Secret Wings

Chapter 32

Hi!
Apparently you like the recaps, so I'll try to remember to write them!
People will bad memories unite! (There was a date we were supposed to meet, but I forgot it...)

Also the very positive responses to my little early chapter definitely inspire me to have another one someday;)

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Previously in Secret Wings:
The city was lit on fire. Oops. These enemies have apparently never been told not to play with matches.
After a nice sprint which about killed Hailey, the citizens who had remained in the forest reach the other side of a river where they know they can be safe from the flames. Safe... That is except for Anselm and Ian, who went to look for him. These two were still missing, so Bree decided to go look for them.
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Chapter 32

While messengers and bats flew around, rushing to do whatever was asked of them, and Carson and Chase tried to manage everything, I actually didn't have much to do. Everyone was calm, now, and there wasn't anything for me to 'organize,' as Bree said. Farther away, the Elite Archers formed a circle and seemed to be having an important conversation.

I sat with Autumn on the grass, Juno's head resting on her lap, and we tried to distract ourselves of the previous fear of the attack and Anselm's disappearance.

Chase came to sit next to us.

"Good news, girls. The enemy has disappeared into the clouds, and the group who left earlier has just reached the town, with no problems along the way."

Autumn and I smiled in relief.

"Any news of Bree, Anselm, and the man who went after him -Ian, right?" I questioned.

Chase sighed. "No, I-". He was interrupted by the appearance of a bat, which landed docilely on his raised arm.

I scooted away a bit from the sharp, curling fingers and translucid wings, but Autumn reached out eagerly to pet it.

"Why do you use bats anyway? I mean not that pigeons are that awesome either, but at least they're not creepy."

"Aw, don't listen to Hailey, little bat," Autumn said in a baby voice, stroking its furry head. "You're not creepy, you're very cute."

"Come on, Hailey, you've got to admit this one is pretty cute," Chase said, opening the message the bat had brought. "If it was a microbat, with their weird little noses and ears, then sure, I'd understand you calling them creepy, but this is a gray flying fox."

"Personally, I see no resemblance with a fox, and I have no idea what a microbat is."

"Microbats are sometimes called 'true bats,' and look more like the typical image people have of bats. They're the ones that use echolocation and eat insects and other small animals. Vampire bats are microbats, for example," Autumn explained.

"Well, microbats are creepy then," I concluded. "But, wow, how do you even know that?"

"I find these kind of things interesting," Autumn shrugged.

"So, this isn't a microbat?"

"No, it's a megabat, since it's a flying fox, which also means they can see well during day and night. Despite the name, they're not necessarily larger than microbats, though."

"Well, good, the smaller the better. And, no, I do not want to pet it." I eyed the bat distrustfully. "You know what you guys should use? Flying squirrels. Flying squirrels are cute. Of course, it'd be better if you had flying pandas, but..."

Chase excused himself to answer the message, and Autumn and I launched into a long and very pointless conversation about cute flying animals which left us crying with laughter, evacuating the earlier stress.

Our merriment was cut short with the arrival of Bree, however. Ian was with her, carrying in his arms a motionless body.

I jumped to my feet and hurried towards them, taking in Anselm's form in horror.

"What happened?" Someone gasped.

"First off, he's alive, so everyone calm down. I need a healer, though. He was badly burned, as was Ian."

Two people, both healers, apparently, ushered them into the shade of a tree. While the man looked for a healing balm in his bag, the woman diagnosed them quickly.

"Ian has a few second degree burns of partial thickness on his left arm and shoulder, but otherwise nothing serious. Anselm, on the other hand... Well, his burns are more numerous, and his leg broke in two places. He's inhaled lots of smoke as well."

Bree nodded gravely, then explained how she had found them.

"Ian told me he found Anselm in the castle, and forced him to follow him to get back to the forest. There was an explosion from the village, though -that noise we heard, probably."

Personally, I didn't remember any explosions, but at that moment I was probably still trying to run without my lungs bursting.

"That's when they got burned, with the flaming projectiles jumping out of the city, and Anselm probably broke his legs as they ran back to the castle to escape the flames, since he fell and Ian had to carry him."

The atmosphere, which had loosened up after the fire was put out by the city's impressive fire control system, had now darkened again.

The female healer, who had left to go tend to the two men, now came back and addressed me, "Princess, Anselm wants to talk to you."

I nodded and followed her to the tarp they had stretched between four trees to make a sort of elevated bed, about a foot above the ground. Wincing, I turned my eyes away from his mangled right wing and tried to ignore the burns that marked his body and the pungent smell of burnt flesh that made my stomach churn.

Tears prickled my eyes as I crouched next to him.

"Anselm, why did you go back to the castle?" I sniffled.

"I..." His voice was rough and scratchy, and he started coughing. One of the healers offered him some water, and he talked again, his voice just a whisper. "I couldn't risk..." He coughed again, "Couldn't risk them getting their hands on..." He winced in pain as the healer applied a balm to one of his burn. "Pocket," he just said.

"Pocket?" I repeated dumbly.

"Maybe he has something in his pocket?" The healer supplied. Then, after looking, he handed me a small pouch of worn velvet, about twice the size of a tea bag and which one day must have been a rich purple.

"Yes," Anselm coughed, "keep it, Hailey. They can't get their hands on it. It's..." He closed his eyes and my own widened, hoping he had only passed out from the pain. He surprised me by opening his mouth again, however. "Go to Sperodyfis." Then, his body was racked by another cough, and he lost consciousness.

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Yeah sorry, Bree still lives, although I was very entertained (and a bit scared) by your plans to murder her ;)
Anselm, on the other hand, is not in top shape...