Gone Batty

Chapter 7: Marina

"I take it you two know each other." Marina hung above the two silverwings, with an amused smile.

"Yes, by the way." Melody separated herself from Shade with a curious expression. "How did you get here? I thought your colony was flying past the island and not toward it."

"Yeah...about that." Shade looked away sheepishly, scratching the back of his head. "I sort of got separated from them." He hesitantly peeked over at his friend, almost afraid that she would start making fun of his small wings too. Instead of laughing at him, Melody was sympathetic.

"I'm sorry. The storm was pretty bad." She admitted, "Even I had to stop following you guys and turn around to land on the island."

"Wait...you were following us?"

"I don't exactly know which way is south." Melody shrugged as if it was no big deal. "Following you felt like the best idea at the time."

"Well, while the two of you are stuck here, how about I give you guys a quick tour?" Marina flew around them, looking more excited that she had company than she tried to seem.

Shade frowned at Marina, still rather upset at her teasing. "What makes you think we want one?"

"Shade?" Melody raised a brow at her friend, not knowing where he got this sudden sour attitude from. "What's with you?"

"Nothing." He grumbled, looking away.

"He's just pouting because he couldn't keep up with his colony, that's all." The other female explained before landing between the two friends, wrapping her wings around both their shoulders with an amused grin. "Come on. You'll need to know where my territory lies. Stretch out your wings a bit. Who knows, maybe they'll even grow out."

Oh. So that was why. Melody saw Shade tense up under Marina's touch, looking like he had a comeback, but was doing his best to keep himself from saying it. The other female bat didn't seem like she was trying to put him down. It felt more like Marina was trying to get acquainted with him, but just happened to use the wrong approach. If Melody had met Marina around the same time as Shade did, she probably would have felt irked by her as well.

Realizing that she would have to be the one to say something to somehow lessen the building tension that was developing in her sensitive friend, Melody broke out in a cheerful smile. "Now that you mention it, my wings are very flimsy. Flying around would do me good."

That seemed to settle it for Marina as she flew up. "Great! At least with me showing you around, you won't get lost."

"Tch! Don't do us any favors." Shade muttered under his breath before flying off the ground. He paused for a second as he remembered something. "Do you need help?" He asked Melody.

She smiled humorlessly and shrugged. "Like always."

Shade wordlessly grabbed her by the scruff of her mane and began to pull her up the moment when she began flapping as well. "One of these days..." Melody grunted as she tried to get the air support she needed. "I will stop being so pathetic and learn to take off like a normal bat."

The boy bat gave a breathy laugh. "Where's the fun in being normal?"

"Point taken."

"Not that I'm telling you not to get stronger-"

"Got it."

"Hey! What is taking you two?" Marina flew back to them when she noticed that they were lagging far behind. She blinked at the strange sight of Shade trying to help Melody to start flying. "What are you doing?"