Akoya's Escape

Chapter 6

Akoya followed Moonshine through the birch forest and into a small cave on the side of a mountain. Moonshine had collected some sticks from the woods before they left and she lit a fire in the cave. Moonshine advised her to get some sleep, so Akoya rested her head on her talons and closed her eyes, quickly falling asleep and dreaming of those fireworks back at the colourful field of flowers and dragons.

The next morning, she woke up to the smell of fish. Akoya opened her eyes and saw three cods laying in front of her, while Akoya was eating roasted pork.

"Good morning," Moonshine greeted her with a warm smile.

"Good morning," Akoya replied with a yawn and grabbed a fish. "Do you ever sleep?"

Moonshine laughed. "Yes, I do. I just go to bed later than you and wake up eariler than you."

"How do you know what time I wake up?" Akoya asked curiously with her mouth full.

"Remember what I said yesterday? I know everything. Do not question it," Moonshine said softly.

They continued eating in silence and let their minds wander. Maybe she knows so much because she has the ability to see the future. But how can she know so much without trouble? Father taught me that NightWings with this ability struggle to see vision on command. So how does she do it? Does she have her power as strong as Clearsight? Or stronger than hers?

"So," Moonshine broke the silence, "Today we're going to see the Tree Kingdom because we need to go right through it to go to the next kingdom. It will be risky because the new queen does not want any tribe in her territory other than TreeWings. So we'll have to be quick."

"Are we going to die?" Akoya asked anxiously.

"No! Of course not. At least, I think so. Look, I can't really tell you because... well, I shouldn't. I know you want to know if you will survive or not, but that's a thing that I'm not allowed to say."

"Who's stopping you from not telling me?" Akoya asked.

Moonshine paused. "Myself."

"Why can't you-" Akoya was saying when Moonshine interrupted.

"Akoya, I can't tell you anything. Otherwise this world will go into chaos. If I tell you... I-I don't even know what will happen. You would be very surprised if I told you. You could want to kill yourself if I told you. You could spread the news to the rest of this world and everyone won't want to... exist anymore. Everyone will go crazy."

Akoya was speechless. This is how big of a secret Moonshine is holding, and aparently she's not allowed to tell anyone, Akoya thought.

"We... we should start going," Moonshine said after a long pause and they left the cave, heading off to the forest of the TreeWings.

As they quietly walked through the forest, Akoya noticed all the flora and fauna of this dense place. It had animals of all kinds and had many different types of plants and trees.

She also noticed that it became very foggy. It was hard seeing where to step and she could barely see what was infront of her.

"Does it usually get this foggy?" Akoya asked in a quiet tone.

"No... It became really hard to see for some reason. Its just weather. Its fine," Moonshine replied quietly.

Akoya followed Moonshine close behind and she was getting really distracted by the noises and the fog. So distracted, in fact, that she bumped into Moonshine when she stopped.

"Oh no," Moonshine whispered. "The queen is here."

"What is she doing?" Akoya asked.

"She's talking to her guards," Moonshine replied. "This is one of the guard outposts she put around her territory."

Suddenly the TreeWing queen and her guards fell silent.

The queen looked around, and then she spoke softly. "Did you hear that?"

"Put. On. The necklace," Moonshine whispered as quietly as she could into Akoya's ear.

Akoya quickly but quietly took the pearl necklace from her pouch and placed it around her neck. Unfortunately, the pearls clinked against each other, and the TreeWings' heads shot towards their direction.

"Run," Moonshine said, and they were off.

"Get them!" Akoya heard from the queen.

Moonshine and Akoya sped through the foggy forest, trying their hardest to dodge all the trees. Akoya took a quick glance behind her, and she saw four guards were chasing after them with the queen.

Akoya then heard a shriek and a grunt from Moonshine. She turned around to see Moonshine laying on the ground and bleeding from her head.

"Moonshine!" Akoya said.

"Go, Akoya! Go on without me! I promise I will catch up to you," Moonshine panted. "Now go!"

Akoya saw the TreeWings quickly catching up to them, so she turned around and left. She took one last glance and saw Moonshine getting taken away by two of the guards. She aslo saw the queen and two other guards following her.

Akoya had an idea. She quickly flew above the trees, and then back into the trees, and she flew towards her left. She looked behind her, and saw that she had lost them.

It was really that easy, Akoya thought to herself and grinned.

She kept flying and flying until her wings were too tired to flap anymore, so she glided into some trees and collapsed onto the ground, panting. She crawled into some hedges and fell asleep from the exhaustion.