Feathers of Bravery

Meylo

"How do you not know who's attacking us? What, are they invisible or something? You call yourselves guards?!" my mother screams at one of our men who did patrols. I understand that it will help to defend ourselves from our enemy if we knew who they were. But our priority should be evacuating and protecting our citizens, not yelling at some poor young guard for delivering a message. I tried stepping forth to defend him and to try and convince my mother to see the reason of defense but like many things before, she didn't listen.

Instead of continuing to argue with her, I called my personal guards and gave them orders to gather all the citizens they can and lead them to the safe paths. Tired of hearing my mother insult the young guard anymore, I grab her wing and lead her to our own safe chambers along with the diplomats. As I'm about to shut the door, I was pulled away and rendered into darkness.

The thing that wakes me is a bug crawling on my face. That has me jerking up and swatting my face to get it off. Ew. I love nature and all creatures but I don't like it when bugs crawl on me. I hope I didn't kill it. After relaxing a little, I take in the scene around me. I'm no longer in the castle. Instead of marble and stone walls surrounding me, it's vibrant green shrubs and large trees of the forest. Which normally I would find very beautiful but given the fact that I was a second ago unconscious and in my home and suddenly here is not giving me the best of feelings.

I don't want to give away anything about me or those I hold dear to me so I don't call out any names. I just use my natural bird call. My mother and my personal guards would know it was me and respond with their own. Unfortunately, no one responds to my call. It just echoes through the trees until it eventually fades out.

That's ok. It's all good.

Before dad died, his way of training would be moving me from my bed and placing me in an unknown location and I would have to find my own way back home. The quicker I would get home then the bigger piece of dessert I would get for dinner. So, this is just like that. Dad just moved me. As soon as I get back to the castle and walk into our dining hall, there's gonna be a big piece of strawberry cheesecake waiting for me.

Dammit, for putting me in the woods I better get the entire thing!

Just think about the cheesecake, Meylo. Nothing else matters.

I heard a branch snap behind me and I'm not ashamed to say that I shrieked and flew into the tree to hide. Nothing could've surprised me more than seeing a small owl tumble through bush. I take that back. There's a second owl that falls after the first and lands on her. I think they're both girls.

I know these two are girls now, but I am seriously having a bit of a flashback to when I was young and in the market.

No.

As I said I'm not going to hold a grudge or resentment or whatever over an entire species because of what those three did. Also, I'm not that hatchling anymore. If they want to try and pick a fight then I am more than happy to show them what I am capable of doing, I'm not just some spoiled little prince. I should watch them a little longer before I fly down there. Suddenly, the shorter one starts moving her head around in every direction looking for something.

Dang it! I forgot how strong owls' hearing is. I'm sure she hears my heart beat. Which I'm correct to assume since she spins around and looks up in the tree I'm in. Deciding now would be the best time to introduce myself I slowly descend to greet the two.

"Easy there little owlets, I'm not going to hurt you. My name is Meylo. I am the Prince of Baldir. To who do I have the pleasure of addressing?" I ask. I hope that was polite and gentle enough to overlook me being a crow. Though last minute I scold myself for revealing my royal status to them.

The shorter one responds. Unlike the taller one, she doesn't look to be afraid of me. If anything, she looked a little angry. It couldn't possibly be at me, could it?

"I am no little owlet. My name is Aihla and I am the princess of Neros. This is Jessica, my letahr. Do you have any idea where we are? How did you get here?" she says fiercely.

What in the heavens is a letahr? Judging by how this 'Jessica' looks, it must be something between a guard or high servant. And great. She's a princess. My day has been challenging enough, I don't need some fragile... there's another branch that snaps. "Princess..." I pull out my sword and am about to indicate to the princess and her companion to get behind me when I see that they both pull out a blade. Well Jessica only pulls out a small blade, the so called fragile princess has two daggers out.

She's holding them properly, not too tight and not too loosely. Her stance is not one that I recognize.

Back to the issue at hand, more branches break as the sound of hissing surrounds us. Then the smell of rotten fish hits us. Bloody hell! It's a kijod.

"Princess run and hide!" I shout to her.

Just then the large reptilian like creature lunges out for us. Damn those ignorant eagles for creating these beasts! I dodge it swiftly and swing my sword to its side as that is its only vulnerable spot. It's spikes on its back make it impossible to attack from behind or from above. It's giant feet can crush you faster than a falling stone can and when it decides to stomp on the ground, it creates this mini earthquake that makes it difficult to keep your footing. But the thing you want to avoid is its tongue. It shoots out like a frogs and is ten times as sticky. Once it grabs you, there's no letting go.

The sides are its only soft points. That and when his mouth open, but the only time it opens is to shoot out the tongue. So that's a no go. I keep dodging it, trying to get to its sides but it keeps jumping causing me to misstep. I refuse to take flight and risk its lighting fast tongue catching me. So I try to use the branches in the trees to my advantage. Swerving in and out of them so I can confuse to Kijod. That's when I see the princess.

"Prin..." I don't get to finish. She put her back to the beast and closed her eyes. There was no way I would be able to get to her in time from here. As the tongue shoots out she easily moves out of the way while throwing a small blade that I didn't know she had into its mouth. Her companion, Jessica, throws her own dagger into its side and pulls on the chain causing it to cut deeper into its side before it returns to her.

The princess sees me in the trees and a smile appears on her face. She flies up to one of the trees and does the same thing she did when she was on the ground. Giving it her back, she waits for its tongue again. Only this time of it missing and retreating back into its mouth quickly, it got stuck within the branches.

All three of us take advantage of this. While the princess is attacking one side and Jessica the other, I launch myself from the tree sword drawn and swing it straight down on its tongue. The darn thing was so thick and rough it took more than a few swings to even make it bleed. Unfortunately, it managed to dislodge itself from the tree and bring its tongue back into the safety of its mouth causing us to retreat once more.

I wait until the princess sets her trap to lure it once more, going to another tree. Again getting stuck we all attack. This time I fly up and dive bomb with my sword to get as much momentum as I can which worked because with this swing I managed to cut the tongue off. It let out a hurling cry and tried back up and running. But it was too panicked and kept crashing into the trees, bleeding profusely. Finally it reared up and let out one last cry before dropping down on its stomach twitching until that even stopped. Then it was completely still.

Bloody hell!

We just took on and killed a Kijod. No one has ever done that before. Not even the idiot eagles who created them. They were nearly sent to extinction because their creation overran their land. But we did it. We killed one. I turn to my two companions and see that they too are shocked. It fades quickly from one and she picks up her blade that was still lodged in the mouth.

She turns her attention to me and smiles. "Never call me Princess or owlet. My name is Aihla. Now before we were so rudely interrupted Meylo, do you know where were are or how we got here?"

I'm shocked at how unfazed she is by all this. I look at Jessica as if she can provide me any insight to her friend but she simply shrugs. Just who are these women. Especially this short one.