Shadowed Scales

Chapter 17: The Departure for Change

_CHAPTER SEVENTEEN_

The Departure for Change

Sameer couldn't remember the last time he had ever slithered this fast.

That encounter with Counsellor Patel was something he couldn't get rid of from his mind. Even when he did his best to block those memories, they seemed to follow him wherever he went.

Those golden eyes glowing in the dark....

He paused, hearing the sound of music playing at the music cabin where the girls and his cabin mates were. Sameer may not have sharp hearing but he could tell that it sounded like a piano.

When he entered, he spotted the girls crowding around something. Squeezing between the girls through gaps he could find, Sameer almost dropped his jaw in shock at what he saw:

Arthur was playing the piano accompanied by Beppi on the tambourine!

Sameer could not believe it! Arthur could play music despite being blind. How his wings were gliding across the piano keys while his ears wiggled to the sound of the tambourin.

How does he not know that the bat could play?

"Wow," was all Sameer could utter out from watching the performance as the girls sang to the tune. It was from a popular movie about a group of friends setting out on a quest to return a precious jewellery.

"Oh, Sameer!" Beppi stopped, running towards the Egyptian cobra to tackle him into a sudden hug. Most of the girls were laughing, either from the sudden tackle or from the still-playing music in the background.

"I think we should go," said Sameer, glancing behind at the door. He signalled Beppi with his tail to follow him. When the Tasmanian devil would not budge, he tugged his hand insistently.

"What's the hurry, Sameer?" Beppi questioned, glancing at the door. "Did you see something from the woods? Where's Counsellor Patel?"

Sameer opened but then clamped his mouth shut. How was he going to tell the others that Counsellor Patel is dangerous and might as well be a cannibal from how he talked about devouring other beasts?

Eating meat was the biggest crime any carnivore could have done. He knew about this through his father's court cases he usually discussed at the dinner table. The only one who was interested in all of them would be his sister, Talia.

Looking back, Sameer wished he would've paid attention to his father's court cases and how he handled them. Those were the things that would help him take down Counsellor Patel. The thought of doing this excited the young Egyptian cobra to-

"Sameer...Sameer!" Beppi's insistent tugging on his tail made him shook out of those thoughts. The Tasmanian devil crossed his arms. "Is that a snake thing where you pretend to be deaf whenever anyone calls you?"

Sameer parted his fangs a bit, but Beppi wasn't fazed by it. Instead, he gave him a sympathetic smile. "Something out there scared you, huh?"

"H-how do you know?"

"When grownups are scared, they opened and then closed their mouths. It's like they don't want to talk about what's scaring them. Did something happen?"

Sameer was hesitant to tell him when the doors of the cabin opened. Immediately, he recoiled when a flash of reddish-brown slithered into the room. Arthur, who was playing the piano, suddenly stopped with his wings dead on the keys.

"Counsellor Patel! Where have you been?" asked a border collie camper.

"You missed out on the music and dance we wanted to show you!" a chinchilla camper pouted, her whiskers twitched.

"Arthur can play the piano like a pro!"

The blind Honduran white bat covered himself with his wings, his fur bristled as Counsellor Patel passed him. Sameer went up to him, letting the scared bat hold onto him.

"He tried to eat me," Sameer whispered to the bat, the only one he felt comfortable telling. Arthur covered his mouth, his cloudy blue eyes were wide, but he said nothing. A simple nod was all he needed to know that the bat understood.

...

"— so then, Arthur began playing the piano like he knew which key was making the right sound!" Beppi made some gestures with his fingers to mimic playing a piano. "No music sheets, nothing at all!"

"Hmmm," Maccus hummed with interest. The hammerhead shark was laying on his waterbed, his headphones were hung on the headboard.

"Well, lucky you! While you three were playing musical chairs, I had to deal with an angry bull who keeps taking all of the credit for my hard work," Tek rambled, plucking his feathers. It was an unnerving sight to behold.

Maccus made a non-committal grunt, Sameer couldn't figure out what he meant. Arthur on the other hand was hanging upside down, tracing a book with dots that covered the page. He himself was rereading his Mr Twilight book.

"What are you reading?"

Sameer looked up. "Oh, just Mr Twilight. It's a scary book series that's really good and always has a happy ending. How about you? You can read words with those dots?"

Arthur nodded, stretching his wings to show Sameer his book. It was full of dots from the cover to the pages inside.

"My fingers are like eyes," Arthur explained, curling two of his fingers on the book. "They can help me understand what's been written in this story. It's about an astronaut's adventures in outer space with a robot for a friend. I don't know what space looked like but my dad said there were no sounds up there and everything's cold."

Sameer smiled a sad smile. They way Arthur talks about things made him realised that he had to understand things with his other senses since he was blind. However from his expression alone, Sameer concluded that Arthur was happy with the way he was.

"I've been a real scum, haven't I? You never did anything but be nice and friendly with everyone even if we've never dealt with a blind animal before. And I'm so sorry for making things bad for you."

Sameer was prepared for Arthur to resume his reading when he felt a furry mass plopping down beside him on the bed. He turned his head to meet Arthur's cloudy blue gaze.

"You attacked me because you wanted to get rid of something you don't understand," Arthur spoke softly, cupping his face with his two fingers. "You probably don't WANT to understand why a blind bat like me goes to a normal school like you. When someone doesn't understand, they would want to get rid of it quickly."

Sameer could've opened his mouth in astonishment in how Arthur knew how he felt. On top of that, he was the one without eyes and yet, he could see right through his serpentine body. Sameer ironically was blind on understanding other animals except for what was written in textbooks.

"But now," Arthur continued, tracing his face gently. "You get to learn while we're here in camp. Learning about different schools, our cabin mates and even who we are. Well, maybe not who we are..."

Before Arthur could carry on, Sameer has engulfed Arthur into a hug. For the first time, Sameer's tears fell onto the bat's fluffy white fur. It felt warm just like the animal himself.

"W-we...can...b-be friends?" Sameer managed to choke out the sentence, imagining the ever-building venom filling up his throat. Arthur laughed, nodding before returning the hug with his long wings.

"Of course, Sameer! We are officially friends."

He didn't care that Beppi, Tek and Maccus were giving them weird looks.

However, this tender moment was short-lived when the doors of the Maelstrom cabin opened to an angry Daymas. He had disgusting red sores on both arms that were ready to burst while the bull's body was soaked from the rain.

"So, this is where you lot are..."