Gone Batty

Chapter 9: Disorder in the Court

"Ow!" Melody cried out as she was roughly shoved to the ground on her back, her head smacking against the wood. Bright spots danced around in her vision, and she was only brought out of her stupor when sharp talons pinned her wings to the floor. Wincing from the pain, the girl looked up to see a rather pissed off city pigeon glaring down at her with yellow eyes. Above them, hundreds more were cooing angrily as they roosted below the tower's ceiling. Rather intimidated by the judging eyes, Melody quickly searched for Shade and Marina, only to see that they were in the same predicament as her. She wondered if their yelling outside had irritated the birds.

"Pigeons!" Marina exclaimed.

"Is that what they are?" Melody gave a nervous chuckle. Sarcasm- she wondered if it did anything to hide the fact that she was indeed scared out of her mind right now. Probably not.

"What are we going to do?" Shade asked fearfully, his eyes darting to the girls.

"I- ugh!" Marina cringed from the pain as her captor laid down more weight on her wing, "I don't know!"

"Umm, apologize?" the brunette suggested, her voice cracking.

The other silverwing looked at her incredulously, "for what?"

"I don't know, why don't you ask them? Maybe you yelling woke them up," she hissed from behind her teeth, still a bit riled up from their previous argument.

Shade was taken aback before glaring at Melody, "my yelling? You two were just as loud as I was!"

"Guys! This isn't the time or place!" the annoyed voice came from the brightwing.

"Silence!" The pigeon holding Shade squawked angrily. The bats immediately quieted down, though they continued to shoot small glares at each other.

Suddenly, the pigeon picked her by the scruff of her brown mane in his beak and moved her over to her friends. He dropped her onto her stomach, knocking the wind out of her, and stood right on top of her wings. Melody noticed that she was lined up with Marina and Shade on both sides of her.

Shade struggled against the pigeon who was holding him down, but he was completely immobilized. Marina stayed completely still as did Melody. The female silverwing was scared of tearing her wings against the sharp talons of her captor.

The bird that held Shade down spoke, "Captain, here are the renegades who Hegland saw kill our friend!"

Kill? Melody was completely at loss on what was going on. The looks on her friends' faces told her that they were just as confused as she was. Well, whatever it was- Melody did not like where this was going. This was turning into something more serious than just intruding on a flock's territory.

The leader of the pigeons flew down to them. He stared at them coldly before shutting up the rest of the jury with a loud "silence! Give me more light." The room was lit up by the city lights as one pigeon removed a sheet of paper off the gaping hole in the boarding. His shadow loomed over the young bats as he inched closer. The pigeon captain tilted his head as he examined them. He pulled at Shade's blonde hair with his beak, causing the boy to cry out. He quickly moved over to Marina and smacked her face with his wing, curious to see their reactions.

The pigeon then turned his attention to Melody and bit at her ear and sharply pulled at it.

"Ouch!" Melody screeched, "quit it!"

"Leave them alone!" Shade snapped angrily at him.

The pigeon paid little heed to Shade's words and turned away to call another pigeon, "Hegland. Come forward."