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OMGOODNESS.

I love this!!! I love everything you've done with my character, and how you are developing the story Clouded Leopard! And, I love being the sort of "protector" over everybody!!

On the other hand; Ooooh, VOX!!!! YOU MAKE ME WANT TO.... *Clenches fists* We'll save you somehow Ember. . . we'll find a way.

TOP TOP TOP TOP TOP TOP TOP!!!!  

*single tear*

I worked on it for about two hours today...

I'm still not done...

But I will be soon...  

Part 12

~~

“Is anyone else missing the arctic?” Kestrel huffed, wiping her forehead with a hand. The heat was almost unbearable, sweltering and heavy, like she was being drowned underwater. Everywhere she walked the air pressed down on her skin, and it didn’t help that the rainforest was choked so thickly with foliage that it felt like the leafy fronds were clawing at her.

“I’m sure… it’s just a hot day…” Little Reader said back, nearly tripping over a stray vine. Kestrel looked away, not fully agreeing with her. One day they chase off a god, the next they wake up and it’s an oven outside? With a shiver Kestrel was reminded of how much power Vox really had over the world they were in. Some of the others might think it was okay to speak sharply and critically to them, but if Kestrel had learned anything from the books she read, it was just... better to be careful around these kinds of things.

A moan from the back of the group made Kestrel turn her head, and she saw that Ember was looking even worse in the heat, sweat plastering her long hair to her face. She was hobbling along next to St Owl, who was supporting herself by use of a twisted stick. “You doing okay, St?” Eria called back, her scarf loose around her neck. St Owl nodded resolutely, but it was plain to see that she was tiring quickly, and rapidly falling behind the group as she was hindered by her stiffened leg.

“Scylla?” someone murmured next to Kestrel, and Kestrel’s eyes flicked to the side, spotting Claaws leaning towards Scylla. “I think we really should take a pit stop, though. We’re all tired, and hot, and... let’s take a break.”

Slowly Scylla nodded in assent, and she turned back to the rest of the group, raising her voice so she could be heard over the din of the jungle. “Hey, everyone! We’re going to have a rest here, okay?” A groan of relief came up from the group, and everyone flopped on the ground, some even having lain down on the cool earth. Kestrel was about to settle down in the roots of a tree when she heard someone walk over to her.

“Actually, Kestrel… could I ask something of you?” Scylla asked, standing over her. Kestrel nodded, heaving herself up from the tangle of tree roots. “I… well, you’re one of the best tree climbers here, and I was wondering… if you could go up and try to grab a vantage point? Then we could formulate some idea about where we’re even going.”

“Okay, sounds fine to me,” Kestrel said. She was still a little sleepy from the heat, and perhaps the thought of ‘climb into a towering tree and look around’ hadn’t quite sunk in with her yet. A yawn escaped her mouth as she followed Scylla to the foot of a tall tree, and she nearly crashed into her as Scylla stopped suddenly.

“Alright, here it is,” Scylla said, stepping aside. “Be careful, and tell us what you see when you get down.” Nodding, Kestrel shook her head to clear away some of the drowsiness and set to her task. After she had concentrated on the tree in front of her and sized it up, she finally decided that she would start in a patch of moss on the opposite side. Kestrel flexed her arms, then quickly pushed herself up with a burst from one leg, digging her fingernails into the moss and hauling her body up after it. Before she could fall, she swung her foot around and wedged it into a nook in the bark.

Panting, Kestrel managed to maneuver herself around the next branch, digging her foot into the soft bark. She paused for a second, breathing heavily with the effort of holding on, then shot her hand up, grabbing hold of the base of a branch and swinging up. At least I can use all those climbing lessons for SOMEthing, she thought as she carefully edged up the tree. Down below, she could barely hear her friends talking, animatedly discussing some matter. Stopping, Kestrel pricked her ears to listen to them.

“You know, this would be a lot easier if I could just fly up there,” St Owl argued, her stick slung to the side as she leaned against the tree. When Scylla replied, she sounded firm and resolute. Kestrel grinned, having spent enough time with this group to recognize Scylla’s leader voice.

“That’s not an option,” Scylla shot back, holding tightly onto St’s hand. “Come on, St, we’ve gone over this before— you’re a snowy owl, an arctic bird, and this is a blazing-hot rainforest. You’d probably faint after a minute in the air.”

“Rude,” St Owl muttered. “Yet true. Booky’s a bird too, though. She could do it as easily as anyone.” Scylla sighed, clearly having realized the same problem St had.

