Born to Fly

Book 2 - Chapter 2 (Part 1)

Mory, Sylo, and Thacris were in attendance at the meeting along with dozens of other Sporadical members. They all stood facing a flat-topped bolder which Barin was using as his standing platform. Barin and a man named Gryphin were serving as co-leaders of Sporadical in the absence of Sannis. He had quite a commanding presence with his tall and muscular physique, as well as a powerful voice.

"Good evening, everyone. This message will be brief. The time has come for us to carry out 'Operation Parker'. We are to obtain the twenty-four spora-slaves from Parkerville and bring them here. Make sure to follow the strategy we've prepared and remain with your assigned teammates at all times. We will embark on the course for Parkerville in one hour. Please come to me within that time if you have any questions. This meeting is now adjourned."

And with that, everyone sped off to their tents so they could make their final preparations. Mory and Thacris talked on their way to the tents while Sylo trailed a few steps behind them.

"We're finally going on a freakin' mission!" Thacris stated while punching the air. "I can't wait to kick some spider ass tonight!"

"Slow down there, champ. We wanna do our best to avoid fights. Just grab our target and get out of there. And remember, no killing. They're mostly civilians."

"Can't I rough up at least one of them? What if some young punk tries to flex on me?"

"You'll have to take that up with Barin, and I wouldn't get on that guy's bad side if I were you."

Thacris had himself a quick little laugh. When he settled down, he spoke to Mory in a more focused manner.

"In all seriousness, Mory, I want you to know that I'm not gonna allow you to do anything crazy tonight. That stunt you pulled with Teraphon almost got you killed. If I see you trying to do something insane like that again, I'll grab you and jump all the way back to Keanos."

Feeling ashamed, Mory lowered his head a bit. "I understand. That was a stupid move, and I hate to admit it, but . . . I think he literally knocked some sense into me. Trust me, you won't see anything like that from me again."

"Oh I know I won't, because I'm gonna stick to you like a fat tick on a lazy dog."

Sylo laughed at Thacris's goofy statement.

#

The spora fighters traveled most of the way via their biome cruisers. These were the giant palanquins that were large enough to carry about twenty people. Flying manek users carried the cruisers through the sky while the others sat inside. They flew for about ten kilometers until they landed in a savanna just outside of the mountains. The flyers were given thirty minutes to replenish their strengths. Then all but a few of the spora began to walk the rest of the way. It took no more than half an hour to reach the outskirts of Parkerville.

The group halted behind Barin as he stopped to look at the village. It was a disorganized collection of adobe houses. The dirt pathways were lit by street lanterns. The most bizarre feature was that the entire place was covered in spider webs. It was the key display of a Spider Domain civilization.

Looks like gliding is out of the question, Mory thought. 

Barin's skin turned dark-blue with white, circular spots all over. A long whip-like tail shot out through his jacket near his lower back. There was a razor-sharp barbed stinger near the end of it. He showcased his spotted eagle stingray manek for all to see. He looked back at his spora crew and nodded. Everyone immediately changed into their animal forms. Barin swept his hand forward telling everyone that it was time to charge. They all darted into the village, rushing toward their respective destinations. The villagers were instantly alerted by their watchmen, and all hell broke loose.

Spider-people with arachnid legs protruding from their backs and extra pairs of eyes stormed out of the houses. Webs came flying in from all directions. Mory ducked underneath a strand that came for his head. He had caught sight of Barin who was slicing the webs away with his stinger tail.

All of the spora began to break off into their teams of three or four. Mory watched as Sylo, in her crocodile form, disappeared behind some houses with her partners, Rolar and Zeylan. Thacris was partnered with Mory, and they were accompanied by a friend of theirs named Sap. The three men headed for a home located on the north side of the village.

Spider-men, both uniformed and casually dressed, were trying to get a hold of the trio. With his grasshopper abilities, Thacris was able to jump out of reach of their attacks. Mory with his squirrel agility was successfully able to evade numerous tackles and web shots.

Sap was an entirely different story.

Sap was one of those extremely rare humans who wasn't born with a manek. He was an ordinary person with no animal transformation or abilities. The label for this type of human was a "Vora". 

He simply ran for his life and hoped for the best.

The three men eventually reached their target location, a two-story-high,  round-topped adobe house with four windows on its front side. The house number above the front door was "1738".

"Let's crawl in through that bottom right window," said Thacris.

"This feels so wrong," Mory said as they ran up to the window. "Should we really be--"

Thacris shushed Mory and dipped his head into the window to have a look around. He pulled out and looked at his two partners.

"No one's in this room. Let's go."

Thacris placed his hands on the ledge and lifted a leg through the window. Once he got in, Mory followed the same process. He felt an unusual softness beneath his feet, so he looked down to inspect the surface. He realized that the entire floor was covered in what appeared to be mulch.

A strange choice for a floor.  

Sap was trying to climb in, but he soon felt and heard a smack against the back of his shoulder. He was yanked back into the front yard by something. Mory and Thacris turned back and saw that some savage man with green spider legs had attached a web to Sap. The spider-man was trying to pull him in, but Sap dug his heels into the ground and fought to pull away.

"Hold on, Sap!" Mory said as he was beginning to climb through the window.

"No!" Sap shouted. "You guys get the target."

Sap reached into a long, narrow cylinder attached to his back and pulled out a wooden staff. "I can handle this."

Mory nodded and reluctantly turned away.

"Oh sh--" Out of nowhere, Thacris leaped to the other side of the room. "M-Mory, watch out for that-"

Mory found himself in a staredown with a spider that was the size of a rabbit. It raised two of its front legs and bared its fangs.

Nope.

Mory blitzed his way to a corner of the room. He looked back for the spider and was surprised to see that it had run to the opposite corner, trying to tuck itself away.

The door leading into the room flew open. In the doorway stood a frantic little girl.

"Charlotte?" the girl cried out. She swung her head left and right until she spotted the spider in the corner. She ran to it and picked it up, making sure to be slow and careful with her movements. "Don't you touch my Charlotte, you big meanies!"

Mory, rattled by the situation, tried to reassure the girl. "No, no! We weren't trying to--"

"Mory, we need to go!" Thacris bolted past the girl and out of the room without an ounce of remorse.

"I'm really sorry," Mory said to the girl as he ran after Thacris.

They jetted down a hallway until they reached the end where there was a room on the left. With no hesitation, Thacris pushed the room door open.

The boys stood in the doorway, mesmerized and frozen by what they saw.

A/N: The full chapter 2 is kinda long so it was split into two parts. Enjoy this cliffhanger!