Hawk and Wolf:Animal Guardians of Humans

Part 4

Here's a longer chapter! Enjoy!

When I opened my eyes, I was at a very weird place. It was a large room, with a long table and chairs, a whiteboard, and an easel with pictures. I gasped at the pictures of my mission pinned to the easel. There were more pictures pinned to the easel, including a map. There was a flash, and I was gone.

I was teleported to a small town, but it was dead silence. Well, a whirr of an engine could be heard coming closer. For some reason I was alarmed, and hid even though I’m as invisible as bacteria. I decided not to do anything but observe. The tension was as thick as a plump turkey for Thanksgiving, you could cut it with a knife.

                It started softly, but as it got closer, it made me sick. I have never seen anything like what I had witnessed just then. “How can I take that down? Well, maybe I catch that guy alone? Nah, a guy like that isn’t going to be caught alone.” Like somebody just turned on a switch in my brain, I knew what I had to do. It’s actually quite simple, let myself get caught. Don’t worry I’m not crazy, well, maybe just a little. Play dummy, play the part of a foolish human being, act. I willed myself to be visible after making sure that nobody was watching.

                Soon after becoming visible, doors opened up, and people of all ages walked cautiously out of the houses. It didn’t take long for them to notice me. I was as different to them as a cactus in a pond is for you. Me, in my semi-decent clothes compared to them, in their torn up and raggedy clothes. Somewhere inside me, a voice said to talk, so I did. “Hello! Do you want me to make everybody better clothes?” I ventured out a few steps towards the villagers. All of the villagers looked down at their feet, not saying a word. “Who was that man riding by? Why do you hide? I have only been in this country for a short time.” I attempted to make conversation, but I had no luck so far.

                “You don’t know who Ashtraia is?” A small boy blurted out. I looked at these people, and I saw good people, people who are frightened, people who need to be saved. I knew that they didn’t want this 5 year old talking to me. I needed to gain their trust, but I came back to the same question again: how?

                The mother of the boy murmured to who I assume is her mother, and handed her the boy. She turned to me and said, “Follow me. I will tell you what our village and many others, have gone through.” The lady motions for me to follow her into a house.

                “Ashtraia is a bad man. He took our belongings, just barely leaving enough to survive. There is still newspapers, although it is controlled by him. It tells of his latest victories. I’ll give you an example. Wait a minute please.” The woman told me as she got up and reached for a newspaper.

As soon as the newspaper was on the table, I gasped. “No way. He did that?” I now had my hands clenched into tight fists. “Look, there is something I should probably tell you.” And that is how Tasha knows who I really am, and why I appeared so suddenly. Tasha promised not to tell anyone except her boy, Orion, when he’s older. I wanted him to know, he was the only villager who’d talk to me.

                Getting up, Tasha walked up some stairs, telling me to be quiet as I follow. When we were upstairs, Tasha opened a closet and lifted a fake wall. When she did this, a steep staircase going down was revealed. I was not scared of going underground, but I was worried at what awaited us.

                We had to jump a few feet, which I loved. After that though, it wasn’t no fun and games. There was no furniture, just a rug and a newspaper. Seeing me look at the paper, Tasha whispered, “There’s another newspaper, and I am the person who gets it last. I still need to burn this, but I think you might be interested in it.”