“I know,” she said, lowering her voice. Oddly enough, though Scylla was now speaking in no more than a whisper, Kestrel could still hear her as clearly as if she was by her side. “But Booksy’s not spending a second away from Ember’s side, no matter what I say. And… well, we all know Booksy isn’t the most comfortable in her owl skin. I don’t want to force her to do something she doesn’t want to.”

“Okay, okay,” St said, and Kestrel could have sworn she’d heard an eye roll. “I get it.”

“I know you do,” Scylla said. “You theorist.”

“No offense taken,” St Owl grinned back, her tone lighter.

    Suddenly someone’s voice rang out inside her skull, and Kestrel scrabbled around on the bark, nearly toppling out of the tree. “Are you okay up there, Kestrel?” Scylla asked, raising her voice to a shout.

“Um,” Kestrel said, clinging onto the trunk as she shivered with fear. “I’m. Perfectly fine. Nearly there, too.” Shaking her head, she continued her ascent up the tree, moving much faster now. After what seemed like an eternity trapped in the leaves and spiky wood, she emerged on top of the canopy, the thin branches trembling under her weight. On the ground her friends called out to Kestrel, asking her what she saw, but for a second Kestrel had no reply as her breath caught in her throat.

Spreading out in front of her was a massive plain of trees, peppered occasionally by copses and glades. If she squinted as hard as possible, she could faintly see white flakes swirling in the wind, blown around by the harsh winter gale. Her hands still clasping the tree trunk, she twisted her torso to look the other way, but all that appeared to be there was a wide sheet of mist, rising too high in the sky for her to see. Kestrel sighed, shivering as the heat dropped away at the top of the tree. The wind was much rougher, too… she had better get down before something happened…

The jolt of wind hit her body like a sledgehammer, flinging her out of the tree as easily as if she were nothing more than a leaf. For a second she was suspended in midair, hanging there like a fallen angel, then her friend’s horrified screams filled her ears, and she began to plummet towards the ground. Just before the crunching impact she could see a tanned shape running and leaping into the air, her black hair streaming out behind her, and she braced her body for the imminent pain—

* * *

“Three…”

Vox grabbed the two charms in their hand, the silvery metal feather clinking together, and carried them over to the fire, peering into it with half-closed reddish eyes.

“Two…”

They watched the two figures plunge towards one another, less than a second from slamming together.

“One.”

* * *

Kestrel saw Scylla’s face an inch from her own, turquoise eyes wide and terrified in light of what she was about to do. In that space of time, Kestrel managed to send one petrified thought of an apology through her brain, tinged with fear, but in the next a sudden warm feeling spread throughout her chest, a searing-hot flash tracing along her shoulderbones. Then her body collided with Scylla’s, and waves of agony crackled inside her, burning in her nose and arms and chest.

Oddly enough, though, as this happened Kestrel’s body seemed to soften, her arms to stretch out and the world around her to sharpen, like a magnifying glass. Instinctively, Kestrel’s shoulders began to work, rotating in a tight circle, and surprisingly…

...she began to rise. Dizziness still pounded at her head hard enough to knock her unconscious, but she figured it was safe to open her eyes. Blinking, she nearly dropped out of the sky at the sight she saw. She was higher than the treetops, and far above the group. Wondering why, she shot a glance down and started to see two gray-speckled wings in her face. It only took a second for her to realize she could move them, and the next that she was now in possession of a charm. She tried to look to her side but found her neck wouldn’t turn that way, she instead she tilted her wingtip slightly and wheeled around, scanning the ground. A few feet away, staring right at her with piercing teal eyes, was a bald eagle. “Scylla?” Kestrel asked, only nothing came out but a birdlike squawk. Still, Scylla seemed to understand who it was, and blinked in return.

A second passed as the two birds hung in the air, wings beating up and down, then a sudden shudder ran through Kestrel’s body, and with a pop she changed back into a human in midair. “Acck!” she spluttered, hardly enough noticing the fall as she wiped her skin off, covered with some strange chill. Then, suddenly remembering, she grabbed the charm and swept down to the ground as bird, immediately changing back once she landed. “Eww…” she moaned, still unsure of why she felt like this.

“Kestrel!” someone yelped, and Kestrel turned to see Danie stumbling towards her, followed closely by the rest of her friends. “Ah, jeez— what on earth was that?” Kestrel didn’t reply, only held the necklace up by the chain, showing off the glinting figure of the bird in the sunlight. “What is that?”

