Fledging

Chapter 17

AN: Hellooooo people! Yes, another chapter is up!  It's quite a bit longer than normal (over two pages more!)  AND... tons of new surprising revelations, I can't stress enough how much your mind will probably be blown this chapter ;)... I think at least (and hope).  PLEASE let me know what you think in the comments below and vote if you like it!  Enjoy! :D

Chapter 17

                A few hours later we had left the village far behind, Kenneth riding on his horse while Alida and I walked.  Well, he was more lying on the beast than anything, resting against the horse’s powerful neck as he tried to recover from his ordeal.  Tafari had seemed reluctant to let us go, I almost had to fight for our supplies before she gave them up.  Of course there was less than there had been, the tents had been destroyed when our trio had been ambushed.  Thankfully those who attacked us had decided to take the rest of our things as well as the horse with them, probably thinking about splitting up the spoils amongst themselves.  Besides that, there hadn't been much trouble, but as I left I caught something in her eyes that made me shudder, I couldn't tell what it was, but I didn't like it.

                We walked for as long as we could, trying to make as much distance from the village as possible in one day.  Soon, the sun was beginning to sink beyond the horizon and, exhausted from our pace, decided to stop for the night.

                “We should be there about mid-day tomorrow if we leave at sunrise here,” Alida said, surveying they sky and land around us as she spoke.

                “Good, I hope we won’t get there too late, I feel like there will be much to talk about before the day is over tomorrow.”

                “I’m sure there will be.”  Alida paused and seemed to be deep in thought.  “I feel as though tomorrow will be eventful for us.”

                “What do you mean?” I asked, eyeing her curiously.

                “I am not sure, and whether or not it is for the better, I do not know.”

When she wasn’t forthcoming with any more information on her new thought, I stared into the growing flames of the fire we had just built.

Kenneth was sitting slumped up against a large boulder, already snoring softly.

I glanced over at him and then back at the fire, what was I returning to tomorrow?  What would it be like?  I had heard from Alida and Tafari that my old home was now a shadow of what I remembered, would we be welcomed?  Or would we be forced out of the only home I had truly known?

With those unsettling thoughts I curled up around the fire, my wings acting as a blanket and drifted off into a restless sleep.

                The next morning, I rose with the sun.  Standing up, I stretched all of my limbs and moved to wake the others.  Alida rose as soon as I called her name, she hopped down from her rocky perch and helped me gather things up for our journey.  Kenneth was more reluctant to get up.

                “Uh uh,” he groaned, flipping around so his back faced me when I tried to wake him.

                “We have to go, get up Kenneth.”  I scowled down at the man as he shook his head and muttered something incoherently.

I muttered something myself and scraped my talon on the ground in frustration.  Suddenly, the section of ground that Kenneth was lying on twitched and jolted up with a slight groan, raising into the air by a downy feather’s length.  Kenneth yelled in surprise as he scrambled away on all fours, turning around to face me when he was far enough away.  I stared in shock at the mound of earth that was still raised higher than the surrounding dirt.