The Hider

Chapter Twelve

The sun rose, and I was searching thoroughly for Lizre, but unable to find her. Who knows, she might've made her way back to the camp. Giving up, I then decided to head back to the camp, and of course, she was there, helping the others pack up. I then joined them and we started to follow the tooth in silence. We walked across the desert, with our weapons at the ready in case we got attacked again.

Getting tired of the silence, I finally broke it.

"So, how exactly are we approaching this bird once we get there?" I asked all of them. They just shrugged their shoulders and stayed in silence as we kept walking. I then joined the silence again. We started to get faster, since we were hearing sounds, not knowing where they were coming from.

"Okay, since nobody else is coming up with a plan, I say we try to-" I was cut off by a giant shrill. It was the Wastebird. It flew over our head, not yet knowing that we were there. The tooth then turned right around, but we didn't need it because we saw the bird. We started to chase after it, but not yet shooting, because Steph wasn't in its claws. We needed to find out where it put her. 

It was flying faster than our running, though, so we soon lost it, but we still knew it's direction, hopefully. We kept going north because that was where the tooth was pointing, but then it started to point downwards as well. All we could do was go north. Soon enough, the tooth was pointing downwards more than it was pointing north. 

All of a sudden, my shirt was grabbed and I got yanked backward. I fell onto the ground and turned around. 

"What the hell?" I asked angrier than anything else. Lizre then pointed forwards and I looked where she was pointing. I was sitting near the edge of a cliff. That's why the tooth was pointing down. 

I crawled to the edge of the cliff, but as I did, the Wastebird flew straight up, almost biting my face off. It then cawed and swooped down for us. Trech shoved Gretchen and himself down while Lizre jumped out of the way and I just sat there. I then quickly scrambled to look to the bottom of the cliff before the bird came for a second swoop down.

I looked down and saw a nest halfway down the cliff, and lying there still was Stepharie. I was about to yell down, but I heard the bird caw again. I turned around to look at the others.

"Steph is in a nest halfway down the cliff. We need to get her," I told them. The Waste bird then started to come back this way.

"Well, what do we do?" Gretchen asked. Before I could answer, the Wastebird swooped down over us again, but this time, it was getting closer to the ground, so closer to us. Knowing that the bird wouldn't stop until it got a hold of all of us, I made a quick decision. I pushed myself off the edge of the cliff.

I heard Gretchen and Lizre yell at the same time, but I couldn't do anything about it. I felt the wind fly around my body as I looked down, and tried to prepare myself for the landing. I soon realized that I was a little too far left to the right, so I put out my arms, ready to catch the nest. I grabbed it, but the impact almost made me lose it. 

I tried to pull myself up, but I wasn't quite strong enough. One of my hands then started to slip, so I groped around looking for a better place to grab. I then heard the Wastebird caw, and looked up. It had turned into a bullet, speeding down to get me. 

Suddenly, my hands were grabbed by another set of hands, and they pulled me up into the nest. It was Steph. I then climbed into the nest and gave her a big hug. After we got out of the embrace, the Wastebird extended its claws and swiped at us. I didn't get hit by the claws, but the gust of wind from the bird flew me against the side of the nest, and I heard a giant crack. I then realized I didn't hit the nest. I hit an egg. I then crawled away from it, running into Steph. She then grabbed me and turned me around.