Realm of Wings

A/n: As promised Meera, here is the next chapter, with the main character... CHARLIE!! 🦝

Charlie the Mandibore:

Spreading his beak wide open in a big yawn and scratching his small paws onto the bark of the tree, Charlie had awoken after a good rest on top of his warm nuts. The sun was peeking in through the canopy of the forest and had warmed Charlie’s body up enough to alert him of the new day.

Last night he had granted the nuts to his maternal caretaker, but apparently, she didn’t need to eat them, so she just threw them away! But they were perfectly good nuts! So, he just jumped right after them and gathered them together in between the roots of this tree. Safe and warm!

Maybe he’ll find some other nuts she likes, he thought while licking his fur trying to get rid of that itch underneath his coat. Or berries! He shot up with this happy epiphany. Yes, berries should be something she likes. Everybody loves berries!

“How do you know she went this way?” He suddenly heard a familiar voice, close by. Charlie’s ears perked up, nearly touching the small, soft antlers on top of his head.

Oh, he is the one that his maternal caretaker sometimes clings close to. Maybe they like each other, but Charlie wasn’t sure. He was sure that she liked Charlie, very much, otherwise, she wouldn’t allow him to sit on her shoulders. So, Charlie was hesitant into believing she could like another creature just as much! After all, the shoulders are an impeccable place to sit on, in his opinion!

Bah! Charlie wasn’t that much happy by seeing him walk here! What if he takes his spot on her shoulders? But before he had thought about it, Charlie had taken hold of one of the nuts under his paws and had thrown it against the man’s head!

“Ow! What the fuck!” He yelled, as soon as he got hit.

Charlie triumphantly squeaked with glee, letting himself roll on his back with his tail in the air. Suddenly, he heard footsteps come closer and he saw the darker coloured caretaker come really close! He jumped up, wrapped his long tail around his nuts and hissed as only Mandibores can! These are his nuts!

“Hi there Charlie!” Dark one said to him, greeting him with a high pitched voice, at which he calmed down. Charlie seemed to have realized that she didn’t want to steal his nuts, so he thought that she maybe could help him get some berries.

Yes! That was a good plan. He was going to go with this caretaker and as soon as he got some berries, he would lead them back to his maternal caretaker, as he could smell her from miles away, to fight for his right on her shoulders again!

Okay, berries, where are you??

Kallan, getting annoyed by Charlie:

“Trixie, I swear, get rid of him before I kill him!” I yelled as I got hit by another nut to my head.

Trixie hollered in laughing, cooing the creature to throw another one of his nuts to my head. “Has the big bad man taken a spot on your mama’s love list?” She said with a fake pout and a strange voice, at which the pet threw another one of his nuts towards me!

This time I saw it coming and luckily dodged the damn thing.

“But how did he get here in the first place?” Trixie suddenly asked, while trying to keep the jealous creature in her arms.

“Well I don’t know, but I do know that we are going in the right direction because we found him here.” Echo said.

I never found a clue as to what direction Jade was being taken to, but Echo’s sense of vibrations and sounds and such, lead him to believe that the cart was going where we were going. And indeed, as we found Charlie here, how much I started to dislike the creature at this moment, it was a confirmation that we were getting closer to her.

However, about every five minutes, he jumped out of Trixie’s arms and went searching in the bushes for I don’t know what. At first, I thought he was trying to find some more nuts, but as he came out empty, each and every time, I not only got annoyed by his nut-throwing skills but also by whatever he was doing inside those bushes.

“We are going too slow, I’m losing track of the vibrations.” Echo said after half an hour and I gruntled, looking towards how the Mandibore again dove inside some new bushes.

“We should be flying, to get back some distance we lost.” I suggested.

“And what? I’m supposed to carry Charlie with me while flying? What if he wants to find more food?” Trixie said.

“Just leave him here! He seems perfectly fine in those bushes! And if he doesn’t like it here, he should have stayed inside the saddlebags of Poseidon! We’ll just tell Jade we never saw him.” I said.

“And make me lie to her again? No way, that’s not going to happen!” Trixie said, curling up Charlie in her arms again, while he finally found some food as his cheeks were both filled to the brim with purple berries.

Trixie seemed to be thinking about what to do, as she agreed to start flying again, but didn’t know what to do with the little pet. But soon he started to yawn again and she figured he could sleep inside her backpack, just as he had done in one of the saddlebags on Poseidon. So, now we were flying again, albeit a little slower as Charlie had grown bigger every day since Jade got him.

Echo was now flying right behind Zeph, to use him for his eyes, and about every minute he used a loud sound to let it reverberate against the ground, to ‘see’ where the cart was going. It was harder for him to focus like this, so it was less accurate, but we at least got further faster. And faster is what we needed right now, as with every minute we tried to catch up to them, Connely was pushing his distance away from us.

“We need to go back a bit, I’ve lost track.” Echo said, showing the lesser accuracy of our strategy.

This happened a few more times, and eventually I thought we were just going in circles.

“We are going nowhere. Maybe we should get to the ground again because I can’t see them in the distance here either.” I suggested, hoping that Echo would agree unless he has a better suggestion.

By now, we had gained some distance but also lost about another hour atop the few hours we had taken at the village to catch up with Echo and to get supplies. But should we decide to follow them on foot, which would be more accurate, we would be slower as well. Besides, we had been travelling without any sleep so we weren’t at the top of our game.

