Overruled

Chapter 4: Hero Brother

Nicholas had followed his fellow students down to the river bank. He had stayed in the trees so they wouldn't know that he followed them. He had made the mistake of following them and scaring Judith before. Rainwing venom hurts, a lot.

He heard the whole exchange between bis brother and the strange Icewing before she crossed the river. He figured everyone on Pantala had heard the exchange considering how loud Jr. yelled. He was surprised when Jr. not only wasn't scared of the Icewing, but knew her name. Snowdrift was it?

When Snowdrift had crossed the river, another Icewing did to. He circled around and used the few trees around as the river as cover. Nicholas kept a close eye on both of them, not an easy task for anyone who wasn't trained to. Thankfully, that was one of his favorite lessons and he actually payed attention during it.

Nicholas was now watching the exchange between his siblings. Judith was leaning back on her haunches and had her talons on Jr's shoulders.

As soon as he responded to her question, the hidden Icewing attacked, but so did Nicholas.

The Icewing went for his siblings' throats. Before Nicholas got to him, he raked his serrated claws across them and dropped them to the ground. Nicholas went for the Icewing's throat and wings. Grabbing onto the Icewings front legs with his back talons and using his wings and tail to steady himself, Nicholas bit the Icewing's neck and tore his wings in the same movement. The Icewing roared in pain and shock. Nicholas dropped down to the ground and got into a battle stance. The Icewing shook his head looked at his attacker. There was blood running down his neck and some from his wings. There was also blood on his talons, red blood, Nicholas's siblings blood. Nicholas risked a glance at Judith and Jr. They were laying in a pool of their own blood.

Nicholas heard wingbeats behind him and hoped that it was reinforcements for him and not his enemy. He looked back to the Icewing who had a look of pure hatred in his eyes.

"Nightwing." he said, almost like the word tasted bad to him.

"I prefer to go by Nicholas, but yes I'm a Nightwing." he responded. He tried to sound calm so the his opponent couldn't use his fear and anger to his advantage.

The Icewing looked as if he was going to say something, but was cut off by a knife being thrown at is throat. The Icewing tried to scream but only managed to force his own blood out of his mouth.

Nicholas turned around to see his parents, Deer, Starseer, Blueberry and Raspberry behind him. All of them except for Blueberry and Raspberry looked furious. The other two were green with fear. Blueberry spotted Jr. and Judith and made a beeline for them followed closely by his daughter.

Nicholas walked over to where his parents had came out of the forest. His parents, were walking up to the remaining Icewing, Snowdrift.