Hello and thank you for opening my story. I thought that the Silverwing section could profit from some more stories, so here's one about Shade's father, Cassiel.
Any and all advice is welcome.
Chapter 1: Treachery
It had been a bad idea from the beginning, a well intended idea, but a bad one nonetheless. Sure, go recon the Human Building. And sure, go alone, making those who do know about the venture promise silence. What had he thought to achieve? Now he was trapped, and, even if the building hadn't been a trap, what would he have done? Oh Cassiel, he told himself, you screwed up big time.
Crunch crunch went the Human's boots on the snow. Cassiel's ears stood up, drinking in the sounds of the outside. Pushing his way through several other bats, he reached the wall of his cage and peered out one of the breathing holes. Jolted up and down, he saw trees just beyond the Human Building, laid thick with fresh powder. He took several deep breaths of the cold air. Then, a particularly harsh bounce of the Human's step scrambled the bats inside the box. Thrown around like ragdolls, the discs on their stomachs bounced harmlessly off their furry bodies.
Cassiel found himself forced to the box's center, to its warmest and most crammed area. He was thankful for the heat, but not the claws and wingtips that poked and prodded him. Oh, how he wished to break this cage and soar off into the wintertime forest, but months of experience had taught him the futility of trying to force his way through man-made things. No, the best thing to do was conserve strength. He had to wait for an opportunity, even though he was sick of waiting.
He knew what the discs did, and he knew that the Humans were using them. The discs explode. They are making us into tiny fire-starters. The power of fire, terrible and wicked, was sown to his belly, and he couldn't escape it.
Being a Silverwing of exceptional build and strength, Cassiel had been selected as a disc tester. He and representatives from several other species were the first to have discs sown to them and tags put on their ears. Frightened, not knowing what to think, they had quickly submitted to the voice in there mind. Go here. Go to this mark. And they had all gone there.
Fate, Cassiel remembered, had been kind to him that day. His disc had been a dud. He had landed, and nothing had happened. The voice had continued to drone--go here. But he had. Now what? The Humans with their white cloaks and nets had come in and taken him out. But, as he was being carried past other testing sites, he looked through the glass doors and saw other bats land, their discs erupting in fire, the flames reflecting off his glossy eyes. Other Humans traveling the halls had opened these transparent doors, and Cassiel had heard the bats' dying screams ringing in the air. He had seen it all, heard it all. He knew of the treachery of Humans.
The crunch crunch of the snow was replaced by the clunk clunk of boots on concrete. The frigid cold was gone and stale air that stank of metal and oil took its place. We're inside, thought Cassiel. Harsh, artificial light seeped in through the breathing holes instead of tender moonlight.
The change frightened some of the bats, and they began to cry nervously. The Humans were speaking above them with slow, deep tones. Cassiel could hear other bats, voices from outside his box.
"Calm down! Quiet!" he shouted.
Some complied, but most paid Cassiel no heed. Annoyance flashed in his chest. Back in his colony he was respected and obeyed. There, he was a figure of authority. Here, he was just another set of wings.
Suddenly, the box dropped. The familiar sway of the human carrier was gone. The box was fixed in place, and the light was shut out. Quickly adjusting to the dark, Cassiel reached over top of his neighbors and looked through a breathing hole. Another box full of bats was pressed against his. The other cries were coming from there. Bats on both sides of the touching walls called out to one another, looking for mates, newborns, and friends. Cassiel lent his voice to the confusion, but he knew there was no one for him. His mate and newborn were far away. He was glad that they were not in this mess, but a regretful part of him half-wished they were with him, keeping him safe from this nightmare.
Grief, unwanted and unexpected, swept over the Silverwing, and he suddenly felt very small. Oh Ariel, he sighed. Right now, more then freedom or food or sleep, he wanted to bury his face in her silver fur. He wanted to feel her close to him and breath in her scent. She always smelled of leaves, healthy, green, summertime leaves. He could cuddle up to her on a chilly autumn night before hibernation and be convinced it was summer.