Kestrel looked at it more closely, trying to identify the pattern on the bird’s sculpted head and wings. “...some kind of falcon? I dunno.” A crash behind her back drew her attention away, and she twisted around to see a pile of brown and white feathers collapsed on the ground, which quickly sat up as Scylla, more disheveled than Kestrel had ever seen her before. It was almost hard to suppress laughter as Scylla stood up, slightly wobbling, with her long hair caught in her face. Huffing, she pulled it back, her eyes alight with excitement.

“That was incredible!” she breathed, quickly pumping her fist. “I—I actually flew! That was insane!” She had grabbed her head in her hands, tangled black hair leaking through each finger. Kestrel did agree, but hesitantly so; it had felt… well, unnatural to be like that. The way that she could no longer move like she was used to, operate her limbs like she knew how… she glanced over at Booksy Owly, and their eyes met for a split second. ...let’s just say Kestrel now understood Booksy’s hesitance to take her owl form again.

Kestrel sighed, though, because she knew that she would put all that aside for something that everyone needed. And judging by the gleam in her eyes, Scylla already had conjured up a plan to make use of her and Kestrel’s newfound forms. “Kestrel!” she shouted, bounding over to Kestrel, who stepped back, a little uncomfortable at all the attention. “We’re a—an eagle and a falcon, do you know what this means?” Not waiting for Kestrel’s answer, she rushed onwards, her words tumbling from her mouth. “We can fly higher than anyone else can, we could go above the sky, above the clouds, above— everything! We could finally see what the whole Garden looks like!” Kestrel felt her eyes widen. The thought had never even crossed her mind, but now that Scylla was saying it out loud some of her friend’s excitement poured over into her body, lighting her up.

“Well…” Kestrel said, still a little hesitant. “Okay. Let’s do it.” Scylla’s face split into a grin, and she grabbed Kestrel’s arm, dragging her over to a tree and crouching down, one hand hovering over her eagle-shaped charm.

“Ready?” Scylla asked, turning to look at Kestrel, who nodded in affirmation. Breathing in deeply, Kestrel grabbed the falcon charm around her neck at the same time Scylla did, and in the next second two birds were soaring into the sky. Kestrel shivered, the odd feeling of having her body stretched and flipped still lingering. Glancing down, weightlessness filled a pit in her stomach as she saw the Garden expanding outwards below her for miles on end, the blanket of mist still high above her head. Although, wait— what did Vox call it? Some weird word, like… falling… oh, right, Fallacia! And then they’d mentioned Latin, like it was some… codeword?… Oh, well, Kestrel thought. It’s not important. Angling her body, she shifted in the wind until she was riding it upwards, sailing on an updraft. She had to admit, flying felt—just incredible, like she could do anything she wanted to.

Next to her, Scylla suddenly cawed, and Kestrel looked left to see her friend pointing her beak upwards. Kestrel only had a second to react as the two plunged into the misty barrier. Sputtering, Kestrel slammed her eyes shut, as she couldn’t see anything when they were opened anyways. A damp chill wetted her bones and weighed down her body, encircling her like fog. Only a few more seconds, Kestrel thought, having no idea if Scylla was still anywhere near her. With a choking gasp she erupted from the cloudbank, water shedding off her feathers like raindrops.

“What the…” Scylla murmured. Kestrel jolted, surprised. She hadn’t thought she could talk to anyone, or anyone could talk back, while she was a bird. Scylla looked equally shocked, and opened her beak again to test it out. “Kestrel?”

“Scylla!” Kestrel said in relief, beating her wings to maintain her position in the air. “Oh man, I thought I couldn’t speak at all in… uh, this form.” Scylla cocked her head, teal eyes sharp.

“I guess we’re both speaking bird-language,” she replied, tilting her wingtips to catch the wind that sent her swooping into the sky. Turning her head as far she could, she called back to Kestrel, “Come on, let’s go higher and see if we can see something. Maybe the whole Garden even.” Kestrel nodded and fluttered up besides Scylla, her razor-sharp vision already scanning the sky.

Finally the last wisps of clouds scattered from her wings, and she found herself gaping as she stared out over an absolute expanse of land, with a dark green patch just below them. Kestrel felt a giddy shiver run through her as she realized that was the enormous jungle she had been in not twenty minutes ago. “Hey,” Scylla said, drawing Kestrel’s attention to her friend. The eagle was staring out at somewhere Kestrel hadn’t been paying attention to. As Kestrel squinted harder, she realized that it was an odd smear in sky. At first she might have passed it off as some kind of bird, or at least a mountain, but now she realized it was colored in shades of vibrant red and electric purple, nothing that would ever occur naturally. She glanced over at Scylla and saw the gears inside her friend's mind turning.

