Stellar

Chapter 9

 

 

It had been about a week since the encounter with the agents from Earth and the group were currently stalking down a wingding which was nesting at the top of a large tree in Tarley wood. They had spotted the winged creature fly through the gateway during one of their stakeouts and decided that they should probably return it to its home.

 

The thing with wingdings is that they are awkward and clumsy and were particularly unpredictable. They tend not to notice their surroundings often causing the small birds to leave a trail a trail of destruction behind them.

 

Kai was climbing up the tree as soon as he was sure that he wouldn't scare it off. But just as he was about to reach out to it a dog barking in the background scared the wingding and it flew straight into a nearby tree, falling to the ground after doing so. Petra rushed to try and catch it, but her coordination didn't allow her to. Instead, she broke its fall and it slipped through her hands. The wingding stood up shook its fur and then began to fly away.

 

Kai fell out of the tree straight into a muddy puddle, causing a tidal wave of mud to coat everything close by. Petra stifled a giggle at Kai as the plump wingding settled onto his head. Click. Ruby took the opportunity for a picture with Three loudly laughing in the background.

 

Petra retrieved the wingding, relieving Kai's scalp from the talons that were digging in. He sat up and began to flick the mud off himself, intentionally aiming at the girls. A smile grew on his face when he successfully landed a glob of mud directly on Three's dress.

 

"Eurgh Kai!" Three exclaimed while carefully brushing the mud off, only to end up with it on her hands and streaking down the bottom of her dress.

 

"Maybe we should go to Silva Hollow, so they can get changed?" Petra suggested, secretly hoping they would agree. She longed for the familiar feeling of being there again.

 

"We need to get back soon Pet, so maybe not." Petra hummed in response to Ruby trying to hide the slight pout on her face.

 

"How about you come to us tomorrow? We could probably do with going over everything we've found?" Kai suggested while trying to remove some of the mud from his face.

 

***

 

The next day, Petra practically skipped to the gateway. A restless energy filled her limbs as thoughts of being back in Silva Hollow filled her mind.

 

Kai took them back to the clearing he had taken them to on the first day they were all together. His thinking spot, he liked to call it. Petra sat on a rather uncomfortable rock. She shuffled a bit, trying to find a position which wouldn't give her a numb bum. A small smile tugging at the corners of her mouth watching Kai, Three and Ruby trying to keep track of everything they've found out so far.

 

Ruby had scattered all the pictures she had taken over the ground around her and was reading all her notes from her trusty notepad. She had taken to writing down everything they had seen or heard and recapping it at night times with Petra.  They both had even gone so far as to start learning Landim, Silva Hollow's written language, so that could read some of the books about casting Three had found in the abandoned lodge, in order to try to understand what is going on.