Wings of Honor: Bad Moon Rising

Chapter 8: Moonwatchers

Marvin's POV

"Marvin, calm down."
"CALM DOW— Grace! You compromised yourself! Tell me everything, right now! Who saw you?"
"A paralyzed animus Nightwing underneath Jade Mountain. His name is Stonemover. He doesn't know about my powers."
"Stonemover?"
"Yes. And nobody visits him. Not even his own daughter Sunny."
"Sunny? You mean, Sunny's dad saw you?"
"Yes."
I took a long and drawn out sigh.
"Do... do you think... he'll tell anyone— ANYONE, about you?"
"I... don't think so."
"You don't think? I need a yes or no answer, Grace. Please."
I rubbed my face.
"No."
I saw in her mind, that is genuinely what she believed. Considering the evidence.
"Okay. Grab some food. Tell me everything over breakfast."

Midway between spaghetti and bacon and cheese.
"So. You rescued Clay..."
"I don't think 'rescued' is the proper word—"
"You did lead him back to his room safely, did you not?"
She hung her head. "Yeah."
"So take the credit and run, Grace. So, after that—they didn't see you, did they?"
Grace shook her head. "I was still camouflaged. Clay was asleep, Sunny didn't see me."
"Okay. Good. After you helped Clay, you found Moon."
"Yes."
"How is she?"
She sighed. I knew she knew I would ask. "She's fine. A little shaken by Darkstalker. But she's doing just fine."
"Mmm Hmm. So what happened after?"
"She got up and started walking down the corridors. I followed her, and we both found Stonemover."
"Sunny's dad."
"Correct.
"What did you two talk about?"
"Moon tried to ask about Nightwing powers in a roundabout way. She didn't get anything really usable. Although, I think she's convinced that Darkstalker might be a better teacher for her."
"Damn it!"
"Yeah. But I did also talk with Stonemover about animus magic."
"And what did you learn?"
"That he REALLY doesn't like being an animus. He's literally turning to stone. I feel so bad for him. Speaking of, did you somehow pack a D ration with me?"
"What? No. Why?"
"Because there was a D bar in the cave right in front of me. It was strange, I didn't notice it when I walked in. I gave it to him—"
"Wait. Hold up." Something about this sounded familiar. "Run me back with the D bar again."
"Okay... umm. He was complaining that he was hungry again. I felt bad for him, and I wished I had some food for him."
"Stop. Give me the unabridged version of that."
"I thought, 'I wish I had a D bar or something.' Then poof! There was one right there!"
I clicked my cricket at her.
"That's all I needed to know. Let me get something."
I ran back to the tent. Rummaging through the duffle bag, I pulled out one of the coconuts.
"The Seawings have this sort of tradition of some sort. I learned about it while going through the scrolls. It's called Talons of Power."
"Talons of Power?" Grace came up from behind me. "What's a Seawing tradition got to do with me?"
"You'll see."
I set out a coconut not too far away from Grace. I put my hand up to keep her still.
"Okay. I know this is going to sound weird."
"Everything about this is weird Marvin!"
I paused for a moment.
"Fair enough. But what I'm gonna need you to do, is repeat these words. Not to me, but to the coconut."
Grace canted her head in confusion at me.
"You want me... to talk to the coconut?"
"Yes, I'm aware of how silly it sounds—"
"Yeah, a lot silly!"
"Let's just get it over with. Repeat this: Coconut. Fly up into the air and land in my claw."
This is silly.
"Just do it Grace. For me?"
She sighed, thuroughly embarrassed.
"Coconut... fly up into the air and land on my claw." She said in a new sarcastic tone. But it worked. The coconut shuddered, before suddenly blasting off into the sky.
"Woah!" Grace exclaimed!
"Quick! Put your hand out!"
"But I—"
"Just do it!"
She did. The coconut came down, and landed in her hand with a gentle thunk. We both stood in awe, staring at the coconut, then at her claw hand, then at each other.
"Do you know what this means Grace?"
"I... I..."
"You're an animus!" I jumped up and down! "Hoo! You never cease to amaze me Grace! Oh my God! You can enchant things!"
"No more hiding! We can do whatever we want!"
"Not anything that we want Grace."
I could tell our hearts were beating fast. Grace was excited, maybe a little too excited.
"Okay. Let's take a moment. Let's get everything together."
"What is there to put together? I'm a Nightwing, mind reading, future seeing, venom shooting, fire resistant, animus wielder!"
