The Hovering Ingress: The Hidden World

Chapter 44

Destined Doom

Three Sune Cycles Later

Crackle felt his frilled feathers quiver against the wind as he stared out to the empty barren. Soon Blaze and Morfran would call the battle patrol to gather before being sent off to take flight. He was supposed to go with Raid to the prison cave holding the destined bifers before they did. Then he would help them out to the Ice Region to find Frosten. That is what they decided. They needed to do it tosune.

Quietly the flabir got up from his nest and shook himself, looking up and around to see if the other birds would notice him before sneaking off. His talons softly clicked on the rocky ground as he quickly went into a tunnel, the quickest route he could take to get to the bifers. But wait, he needed something to be an excuse for him to go into the cave.

Cursing quietly to himself, Crackle looked around urgently and plucked a brittle vine from the wall. He didn't understand how the vegetation got there, but he decided that it would be a good enough excuse. He could say that one of them requested for something like it. Having something to go to the bifers for and not wanting to waste time, the flabir quickly took off in the tunnels once more.

As the male quickly came up to the veil over the entrance, he slowed down and cooed to Raid as she came trotting up through the tunnel with more stolen moss. What a reckless rascal she was, it was a healthy amount of rebellion in her. Quietly the two nodded to each other and came up to the two guards. The hypnotized ophoree flicked their ears and turned to them, allowing Crackle to dip his head.

"The bifers needed something to deal with their itches, so I found them a burned vine," he explained, glancing to Raid warily.

The female ophoris then dipped her head, her wings spreading to cast a shadow over her head. An attempt at hiding the moss that worked last time. The two guards stared at her in eerie silence before dipping their heads strangely. The way they moved just didn't seem natural.

"You may enter."

With that Crackle felt the burning feeling of the ability to pass through the veil, quickly adjusting his grasp on the vine and quickly hopping through. Raid calmly followed, then urgently trotted around to look for the felines. Sighing and setting down the burned vine, the flabir lifted his head to the cage. Just peering in for a moment, he found the panther's eyes quickly staring into his own. A chill went down his spine and he stumbled back, widening his eyes at her as she squinted them at him.

After gathering up the other three bifers, Raid calmly came up to the cage and wrapped her chains around it, absorbing the electricity. Xengu quickly flapped her wings to try and boost herself onto the creature's back, though they didn't give any momentum and she fell to the ground with a harsh 'thwap'. Crackle winced a little at the sound before watching as Raid quietly picked the panther up and set her on her back.

The other bifers made sounds of their tongue and rushed over to the panther, who growled softly, not far from what sounded like an ophoris' purr. Raid let out a relieved sigh at the seemingly unharmed winged feline, then looked to Crackle. The flabir perked up and gave a quick nod, feeling his chest begin to burn a little. It was the flames growing inside of them. He had to attack the guards in order to escape with the felines.

Quickly the two beasts ran out of the cave, the burning feeling in the bird's chest releasing in a blast of heat, burning in the guards' direction. Not giving a second thought, they continued forward, onward to freedom. Quickly leaving the tunnel system, they looked around outside to see ophoree running out into the barren field as the sound of a roar echoed from above. A flutter of hope came to Crackle's mind as he saw flabirs trying to join.