Suddenly Scylla’s head snapped up, and she wheeled around to Kestel in midair, her eyes bright. “Kestrel!” she said excitedly. “Is it possible that—” But before she could finish her sentence, out of nowhere a screaming gale of wind blew up again, slamming into Kestrel’s chest and hurling her off the currents. Kestrel let out an instinctive cry, her wings twisted so she couldn’t set herself right in the air. As she fell for the second time that day, painful irony adding to injury, the wind swirled around her ears, forming into words. They were hissed, snarled in the same fashion Kestrel had heard from a certain voice so many times.

“Don’t ruin the game, now!” it snapped as the wind forced she and Scylla back into the cloudbank, ejecting them out on the bottom side. Kestrel furiously struggled in the air, her wings beating frantically as she tried to right herself. She’d nearly splattered on the ground once today; she didn’t need to do it again.

After a few nerve-racking moments, Kestrel’s wings shot out, a joint clicking into place, and she swept skywards again, though she was careful not to plunge back into the cloudbank. Slowly she maneuvered her way back onto the ground, until she collapsed face-first on the forest floor as a human, her head spinning with dizziness and adrenaline. Immediately her friends rushed over, all talking at once, but Kestrel could only stammer out, “S-sorry… but… sleep…” before her head dropped onto her chest, exhaustion overtaking her.

Unfortunately, when one falls solidly asleep in the middle of the day, they tend to wake up in the darkest hour in the middle of the night. After being lost in a thick, heavy darkness for what she thought was the entire night, Kestrel found herself sleepily blinking her eyes open. Morning already? she thought, her mouth stretching in a wide yawn. But as soon as she really opened her eyes and looked around, she realized that she could barely see anything, stars were glowing in the sky overhead, and all of her friends around her were slumped over the ground, snoring under their breath.

Kestrel moaned and sat up, feeling stupid and annoyed at herself. Sure, she had been tired, but she was more than familiar with effects like jet lag that left her sitting up, wide awake, in the dead of night. Yet here she was, and she knew there was no way she would be falling asleep again anytime soon. Might as well get up, and… oh! As she stood up, feeling her way around in the darkness, a sudden thought struck her, one from the previous day. It was a nebula-like smudge in the sky, in shades ranging from red to violet to a painfully bright orange. Her heart began to pound as she realized that she could go up there again, on her own, and this time Vox might not even notice her, or maybe they would think she was just another bird.

Doubt whispered at Kestrel’s mind, whiningly reminding her of the dangers and difficulties this would pose, but for once Kestrel ignored it, striding to the edge of the clearing while making sure to not step on her friends. True, it was terrifying being stuck in this seemingly endless Garden with an insane god controlling them all, but in a way… it had helped her for the better. She was no longer afraid to do things that could possibly hurt her, or take risks that could do either.

And she was glad about that.

Breathing in deeply, Kestrel reached for the charm around her neck, and in another second a black-and-grey speckled bird was winging its way into the sky, shooting up so fast it was nearly a blur of motion. Even in the darkness Kestrel could see the cloud barrier above her, and just before she hit it she took a deep breath and put on a burst of speed, barrelling through the clouds so fast they cleared around her body. She was pure adrenaline and exhilaration now, nothing but a shooting arrow of feathers.

Finally, though, as she began to see stars overhead, she pulled her wings inwards and slowed, only releasing them when she began to fall. Hovering in the air for a moment, she looked around until she spotted the colors, glowing in the sky like a lighthouse. Rising until she caught an updraft, Kestrel flew over to the smear. As she neared it, she began to see that it wasn’t just a blur of colors— it was… a portal. She’d recognize that eddying whirl of energy anywhere. Uncomfortably she covered her eyes with a wing, shielding her eyes from the explosive light. Kestrel had to eventually turn away as she stalled in the air, decisions piling on top of each other in her mind.

What should she do now?

She hadn’t really thought about what would happen next— she han’t even assumed she would be able to get this far. For a second Kestrel waited, unable to do anything, until she remembered her earler revelation about being a changed person. She swept her wings up one more time, inhaling a deep breath, then whipped around, her eyes squeezed tightly shut, and plunged directly into the center of the portal.

Weightlessness enveloped Kestrel’s body, and she felt herself spinning around like she was caught in a washing machine, on run cycle. Kestrel felt bile rise in the pit of her stomach, and she held her breath, willing herself not to release it. For what seemed like hours she was revolving, her eyes filled with blindingly bright colors, until she began to spin slower, the colors fading to a glimmering sunset. Then Kestrel opened her eyes, and she was in a garden.

