Feathers of Bravery

Meylo

"Meylo, how good is your sight?" she asks me.

"Not as good as yours but very good." I replied to her. As long as I still have daylight my vision can be sharp. She nods to me. "Good, fly up and call out to us what you see. Let us know what we're dealing with. Help Jess find any injured birds. Just call out, we'll hear you."

I know she's done talking to me when she looks away. Taking that as my cue I take to the sky and start tilting my head to look with my dominant eye. First thing I see is Jessica freeing three birds that were caught by the same chain. I also see a bandit attacking a mother and her duckling. The bird looks to be raven but he looks deathly ill. His feathers are all in disarray or missing. He not only claws at her but he pecks at her hard tearing into her flesh.

"Jessica, on the other side to your right! A bandit is attack a mother and her child." I call out. Her eyes never leave those she's unchaining but I can faintly see her head tilt up, letting me know that she heard me. Once one of them was free she pointed in the direction to them and flew over to where I had told her. When Aihla and I wrestled, she made sure to keep her talons curved in to avoid accidently hurting me. When we fought against the Kijod, both Jessica and Aihla stuck with their blades. Heck, even with those three bullies they mainly slapped me around with their larger wings. This is the first time I see what kind of damage an owl's talons can really do.

First impression of Jessica, although taller than Aihla, was definitely a bubbly and kind nature. As soon as the bandit came into her view she launched at him talons first. They were roughly the same size. But that didn't help the raven. The razor sharp claws sunk deep into him and she flew backwards and with her momentum she tossed him to the ceiling of tavern above her. In the middle of crashing back down to the floor she took her dagger and plunged it into him.

I'm officially terrified of Jessica.

Going back to look for more things that I can point out to them while also dodging the arrows being shot in my direction. I have no idea where these bandits learned to shoot but I am thankful their aiming is bad. I spot Aihla next. She was pressed up against a building. She had her eyes closed and was holding what looked to be some kind of jewelry of some kind. I had to do a double take when I saw something that resembled a ripple come from her. It looked almost lavender in color. Then she took off, still with her eyes closed. In one fell swoop she attacked one bandit that was carrying off supplies and before I could call out to her, she dodged a passing spear and bit into the neck of the one that threw it. For a second she paused, tilting her head in the owl way that I now recognize as them listening for things.

Just like before, she flies up and goes onto the next bandit and the next. I try to focus on the task I was given but I keep going back looking at the two owls. These women were lethal. I consider them my friends but part of me now understands why we trained our warriors so hard when it comes to owls. With the amount of training these two had, especially Aihla, I never want to have to face off against her brothers or her father the King.

Circling back around the city, something catches my eye. To the east of the town it looked like they were retreating back to the woods but then some more of them were hauling a large wooden container. I don't know what's in there but I doubt it's dozens of flower baskets.

"Aihla! Jessica! East side, bandits are bringing something out of the woods. It's large. I don't know what's inside!" I call out to them.

I swoop down to hover around it to get a closer look at them. Two of them clip the straps from the top and all four panels fall off to the sides, revealing a strange mechanism. It looked like some sort of canon. Only instead of one hole to shoot from it had seven. One side didn't have it and it's place was a crank. Hopefully they relieved the town from the bandits that were inside and freed those that were captured because I actually have to strategy right now to stop whatever is it that they are bringing in. I had never seen anything like it.

The one who was leading the this group flew over to the crank and began turning it. I could feel the air pressure around me begin to constrict me. It doesn't take a genius to know that the best way to stop whatever the heck this weapon was, was to stop the one arming it. I started my dive towards the unassuming bandit. Bracing my self for the impact, I made sure when I rolled off I could get to my sword fast enough.

My body collided with his and with luck, his was thrown against two others that were standing close by. The second I stood from my roll, I pulled out my sword and swung it at the first one that came at me. Eight or nine of them looked at me enraged. Like the town, this group were made up of different birds. Crows, Pigeons and Sparrows. But all had the same look as the one that I first seen Jessica take out. There was this feral and deranged look to them. One of them kept snapping his beak as if trying to catch whatever invisible thing was dangling before him.

In sync, they all charged and tried to claw, bite and cut me. They may lack skill and tact, but their tenacity and wildness makes up for it. As did their numbers. But amongst that, I see another one going towards the crank to finish doing what the first bird was doing. If he gets to it then there's no telling the damage that thing will have with me right in it's vicinity.

However, he never gets the chance to touch the crank as a blade hits him so hard he gets pinned to the tree behind him. Looking up I see Aihla and Jessica coming in a dive with their weapons drawn. Three from the party I was fighting meet them in the air. But the two women don't slow down or even look intimidated, only more determined. Knowing that they can handle themselves I turn back to the rest that are here with me. It makes it easier when Jessica's blade chain swings around and gathers them in a bunch. Using a string swing I make sure they're no longer a problem to us.

They finally land down to me and ask if I'm ok.

"Nothing another hot bath won't fix. Question is, what the heck is this thing and how do we destroy it?" I ask.

As she's about to tell me we hear more shouts and see more men emerging from the woods.

"Jess, you know how to disarm it, get to it please. Meylo and I will buy you the time." She says.

Just like the morning, we each take our place designated to us. I turn to look at Aihla who gives me a small smile before turning back to the many feral birds that were flying our way.