Shifting Sands (A WOF Fanfiction)

Chapter Five- A Failed Mission

Scorpion

     Scorpion twitched her tail at the spider that was slowly inching its way towards her wings, and a fat chickadee exploded out of the foliage at her talons. Talons and tails, I hate this stupid pine forest. Why would anyone want to live here? Give me a nice desert any day. She had followed Oryx and the Rainwing inside the Frosted Pine forest from a distance a couple of hours ago, occasionally ducking down behind hills and tree clusters so that they wouldn't know they were being followed as they winged their way through the forest. 

Now she was here, sitting with nothing to do except keep waiting for nightfall, which would be the best time for her to sneak in through the open window. Orion shifted through her thoughts again, just like he had been for hours now. What had he been in Sanctuary for? Maybe he just lives there and wanted to check out the hybrid watching a bunch of dragons play music. Maybe I'm just being stupid, and trying to read between the lines everywhere, even when there's nothing to read. A wildcat yowled somewhere in the distance, and she shook her head. I need to focus. I have a job to do, and I can worry needlessly later. It's finally twilight, so I really have to get my best game on, and swirling thoughts won't help me do that.

    Oryx and the Rainwing were eating now, and Scorpion could hear random bursts of laughter and snippets of conversation from her hiding spot. It sounded like the Rainwings' name was Mack-something, although she still couldn't be sure. It doesn't matter what his name is. Her aunts' voice rang in her head like a bell, drilled into her through years of training, lessons, and practice. Don't get to know the target before , it'll just make everything so much harder to do. And never, never, get attached to the target. 

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Finally the sun gave way to the moon, and the forest was immersed in darkness and a bitter chill that seemed to claw its way through Scorpion's body and tear through her bones, her tail, her everything, until she was left to be nothing but a cold, bleak shell. Let's just get this over with already. The fire inside the hut had gone out a while ago, and there was a faint snoring sound coming from inside. She unfurled her tail and wings and stretched for the first time in hours. I've done this so many times before, yet I still hate sitting there for this long. 

    On silent wings Scorpion glided across the cleared space to the small hut and landed on the wooden roof with a soft thump. She perched outside of the window and peered inside. A dying fire popped and crackled from inside of a sunk-in fire pit, and the were a few bundles of drying plants and berries hung outside of a makeshift kitchen. There was a walled-off partition that cut the rounded space in half, and behind it was where the snores were coming from. Scorpion gently lowered herself down through the window and touched down inside of the hut. 

Creeping towards the walled partition, she opened a small bag that hung by a cord around her neck, and took out a sharpened metal disk that gleamed deadly silver in the moonlight. Jackal had given her a set of three for her fourth birthday, and they were some of her favorite weapons for assassinations after her pair of large chakrams, of course. But those wouldn't be necessary for this job. She closed and tightened the bag with a soft clink, and continued towards the sound of snoring. Around the corner, she could just make out two dark forms sleeping across the room from one another. Closing her eyes, she took a couple deep breaths, just the way that Jackal had told her to. In, out, never seen, never heard. Make this a clean kill.  Her shadow flitted across the room, pausing slightly as she examined the dark form of the Rainwing, and dismissed him. He's not who I'm here for.  

    But he was. Oryx's tail was flicking back and forth as he dreamed, and he was the one snoring. Eesh. How is he not waking himself up?  How does his friend sleep through this?  She crept closer, gently stepping over his barbed tail, and lowered the disk toward his throat. It would be so easy to do this. To snuff out his life like a candle, and it would be like he was never even here. Suddenly a bird shrieked outside, and his eyes flicked open, staring at her in dazed confusion, and then, as he felt the metal against his throat, fear. But his eyes, they were... they were just like Kiangs',  right before he had left her alone in the desert, gone back to save her from the hybrid hunters. Scorpion's breath caught as she just stared at his twilight eyes, flashes of fire and death in her mind, paralyzing her with memories. But then he blinked and whacked her in the face with his wing, and she roared, mostly because of annoyance and shock, not really pain. Across the room the Rainwing was jumping up and staggering around, trying to see what was happening. Moonspit!  

"Oryx, what's going on?!" He hollered in the confusion. Scorpion fled back to the kitchen and launched herself out the window, winging away through the trees. Well, winging was a generous term. It was really more like trying to run through an obstacle course while blindfolded.  Thrice-cursed  forest! Impossible to fly!  She grabbed a branch and used her momentum to flip over it, relying on the darkness to conceal her. Scorpion froze, becoming absolutely motionless, and watched the silhouettes of Oryx and Macaque inside the hut, outlined by the light of a now-lit candle. Now what?  Scorpion forced herself to quiet her breathing and sat there for many minutes, thinking as she watched the two males gain their bearings. They wouldn't be going back to sleep tonight, she knew, so there was no point in staying here longer. A decision formed in her mind, and maybe even a plan. She turned and made her way up to the topmost branches of the tree, surveying the pointed tips of the trees, powdered with glistening snow. This forest had been well named. She shivered from the cold, then lifted off and soared back in the direction of Sanctuary.