Flames and Starlight

45🌘

Peter

"There," Kendrick whispered.

I followed his line of sight and saw a group of men in black armor striding through the woods, swords strapped to their belts. We flew overhead, staying close enough to the ground to not cast any shadows and to where we wouldn't be spotted.

I didn't know what happened to that group of shapeshifters that were held at sword point, and in all honesty, I didn't think I wanted to know. If anything had to do with Caius, it would be horrific.

A heavy knot of guilt formed in the pit of my stomach as I thought of how we left those shapeshifters to face whatever unspeakable fate awaited them. I kept telling myself over and over, that Kendrick and I were severely outnumbered, that if we'd try to attack them and free those shapeshifters, we'd probably be captured as well and get killed, that there was just nothing we could do, but it didn't lessen the guilt that was churning inside of me. 

Maybe there was something we could've done. Maybe we could have created a distraction so the other shapeshifters could've run. Maybe we were just gutless cowards that were only worried about our own skins.

I forced it out of my mind and focused on the men down below us. I couldn't think about that right now. It was over and done with. There was nothing we could do about it now other than keep going and make sure their deaths weren't in vain.

The men kept trucking east. I had no idea why they kept going in that direction but we were trying to figure it out. We couldn't keep tailing them. Sooner or later, presumably sooner, they were going to spot us and we couldn't risk getting captured.

I noticed that one of the men kept glancing up in our direction. I inwardly cursed. We were about to get spotted.

I motioned with my beak towards Kendrick. Our eyes met and luckily he read the look in my gaze. We hung back as they continued on. Once they were farther enough away where they couldn't see or hear us, we flew higher in the sky and continued to fly east while making sure we were out of sight from the men in black armor. 

We flew east until the sun was starting to lower in the sky. We had to stop and rest for a little bit before taking to the sky again. We continued flying east when we came across a huge cluster of cabins where shapeshifters were milling about. My heart started to race when I realized we'd flown to a shapeshifter Clan. All the pieces clicked together in an instant. I knew for certain that the men in black armor were coming to this Clan. And going to launch an attack.

"They're going to attack this Clan," I said, staring down at the shapeshifters going about their daily lives without a clue what was about to happen.

"I know," Kendrick said grimly.

"We have to warn them."

"Peter -"

"Right now, us getting exposed aren't important. We need to warn everyone possible. Caius is coming -"

"Okay."

I blinked. "You agree?"

"Yeah. This is getting too serious. Everyone's in danger and this is going to end badly."

I took a deep breath. "We need to find the Apex and tell him what's going to happen."

He bobbed his beak up and down in a nod and we flew down to the Clan, praying the Apex would listen and get his shapeshifters to safety. Hopefully, he'd believe us and save his shapeshifters on time.

EDITED: 8/29/21