And his newborn. Ariel would have given birth by now. She was probably at this very moment showing their babe the best hunting spots. Shade, he said in his mind, I wish I could be there and show you how to catch a tiger moth. It's a trick I've been saving for months to show you. Granted, he didn't know whether their offspring was male or female, but he had always had a strong feeling it was a boy. Perhaps he was too much of a proud male, but the idea of teaching a son all his skills was too much to give up. And, although a little female would have been named Athena, he always addressed his imaginary newborn as Shade.
He came out of his dream to find his cage shaking, shuddering with incredible force. What's going on? The bats around him were frightened, some were screaming, others frozen in shock. Another painful shudder, and, then, Cassiel felt it. A feeling of weightlessness. He spread out his wings to steady himself as the entire box tilted downwards. Everything--him, the other bats, the boxes--was moving with immense power and speed. They were flying.
"Flying," he said out loud.
Some bats around him heard and turned to him.
"How?" asked a male Brightwing.
"I don't know," answered Cassiel, "but we definitely are flying. Don't you feel it?"
"They're taking us away," moaned a female bat whose ears appeared too big for her head. "We will never get home!"
"Going south. Towards the Humans' war," commented a gruff looking bat. "And we're going faster then any bat can fly. You're right; you can kiss home good-bye."
"Oh, that's real encouraging," muttered Cassiel as the Large-Eared bat broke down into weeping. He sighed and relaxed onto the floor. The bats around him gave him some room and soon went back to their self-pity.
But the gruff bat was right, he was being taken away. It was another mark to the evil of Humans, another reason why the Promise was a lie. Frieda and the others were going to be so disappointed. If I make it back, he thought, ha, at least Bathsheba will be happy. She never liked me anyway. Too much of a troublemaker.
He dosed off, his famished and abused body finally taking some time for itself. The feeling of flight carried him on a cloud, lulling him into false security. He was dreaming of Tree Haven, of Ariel, of his son...
The sensation changed. They were losing speed and altitude. Cassiel awoke to find the bats in turmoil. They could sense it too. The box was tipping back, and there was a tension within the wall behind him. Cassiel stiffened--his ear tag was humming.
And then he understood. All in less than a second, he comprehended the Humans' plan. They, the little batty fire-starters, were being dropped on the enemy.
He opened his mouth to shout a warning, but the wall of the box slid back, and he was ripped out of the box and into the night.
Wings were everywhere; the air was punctured with echoes. Confusion. Chaos.
Cassiel was falling. He was going every direction at once, toppling over and over and over. He could not open his wings, and very spray of sound was whipped from his mouth before it could properly form. Blind and falling, he was as helpless as a newborn. The speed, the pressure was pressing on his tiny rib cage, threatening to crush it. He had to slow down; he had to right himself in this insanely fast world.
Slowly, Cassiel edged out his wingtips, and just that tiny bit of surface area slowed his descent considerably. He went out a little more and a little more until he had nearly both his wings out. His world finally right-side up, he turned his focus to the sky. There was a half moon out. Cassiel searched the stars and realized that they were foreign to him. Where am I?
Wisps of moisture slapped his face, coating it in frost. He took in a forced breath at the cold shock and looked around for the cause. Another patch was rushing towards him from below. He closed his eyes as it hit. Clouds, he thought while sailing through it. How high did they drop us from if we are falling through clouds?
Us! We! Where were the other bats?
He had been so distracted by his fall that he had lost sight of the other bats. He had to stop them!
Cassiel trimmed his wings and dove into the next cloud. Coming out of it, he was instantly dried by an intense heat. He didn't pay much attention to the temperature as he launched out washes of sound and caught the flicker of bat wings to his right. Cassiel felt adrenaline and fear course through his body as he pumped his board wings. Most of the bats were not Silverwings, who were built for close quarters and precision; most had longer, bigger, faster wings. He had lots of ground to make up and so little time to work with.
The tag in his ear began to hum, just as he had expected. He couldn't deny that it was a very appealing thing. It conveyed a voice of absolute authority. And, to the bats who had just been dropped out of the sky, it certainly offered a sense of direction. If he could just reach that one building, then there would be no need to worry. He could eat all he wanted, even take a nap. Just relax, it said. He could take his time, there was no rush...
