Soaring (Soaring Saga #1)

☆Chapter Eight~We Find The Depressing Tree People☆

    10:30 pm, hours after the sun set. It's time.

     I rolled out of the bed quietly. I shook Audra awake, and she opened her eyes quick and wide. Maybe she was never sleeping. 

     I gestured to the window. She silently nodded and stood up, fully clothed already. She had her pale denim jacket, silver leggings, and a reddish-pink crop top over her purple long sleeve dress. I however had used some of Neil's clothes, and even though they were a little big, the jeans and green tee fit okay under my newly washed jacket. I fluffed up the grey fake fur at the cuffs a little.

     I tiptoed over to the window and slid it open. Audra and I winced as it screeched a little. Suddenly the room was filled with cold November wind whisking in from the outside world. Since the wind up in the air is extremely cold, especially in wintertime, Avians have a better tolerance to cold, so I felt pretty good. I hopped up on the windowsill, crouching like a frog and trying not to fall.

     Audra handed me the two backpacks full of clothes, snacks, water canteens, a map, some pens, some elastics, and even some stuff to defend ourselves. Don't ask why we need pens and elastics, I'm just a girl bein' prepared. Hey, I was in Norges Speiderforbund, which for all ya people not from Noway, is the Norwegian Guides and Scouts Association, and is just Girl Guides/Scouts over up here.

     I slid the loose bag on my back, and then sprouted out my wings from the slits I had made earlier in my jacket. I slipped them through the straps with my arms, and made sure it was comfortable and working before I took a deep breath and silently jumped out the window. The perks of having Barn Owl wings, they're very flexible and quiet. I did a sweep of the backyard where the window let out, then once I got back to the window Audra was outside, hovering by it. She nodded to the front and we slipped around the house.

Someone whistled in a certain pattern. Neil. I made the same whistle back to him. We met up right in front of the house, the other two waiting with bags as well.

"Alright, is everyone ready?" Neil asked.

"As much as I'll ever be, which is not at all. I still can't believe we're doing this," Audra said, genuinely jittery. Her eyebrows scrunched and tilted her head down, "But... but I'll go do this with you guys. For our parents, and for Roxy."

"That's the spirit!" I encouraged, nudging her shoulder. A small smile flashed across her face, but then faded.

"Well, I for one am quite ready!" Neil exclaimed, hopefully not too loudly, "I left a note on the table telling Dad that we were going to take you two home, and that we'd be back soon. He still doesn't know that Roxy's gone, because he'd insist on me staying in the house until we find her, and he'd tell the Terrus and they'd send out all kinds of search parties and no one would probably look in the Mountains and then no one would find her and I'd never see any of you again and---"

"Whoa, dude, slow down, no one is getting confined to houses and no one is gonna know until she was gone we find her and bring her back. Kay? We'll all be fine, and we're gonna find her," Ari tried to calm him down, but I could kinda see a hint of doubt in Ari's eye's. I was trying to be positive too. 

"Alrighty then, Miss Inner Compass, which way do we go?" Audra asked.

"So... northwest..." I thought for a minute, trying to almost feel my way to the mountains, "that way!" and took off. The others followed closely. 

     And there we went off, our quest beginning.

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