Feathers of Bravery

Aihla

We flew on ahead while Jess and our fourth host stayed behind. It took another twenty minutes to reach the port town, arriving exactly when the clock struck 1 AM. Some of the fires were still burning from the attack, lots of charred building and a bunch of rubble. With how freely, if you will, these birds seem to be flying it's safe to assume that there are no more bandits or pirates.

"Pirates come every month for three nights straight for the last decade. They usually don't harm us or cause this much damage, they sound their horns and as long as we stay in our homes they just steal what they wanted. This is the first time that they've become violent. There were no horns, no warning or anything. As soon as the moon rose, canons fired and everything was lit on fire.

We've had no fatalities that we know of. Worst of the injuries besides the broken wings are those with shattered beaks. Some of the townsfolk were dragged out of their homes and places on stones being held down while a pirate swung a hammer on their beaks. Thank the heavens that they left all the hatchlings alone!" the one who I now know is called Mason spoke.

Meylo and I both looked at each other when he told us about the shattered beaks. That is an incredible amount of cruelty. Obviously with their history of the birds being, complacent is the wrong word. I guess compliant or passive. Them knowing that they word rather be concerned over their lives and safety rather than material things, never once lifting a weapon to fight back. To suddenly resorting to that level of violence.

They are almost as bad as the bandits from Riverira. If not worst.

"Please Mason, take us to where your battle guards are. Please also instruct one of your men to take Jessica, my letahr, to where your wounded are being held." I tell him. Meylo and I know our basic mending treatments but are not as knowledgeable as Jess with healing. I would not have enough energy or magick within me to heal them all. Jess rarely needs magick to heal with her knowing so many different tonics and herbs.

Mason instructs one of the birds that flew with us to wait until Jess and the other pelican arrive. Meylo and I follow Mason to one of the majorly charred buildings. A few pelicans, a raven and two seagulls are gathered around a table discussing what to do when they come tonight. According to Mason, these pirates comes for three nights and leave for a year. Last night was the first. Which mean we have two more nights to defend and less than eighteen hours for the next attack in order to make the necessary adjustments because like their yearly and trio pattern, they always come at seven PM. Dinner time.

However before we can even make any of those, we had another problem to deal with. The moment that the raven was able to make out my form he screeched and took flight to attack me. Stopping mid wingbeat, I dropped a few feet from the sky for him to overshoot me. But when he reached me I quickly noticed he wasn't trying to outright attack me. He shot straight between Meylo and myself squawking at me in challenge while covering the crow prince with his body. Out of my line of sight, supposedly.

I knew what he was thinking and what he was trying to do. It made me roll my eyes but I got to give credit where credit is due. This raven looks like a seasoned warrior but he also looks like he hasn't slept in two days, is bleeding from his beak and is one of the few birds that is relatively close to my size. But before any of us could do anything Meylo steps in.

"Enough of this. We don't have time to be fighting amongst ourselves. Sir, you clearly know who I am. Now I highly advise you to settle down and not attack her. She is princess Aihla and she is way tougher than she looks. Despite what you might think, she and the other owls are not our enemy. She has saved my life numerous times. Please." he explains calmly.

I didn't raise any weapons or make any remarks towards him, but I make sure to keep my eye on him for as long as I'm here. Which makes me irritated. I should be focusing on helping out these birds and fighting of bandits or pirates. Not worrying about whether a raven will try to kill me the first chance he gets. To some degree I admire his honor.

One of our many discussions together, the three of us spoke about what we were doing before we were kidnapped. Meylo was attending a and celebrating a diplomatic meeting with the ravens of Jonis. They had just finished sealing their alliance when the attack occurred. Words must travel faster than I thought if this raven was ready to fight me and defend Meylo. As much as I wanted to eavesdrop on their conversation, I decided against it.

I trusted Meylo to talk him down and help him see reason. That I am not the enemy.

In the meantime, Mason asks the rest who were gathered around the table to fill me in on everything that has happened and how much they know about the pirates. Even though they mainly remained in their homes or wherever they hid for the time of the raid, they must have discovered things about them. And I don't mean what kind of birds they are.

"They come in by ships. Sound carries across water so they blow their horns quite a while before the ships actually make port. That gives us enough time to hide in our homes or wherever we may be close by. Last night was the first time that they didn't blow their horn. It just started raining down fire and birds." The oldest of them spoke.

"What about bandits? Do they give off warning as well before they attack, is there any pattern to their attacks like the way the pirates' have?" I ask. As much as these pirates pose a threat, I cannot completely ignore their other issue. We can get so caught up with making defenses for the sea that we completely ignore the forest and leave ourselves vulnerable.

I get looks of confusion from everyone in the room. I can take a guess as to why but Father and Radi always told me to never make concrete assumptions. So I wait for them to speak and tell me what mistake I just made.

"Princess, we do not have any bandits. The forest is too thick to get through. You can barely get five feet in without getting lost or stuck. We only ever had these pirates." he replies.

I figured as much. There was a lot of things that weren't adding up as we approached the town and from what little they had already told us on our flight over here. Luckily for me, I could see Jess flying over. I just wish Meylo would hurry with his conversation with the raven so that the three of us can talk about what to do.