Opposites Attract Pt. 2

Strike of Surprise

Essix tiptoed to the edge of the stone cave where the flickering firelight couldn't catch her. Once she felt that she was out of sight, with two flaps of her wings, she blew the air behind her and took off into the stormy night sky. She wasn't sure if Rollan had seen or sensed her departure, but she didn't care about that too much.

Meilin and Rollan's argument had gone too far, beyond her reach of where she could stop them. Their debate was about their spirit animals, and not wanting to heat the argument, Essix could not take sides. After all, the argument was about her and Jhi.

Essix swerved in the dark night sky and bobbed against the strong winds. Bolts of lightning split and lit up the night sky as the thunder roared behind it.

Essix wondered whether the enormous crocodile, back in their battle, had perished within the clashing of blades. Essix also wondered whether she could get a roasted scrap of the crocodile. Essix licked her lips, no, her beak, while she wondered about how a barbequed piece of crocodile might taste like. She thought, "I could cook it with a bolt of lightning!" She could already imagine herself with a chef's poofy hat and a funny apron, like what the Amayan chefs had, as she cooked with a bolt of lightning.

Suddenly, Essix felt the air tingle as the tips of her feathers began rising. Essix realized, "Thunderbolt!" She dove into safety just in the nick of time as a bolt of lightning crashed down behind her, where she was a second ago. The bolt of lightning tore into the soft dirt, leaving a massive crater behind. Essix rubbed her head with the tip of her wing as she thought, "Be careful what you wish for, or you just might get it." The rumbling storm didn't really bother her; Essix had seen worse before, long before human civilization existed.

The wind continued howling, but its speed began to slow as Essix dipped towards the ground, her wings getting heavier by the minute from pattering rainwater. She drifted lower and lower underneath the canopy of whistling trees. The tips of her feathers brushed some dirt off the ground, before they were washed away immediately by the streams of rain.

With the dying wind, Essix expected to hear the echoes of Meilin and Rollan's argument grow louder, but to her astonishment, she was wrong!

"Too bad," thought Essix, "If they had gotten any louder, then the wolves would hear us, and that would be a good thing, because then Briggan could find us. Actually, what would they do with us, since Rollan and I are still Conquerors? Keep us hostage? Pah! By that time, Sensei Essix would've taught him bird, Kung-Fu moves!" Essix cackled pridefully as she threw some moves from her "birdy Kung-Fu".

Suddenly, Essix heard a roar, before a flash of lightning had sparked.

"Wait, did the thunder just come before the lightning?!" Essix thought, before she suddenly saw a hulking figure stalk out from the dark silhouettes of the trees. Before she could bring herself to a halt, pah! Essix felt herself being batted out of the sky; she hit the ground below her hard, sending pebbles skittering everywhere. And as she blinked and began to lose consciousness, she saw the hulking figure watch her suffer. And just as the lights went out, she heard the true roar of the thunder.