Storm Hawks: Adventures Of the Other Side

Chapter 6

"Look, we play charades in Radarr all the time, I don't think Loki will be able to tell us anything" Finn spoke up with his 'in charge' voice. But the others simply looked at him with a smirk plastering their faces. 

"I have a plan, but we need to separate the two" Cedric pondered, "Aerrow, Cedric, can you take her into the town's center when we get to Kellal?" The two nodded in agreement. 

The plan was put into action the moment they landed. Aerrow and Cedric took a very reluctant Astra out to the town's center to talk to the town's people about any strange visitors, again only rumors and ghosts, however, the lack of progress didn't stop them from asking everyone. 

Meanwhile, the others were working hard to drag the sleeping lizard outside of his temporary accommodation. Skye and Nate went in first, trying not to overwhelm the beast, on the other side of the door, Finn, Piper, Junko and Stork had hidden, adamant to not go near Loki. 

"Steady does it..." Skye walked towards the beast cautiously, Loki simply lifted his head nonchalantly, showing restraint to the two creeping towards him. "Ready?" Skye looked over to Nate, him holding a white matte stone, tossing to Skye when eye contact had been met. Skye took a deep breath before his opening his now glowing green eyes.

"Speken Dragonaris" he spoke, the white stone crumbling within his hands, the dust floating towards the dragon forcing inhalation almost. The process was rather quick and almost anticlimactic to the Storm Hawks, no big light show, now a trembling storm.

"That's it?" Piper queried.

"It's a simple spell. Not much energy is used for it" Nate shrugged his shoulders.

"And about time too" A rather sophisticated voice spoke, much like Skye's and Nate's, a young adult's voice. Everyone looked to Loki, still looking relaxed laying on the floor. "You wanted to talk to me about Astra?" 

"You know her better than anyone. What's up with her?" Skye knelt to the floor, respecting the dragon upon asking the request. 

"I was wondering how long it would be before you would pick it up. She's worried. This issue had arisen so suddenly, she is considering all possible options to protect her city. She has a lot of responsibility for someone so young, and seeing her grow up, there is no one better for the job. However, she knows what she is missing out on whilst pursuing this destiny." The dragon didn't move and kept his neck tall, still on guard. 

"I see." Skye looked towards he ground, cupping his chin in one of his hands in thought. "She is missing the old times."

"Those times, were pretty much ripped away from her, and unfortunately, she will not remember them for much longer" at this point, Loki now looked to the ground, Skye picked his up, taking it as a sign of worry.

"What do you mean?"

The dragon looked towards the storm hawks, wary not to divulge too much information. They understood the hint and took their leave. 

"It's about the WhiteFang. Unfortunately, that kind of power demands a hefty price. One of which she is battling her inner demons of whether she would want to pay."

"Meaning? -" Nate stepped in.

"Meaning that she has to give up her self. She would need to given in her instincts rather than her conscience." Skye's eyebrows burrowed, knitting themselves together as he started to get more upset. "She can't go through with it." he stepped, too frustrated to keep up with the whole respect thing with the big lizard. 

"I'm glad you said that. That's why this trip would be beneficial. Taking that flight for example helped clear her mind and gave her a sense of peace even for that brief moment. I've been around for a long time and I believe that if she finds a reason to keep herself and bound to her body. Clearly what she is doing isn't enough." Loki's expression was still on guard, but the worry in his eyes said it all - he wanted his master back. 

"So what are we gonna do now?" Nate stepped closer, the storm hawks still outside but Finn tried his hardest.

"Nothing for the moment, on the down-low, we'll research on our own. And the people here are the only ones that can speak to Loki, " Skye turned to the others hiding outside before continuing, "that means you guys too, but you can't tell the others, this would be our secret."

"So...?" Finn looked around the corner completely confused.

"He means that the spell on Loki will continue to work and we can speak to him but the others can't. Right?" Piper walked out behind him explaining to Finn, expecting agreement.

"The spell works only on the people who presently saw it. Meaning even if they tried, the others can't speak to Loki as they weren't here in the first place. Ergo, what they don't know, won't kill them." Nate bluntly stated. 

Everyone turned to the sound of the hum of the hanger bay doors opening and closing, the annoyed voices of both Astra and Cedric echoing through the hallway to the fact that their investigation had run into a dead end. 

"I can't believe we still haven't found any leads, this is turning out to be very time consuming." Cedric scratched the back of his head, huffing in annoyance whilst walking to the bridge. 

"If it were easy, we wouldn't be dealing with it Ced" Astra spoke, her mind clearly elsewhere, keeping enough attention to keep conversation. An exhausted Aerrow beat the two to the table, sitting with his feet up lounging in temporary defeat.

"We'll get them you guys, don't worry." He sat, closing his eyes.