eyes and a bat skeleton were talking about some ‘sinister plot’?” she took a breath, trying to calm herself down, “you’re crazier than I thought, Smallwing!”

    He groaned and looked away from her, “…I knew that’s how you’d react…” he mumbled, “…I don’t even know why I told you…and I never said they were talking about a ‘sinister plot‘…” after he had said it aloud, he realized how ridiculous it sounded…but she didn’t have to act like that…

    She smiled, wiping the tears from her laughing fit away with her claw and beat him softly on the back with her wing, “aw, c’mon, ‘Hero’, I was just having some fun. It was just a dream, that’s all…” she paused, “…oh, ‘vision’, sorry. You have to admit, it really does sound silly.”

    ‘Hero’, another nickname of his…he hated that one too. Since his fur grew in, everyone said he looked like an old hero who died a century ago, Shade Silverwing, the nickname ‘Hero’ had spawned from that. Personally, he didn’t think so, he’d never seen the bat himself, but the elders who had been to the echo chamber had spread his image using echo pictures…when he had asked his mother who Shade was, she sang him the picture…he looked nothing like him…well, he did have his size, and their eyes had the same daring spark to them, but there was a noticeable difference in his fur.

    There were dark splotches around his mouth, nose, ears, and joints; it looked like he had been bleeding from old wounds. He always said this difference made him look completely different, but others said otherwise. Those who were related to Shade’s son, Griffin, had a special story and echo picture passed down through them…Shade Silverwing had bled from the very same places when he died. Maybe he did look like the legendary hero, but that didn’t mean he was a hero himself.

    Noxx felt heat prickle beneath his fur in embarrassment, “…yeah…I guess you’re right…” he wished she would just leave, she may be his friend, but he never liked it when she poked fun at him and his visions. Just as he was about to ask her to leave him alone, his stomach growled loudly.

    “Hero,” she started, her smile no longer there, “you’ve been flying around all this time and you haven’t even hunted?” her voice was soft and concerned, “You’ll never make the migration if you don’t eat…you don’t eat, you won’t get stronger…and, if you don’t get stronger, you’re mother will lose you for real this time!” she stretched her wings and prepared to take flight, “C’mon, Noxx, let’s go get some bugs before the dawn chorus starts…race ya!” with that she unhooked her rear claws and let go of the branch, flying off quickly into the night.

    He smiled, she could always cheer him up, even after it was her who upset him. “You’re on!” he cried out after her as he also let go of the branch and flew behind her. He knew for a fact that his small wings wouldn’t carry him ahead of her, but he had hoped his size would help him get into places she couldn’t. He was so hungry that he’d eat anything that flew past his nose; he’d beat her in this eating race this time, his hunger would be his secret weapon.

    Twenty minutes passed before the dawn chorus began to rise into the air, and he felt so full he that he could barely fly. He must’ve eaten over a thousand insects, maybe more, he would like to hear that she had eaten more…then he’d be impressed. One thing was left for him to do, make it back to Tree Haven before she did. He beat his wings faster in hopes that he’d make it to the large oak tree before Mist, but, as the tree came into sight, a black blur shot passed him.

    “I’m going to beat you!” Mist called out to him with a proud smirk on her face.

    He put more power into his arms, his shoulders already ached so badly, “No you’re not!” he panted, “I’ve still got a chance!” He didn’t have much of one though, the knothole entrance was coming up quickly and he was lagging too far behind. In front of him, she trimmed her wings, preparing for entrance, and he did the same. To his disappointment, she disappeared into the knothole just a second before he did.

    “I beat you!” she squeaked, “good try though, Smallwing, you almost beat me this time.”

    He smiled, he liked it when she praised him, “yeah,” he panted, “and that was the most I’ve eaten in a long time! I feel so good!”

    She smiled back and spread her wings, “I’m glad, Noxx, all you needed was a little motivation, right?” she turned before he could say anything else, “I’m going to find mom, I could use a good grooming.” she laughed, “Sleep well.”

    He waved his aching wing goodbye to her and turned to find his own mother. Before he even had a chance to lift from the wooded platform he stood on, his mother, accompanied by Aria, the colony’s Chief Elder, landed beside him. He quickly clung to his mother, and nuzzled her lovingly, momentarily ignoring Aria, “Hi mom, how did your hunt go?”

    She smiled lightly, “It went well, Noxx, I enjoyed watching you play.” as she spoke, she began grooming his fur, taking out any bugs he may have collected in his tangles as he flew.

    He smiled up at her, the warmth and scent of her fur was always a comfort no matter how he was feeling, he purred softly as she ran her claws through his fur. “Mom…” he hesitated, not wanting to ruin the pleasant moment they were both having, “…I had another vision…it was different this time…”

    Serena’s smile faded and her normal, tired, worried expression returned as she glanced at Aria. As the elder nodded, his mother looked back at him, obviously trying to keep a strong appearance for her son, “…that’s…why we came down to meet you, sweetie…”

    Aria unfurled her wings and turned away from then, “Noxx, Serena, follow me…there is something that we must discuss…something we can no longer ignore…”