Not the Garden, of course; she had a feeling she’d left that long behind. But a new one, a darker one. Kestrel’s hand flew to her throat as an odd claustrophobic feeling pressed down on her. It felt like she couldn’t breathe, like she was trapped between encircling walls. The sky overhead twinkled with a moon and stars, but they looked like they’d been stuck on with glue, fake and faintly fluorescent. A circle of trees stood around her, their trees branches the only thing blocking the starlight. They looked... dark and ominous, with black bark and wide trunks, like they were holding something captive. The grass beneath her feet was dewy and sharp, and hurt a bit to stand on. Nothing much else was there, Kestrel noted—except for the two bonfires, flickering in the middle of the area and lighting it up with a reddish glow. Mesmerised, Kestrel began to walk towards the two fires, noticing that one of them was smaller than the other, and much weaker. Was that…

...Ember’s fire?

Was this where Vox lived?

Vox! Kestrel thought excitedly, immediately stepping lighter and quieter to conceal her presence. Finally, after all this time they spent hiding in shadows and behind the wind, Kestrel herself would be able to see what the god looked like, who they really were. Just up ahead, something stirred by the fires, a silhouetted figure illuminated by the flames. It was only then that Kestrel realized that she was a human now, no longer a falcon. Oh, well-- she’d cross that bridge when she came to it. Lowering her body until she was crouched on the ground, she slowly began to creep closer until she could see them…

...what?!

Shock pierced Kestrel’s head like a bullet as she recognized the hair, the eyes, the small and slender frame. But-- no, no, that was impossible! They were missing, they were gone, dead--

SNAP.

Kestrel looked down in horror to see that she’d stumbled backwards, her foot cracking onto a stray stick that had been littered about the room’s floor. The figure by the fireside whipped around, their pale eyes wide with terror.

“Ic--” Kestrel couldn’t even finished her sentence before the figure shouted a string of words, desperately flinging their arm at her.

“Linguam tacet et duratus tua manos!” they spat, and Kestrel saw a tiny flash of light, like an electric shock recieved from wool, and then her mouth was filled with lead, dragging at her like a dead-weight and bringing a horrible choking feeling. As Kestrel spun around and began to sprint back for the portal, she frantically stuck her hand inside her mouth, trying to clear away the sticky lead filling it.

But her hand only landed on her tongue, with nothing but empty air inside. Quickly Kestrel withdrew her hand, shaking the saliva off it, but she could barely think right now for her confusion, and as she was about to stumble wearily into the portal a sudden blast of air slammed into her from behind, and she was catapulted headfirst into the vortex.

Once again colors pulsed around her, thickening her mind and brightening her eyes. Kestrel let everything slide off her, all the weariness, utter confusion, and the sickening betrayal. Finally she was spat out the other side, a human girl plummeting through the air as the newly-risen sun glowed behind her. It felt like she could have just fallen asleep again right then and there, but somehow she summoned the energy to seize her talisman and flutter away as a falcon. Wearily she blinked her eyes and spotted her friends dashing around the makeshift-camp they’d put together, clearly searching for her.

Exhausted again, Kestrel dropped to ground, landing in the middle of the clearing as a human harder than she would have like. Her friends scattered around her like ripples spreading from a rock chucked into a lake, then quickly collected around her again.

“Where on earth did you go?!” Danie snapped, her dark blonde ponytail swinging as she stormed up to Kestrel. “When I woke up in the morning and saw your spot deserted, I thought you’d been eaten by one of those-- stupid jaguars!” Though Kestrel knew Danie meant well, she felt a little annoyed that she assumed Kestrel’d flown up there for no reason. She’d had a perfectly good one, and--

A sharp and painful memory crackled though Kestrel’s mind, a mission she had nearly forgotten in her sleepy deliria. Pushing Danie off of her, ready to reveal the deadly secret, and opened her mouth to speak.

Silence was thick in the air as Kestrel’s jaw hung open, and though she moved it as much as she could, gasping for words, nothing came out. The rest of friends stood, horrified, as Kestrel dropped to the ground on her hands and knees, bursting from the inside out with unspoken words. With shaking hands she scrabbled around in the dirt, trying to scratch out words, but nothing worked, nothing happened. Kestrel clawed at the ground, at her throat, trying to force language up until tears dripped down her cheeks.

But no matter what she did, she knew it was all for nothing. She knew the Latin language, she had studied it in school and poured hours into the complicated structures and rules.

‘Linguam tacet et duratus tua manos.’

‘Your tongue is silent, and freeze your hands.’

Vox had taken her words.

And… only she had seen them.

Only she knew what had happened in the tiny, star-dusted room.

And there was no way she could tell anyone.