"You're right. Let me get that on your resume."
I was met with a solid tail smack to the face. I was knocked down into the grass, the red stinging my face. Me and Grace locked eyes, staring each other down. Until, I chuckled, she chuckled. The chuckles morphing into laughs.
"Oh, come here you!"
Grace squealed as I ran after her.
"No! Nononononono, Ahh!"
I knew every single of her tickle spots. I knew just where to get her. She ran halfway through the forest before she crashed down, still squirming. Both of us dying of laughter. We played until we were both tired. She was on top of me, pinning me down with her hand. Both of us breathing heavily. The sun had finally come up and cemented Its place.
"Okay. Let's go back and fix the radio huh?" She commented.
"You said it."
"Climb on. And no tickles."
"No promises." Although I knew she knew that I wouldn't tickle her.
She walked us back to camp, letting me slide down like with Moon. I fished the broken husk and a baggie of parts what used to be called the radio on the tarp. Grace investigated it, but was hesitant.
"So, as your parental guardian, and because I know a bit more about animus than you do, I feel that it is my responsibility to—"
"You can do anything with animus magic. But just because you can, doesn't mean you should. Bad spells can turn your soul evil. So don't cast spells that are essentially selfishly motivated. Was that what you were gonna say?"
Grace gave me a sassy look. I smiled, shaking my head and motioning my finger.
"Okay Grace. You got this already. Just say, think, or flash in aquatic what you want to enchant."
"Okay." She inched up to the radio. "Radio. I enchant you to repair yourself."
The box shuddered. The screws I layed out for it suddenly disappeared. The dents on the outside were forced back into place, as if hammered back straight. All the little parts came back together. I saw screws tighten themselves back into place. Suddenly, it stood back up, ready for use. Grace motioned for me to try it.
See if it works.
I walked up and picked it up. Pressing the button.
"Radio check. This is Alphha 1-1 actual. Any units on this frequency, please respond."
I let off the button. We waited in a few moments of silence. Only the interrupted songs of birds were the only sound.
"Marvin?"
"Is that you Captain?"
"Hah Ha! We got it!" I pressed the button again. "McManis! Travers! It's so great to hear your voices again!"
"Ahhh hah hah. Same here Captain!"
"Where are you Marvin?"
"I'm at Jade Mountain. About five minutes south of it. Where are you guys?"
"Ah. That's the problem Captain."
"What is McManis?"
There was a long silence.
"I'm... somewhere on a large peninsula. My best guess is to the far south, maybe southwest."
"Yeah, same here. I'm far to the North. There's this big palice nearby, lots of Skywings. I'm camped in a forest to its East."
"Yeah, where I'm at, there's a lot of broken down structures here. Like, dragon sized structures. A run down dragon kingdom?"
"Okay. I'm getting your bearings now."
Pulling out my compass.
"Okay, McManis, you're at 240, maybe 245. Travers, you're all the way at 35."
"Jesus Christ Marvin."
"Yeah, you're well away from me Travers."
Is that them? Are those your soldiers? I heard Grace in the background.
"Oh. And guys. About the egg."
"You fucking diddnt."
"Did Goldman get it?"
"Is it okay?"
"She's fine men. She's alive and well. Sorry I can't introduce her to you in person, but meet the newest member of the Airborne: Gracebringer!"
"Hello!" Grace shouted into the radio.
"Is that a girl I hear?"
"She hatched! Oh my God!"
"Yeah. And I'll tell you all about her. But right now, we have to go. Can I get an official time Travers?"
"It's 07:47 hours sir."
"Perfect. Keep your radios on you men. This is 1-1 out. Screaming Eagles."
"Screaming Eagles!"
"Screaming Eagles!"
I clicked off the radio. I looked back at Grace, she was about ready to climb a tree and leap to the sky!
"That's them! We fixed it! Now all we have to do is go get them and stop Goldman and—"
"Woah now Grace. We still got a bit of a problem."
A continent sized problem, I should say.
"You know the deal Darkstalker. Stay out of my head."
Oh. But you're such an interesting character Marvin!
I threw on my jacket, my Springfield under it.
"Come on Grace. Let's go check up on Moon."
Oh. I think you'll find it most entertaining.