No! Cassiel shouted at the voice. No!
"Stop!" he yelled to the bats ahead of him.
He was too slow. The ones in front of him were the end of the main group. Further up, Cassiel could make out a Human Building. His guess had been correct. Bats had been transformed into weapons.
"The building is a trap! You'll die. You will explode!" he screamed.
He flapped his wings harder, and the disc in his belly rocked back and forth, stretching the stitches painfully. He had almost reached the last bat, an elderly Graywing. Just a little further! he told himself. The City was right in front of him, the targeted Building outlined in silver dots by his tag. Then, it happened.
Every noise Cassiel had ever heard in his life was dwarfed by the explosion of the countless discs. The Building erupted in white flames that lit up the night. The boom blinded him in both ears. He tried to reach for the Graywing in his blindness, but the heat waves drove him back. The elderly bat flew right through the heat to the burning Building, and soon another burst of flames hit the night sky. Human alarms were sounding. Cassiel's whole world was fire and sound.
Sections of the Human Building exploded on their own, and the flames flew up higher. Humans were running out now. They were yelling, and some started their machines to get away. Far above it all, Cassiel was trying desperately to stay in flight. His disc was suddenly very heavy. He pushed his body to the limit and went up with the rising smoke. High above, he circled the Building, trying to locate any survivors. Perhaps they turned back; maybe they had a dud, like he had. But, looking at the greedy flames below him, Cassiel knew there would be no survivors.
He had to get away. He didn't understand the mechanics of Human things, but Cassiel knew for sure that his disc would explode if he stayed near the rising flames. He turned away, not caring which direction he went. He was in shock. All of those bats, all of his kin...dead. Exploded. Murdered by Humans.
He flew towards the forest, his disc dragging him down. It occurred to him that he didn't know where he was or what kind of forest he was about to enter, but he only wanted to get away from that Hell. Then he realized that he had to get rid of his disc or he couldn't land. That got his attention.
He couldn't do it himself; he needed a tool. Cassiel looked about frantically for something sharp. He had used nearly all his tired body's energy. His wings strokes were slow and agonizing, and his breath was ragged. I have to land.
Dawn was breaking over the horizon and spilling into the thick forest. Clouds that had been massing for days were drifting over to Cassiel's area. Suddenly, it was raining.
Cassiel spotted a tree with thorns along its trunk. He flew close and dug his claws into the bark. Water hit his face as he moved his belly to a thorn's tip. Carefully, he guided the tip between the stitches and his belly. Another fat water drop hit him between the eyes. He pulled and half the stitches came out. Blood ran through his fur.
It was raining like nothing Cassiel had ever experienced. It was as if the air was becoming water. The trees were so thick, and, yet, the rain got through them. Storms on the seashore during migration had pelted him like bullets, but this rain was hard and fat, like a sheet of heavy water. At least it is warmer.
He managed to thread the thorn through the last stitches and pulled. The disc came free and went with the rain to the forest floor. A muted blast and flash of light followed. It's off, thought Cassiel.
He clung to the tree for life, but the rain came down harder. A bucket was dumped on the Silverwing, and he went crashing to the ground. Cassiel landed on a pile of dead leaves, and the water kept coming. It filled his nose and ears and mouth, drowning him right there on the floor. He flailed about, trying to shield his face. He rolled over and scrambled on all fours across the pile of leaves. At the base of the thorny tree, the rain was not as much. One of its roots pressed up through the soil, forming a little niche with the ground, and Cassiel sought refuge in it.
Above him, the rain continued to fall to the floor, driving itself into the ground. What is this place? Cassiel managed to ask himself. He was so exhausted; he was going to pass out. It didn't matter that he was on the ground and barely protected. If he didn't sleep now, he would surely die. He didn't have a choice.
Cassiel did manage one thought before collapsing. I am alone. Alone in a strange place. He had made it through so much, but that didn't stop Cassiel from crying, his tears mixing with the rain that dripped over the root's edge.