Frustrated I sighed, at which the others did as well. They knew the predicament we were in, but we all still followed Echo as he was the only one who could get us closer to Jade. Without a word he flew downward, guided by Zeph, to land us on the ground again.

“I’m sorry, but this is not going to work. They are too fast for us to go by ground. By now, as we had to divert our direction many times, they are too far away for me to feel anything. Any vibration I’m feeling now could be from anything around us, as we aren’t the only creatures that are roaming these lands.” Echo explained.

I never should have decided to let her go! This was all one big mistake! Madness took over and made me shoot an orb of energy towards a large stone, which got split in two on impact. Some chips of stone flew in everyone’s direction and Trixie had to dodge a bit to avoid being hit, sheltering Charlie in her arms as well.

“Kallan!” She yelled.

“How are we supposed to find her now?!” I yelled angrily and shot another ball of energy towards a dead tree that stood nearby.

The branches shattered and the others took shelter behind their raised arms.

“Kallan, stop!” Trixie yelled again, as I was charging up another ball to incinerate a creature that came to see what the noise was caused by.

But as soon as I was about to launch it off towards the animal, as I couldn’t care less who was in my way to receive my anger, I got hit by a sound blast from Echo, which let my ball of energy course through the air, instead of towards its aimed target. I cursed as I saw the animal scurry off, as it realized the danger he could have been in, was real.

“You can’t just ravage anything in front of you, just because you’re angry!” Echo said.

“Why not?! Those men who took Jade did as well! They just attacked us and kidnapped her! They even killed the little girl’s complete family, just for finding us! So why shouldn’t I just destroy everything in my path to find her?!” I yelled exasperated.

“Oh no, wait!” I continued, laughing hysterically. “Maybe I shouldn’t do that, because as soon as she takes down the rift and heals the tree, she is going to die anyway! Because you don’t have a way of rescuing her!!” I yelled in Echo’s face.

“Kallan-

“She is just going to die, after giving this planet, of which she didn’t even know existed a few weeks ago, her time, dedication and above all, her life!” Okay, that sentence was a bit redundant, but I’m furious!

“I know!” Echo agreed while I paced left and right, waiting for him to say something else. “I know you love her, I know you need her, we all need her! That’s why you shouldn’t listen to her feelings as much! I wanted to guard you against feeling this way about her, as you would be losing her in the end anyway!” He said, not making this situation any better. In fact, it was making my anger rise even more!

I flared my nostrils and stepped closer to him, standing so close in fact that my nose was touching his. “Say one more thing about her.” I dared him while my fists were shaking with fury.

“I will.” He said, getting myself even more ready to launch a punch in his face. “Jade is nothing more than a vessel to conduct energy.” He stated and I rose my hand faster than I could even feel myself.

My fist collided with his face and it send him to the ground. I jumped on top of him and then I punched a volley of fists onto his chest, stomach, face and arms until my knuckles were bleeding from the impact it had sustained. My skin was black, my throat was sore from screaming…

I had drained my body of most of its energy and I felt exhausted after punching Echo this much.

“Are you done now?” It suddenly sounded from underneath me, at which I truly looked towards the man that I had been using as a punching bag just now.

But my confusion rose as even though his face was slightly covered in blood, it wasn’t from any cuts or bruising I had caused in my anger. All the blood on him came from my fists! But how in the world isn’t he hurt in any way?

I quickly jumped up and looked around me to make sure I wasn’t in some sort of illusion. All the trees, the ground, my clothes, my pain, everything seemed as real as before. But the strange thing was, was that Zeph was holding on to Trixie, as she was trying to get to me while looking at me with large eyes. She was just as confused but was also strangely angry with me for becoming this enraged asshole.

But when I switched my gaze back to Echo, his skin glistened with energy and he stood up again. Without a word, he rose the sleeve of his shirt up, energized his right hand and touched his lower left arm, just like Jade did when she revealed her tattoos. I looked downwards and found that Echo had two markings on his arm as well! The one for ‘sound’, as could be expected, and also… the one for ‘protection’. He used a shield exactly the same size as his body, contouring his skin, to make me unaware of the protection he was using, just letting my anger be used upon him, as an outlet of sorts.

He is an Etunadain as well, and according to Jade’s explanation, knowing Echo has the rune of ‘protection’ too, he is probably related to her!

“Are you her father?” I asked him, completely baffled.

“No.” He chuckled. “We don’t know from which generation she is yet, but I’m most likely her cousin.”

If she is family to him, then why is he letting her die this easily? Why isn’t he searching for another solution to her pending doom? I don’t have the energy left to fight him again, even though I am angry still.

“I didn’t tell you because I needed this leverage to subdue your anger which I predicted would unleash any time. Which had to happen, and which indeed happened just now.” He said, only making me scoff and shake my head.

“I know you love her, but when you get this angry, you’re not thinking straight. So take a deep breath and think about what Jade could have done to help you find her. Jade isn’t stupid, she must have left a clue of any sorts, so think!”

“But how can you be like this?” I asked him.

“Later, we will talk later. Just trust that I don’t want her to die either. Now breathe and think because you’re the only one who could truly know.” He said and I took a few heavy breaths.

Zeph stood by Trixie to explain what just happened, as he probably knew already that Echo is an Etunadain but kept his mouth shut about it too. She shook her head in understanding but didn’t like to see me like this as I’m still covered in blood. But Echo was right, Jade isn’t stupid and I have to think.

But what the hell did she leave behind for us to use as a clue?

A/n: Men and asking for directions... right? Sometimes they are just so stupid... sigh