Jailed Wings

Take off

“Can’t this thing go any faster!” Yojit exclaims, sweat drops from his forehead, his eyes screaming at Apphia, “dude! I am trying my best here if I could I would have gone way faster!” Apphia shouts back, her heart beating with dread and fear as she kicks the pedal down, zooming through the sky at full speed.
“……… Stop fighting…. You two” Liliana says in her calm voice, betraying her emotions inside her, for she as well is full of dread for what could have happened to Fishel, she lays her hand on Apphia’s shoulder and looks straight on to what dangers linger in the horizon.
“This is stupid man! stupid! stupid! stupid!” Apphia screams repeating herself over and over until she starts to panic, slowly blacking out from the increased adrenaline going through her body, but Liliana’s sudden tug against her cloth brought her back, connecting her loose ends of sanity together, “look…… smoke… lets go check… it” Liliana points forward with almost a giddy voice.
Apphia nods towards her not muttering any words, for her heart is clinging on to this last ray of hope, almost praying, wishing for Fishel’s wellbeing. Yojit’s grip on the seat tightens as his hearts sings along with them towards this ray of hope clinging on to it.
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“w-what…. I-is….. this burning sensation on my face” Fishel mutters as coughing persists when he talks, Fishel opens his eyes only to be blinded by the sun’s extreme brightness, Fishel moves his left arm to cover his face…. “what!? I-I c-can’t f-feel my arm!” Fishel tries to raise his voice, but his coughing grows stronger, dread fills every inch of his body as he looks around him only to find blood dripping everywhere, soaking the golden desert sand with a crimson pool of blood.
“Is t-this m-my blood!?” Fishel’s eyes widen up, he moves his right arm to flip himself over, “ugh….. t-this hurts! My stomach is burning” Fishel coughs again as his body is moved to lay on his back, he places his arm on his stomach and feels something hard, “w-what is that?” Fishel mutters as he pulls on it, Fishel’s body screams from the shockwave of pain sent through his body as he pulls on it, he looks down only to be horrified by reality, “m-m-my a-a-arm!” Fishel chokes on the letters, coughing violently, realizing that his left arm lay a few feet away from him severed.
His mind goes wild, as the blood gushes from the torn limb. “man……” Fishel coughs and chuckles, “this is a bad joke, man life is harsh……” Fishel continues as everything slowly fades away, and a spine freezing chill surrounds him. Fishel accepts his fate and awaits death, when two hooded figures step into his line of sight and inspect him curiously, but before he could say anything the whole world fades to black.
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“He is nowhere to be found!” Apphia shouts out then rolls herself on the harsh scorching sand, tears roll down her cheeks feeling only grief and dread. Liliana walks up to her and shakes her head, “don’t lose hope just yet…. Apphia, you know Fishel more than us…. You know he never gives up…... right” Liliana explains to Apphia with a smile on her face. Apphia chuckles and nods, getting up on to her feet then petting Liliana, she continues her search for clues.
Yojit’s search ends abruptly due to a horrifying find, horror and dread brew within him as he calls “L-Liliana! Apphia! Y-you need to see this!”, Apphia and Liliana rush to his side to see what he found, but both girls take a step back in horror. “I-is t-that Fishel’s arm!” Apphia screams as she points towards the harshly ripped limb in the pool of blood in front of her, Liliana hides behind Yojit covering her face in horror, “i-i-I don’t know, but we can be sure that Fishel is safe!” Yojit exclaims to calm the girls, “look there is no body, right! So that means it may be not his!” he explains and pulls both girls away from the bloody scene.
When both girls calm down, Yojit beckons to them “c’mon, Fishel could be waiting for us right now! Let’s go and search for him over where this trail ends! deal.” Yojit explains to the girls, while pointing at the tire trail in the sand, and they nod back to him with a new fire of hope in them. The members of Infiltrat Ravens hop into their airship, “now our mission to find Fishel continues! Ravens never leave each other!” Apphia shouts with determination as she gets in her seat and launches the airship’s engine, and off they go following the trails in the sand.
The airship slows down as it closes in to a great wall packed with turrets and defenses, “That’s the Empire’s capital…. ‘Metatopia’” Yojit sighs with despair, “does that mean that Fishel has been captured?” Apphia asks weakly, but Yojit only shrugs back to her with an expression of worry, for it is known that the Empire’s capital has impenetrable defenses. “Well for now we just gotta hope for the best.” Yojit smiles and Apphia nods back, but before Apphia moves in closer with the ship, Liliana pulls her arm, “We can’t get any closer Apphia!” Liliana warns her, “lets land here…. Then we continue… on foot…... to avoid detection.” Liliana explains and nods.
“Oh right… sorry I wasn’t thinking straight, but yes will do, we need to stay undetected.” Apphia agrees with Liliana’s reasoning and lands the ship. The members get off the ship and walk towards the town outside the walls of the city. “seems like this must be some kind of lower class people or abandoned citizens.” Yojit says as he studies the town from afar, the girls nod in agreement and they begin walking towards the town.
“Guys, do you have your hoods ready?” Yojit asks as he looks at his comrades, they nod back to him and wear their hoods on top of their heads. Slowly the stealthy group walk between the people and camouflage themselves as part of it, secretly searching for Fishel’s whereabouts.
Liliana stealthily eavesdrops on the people surrounding them until she plucks out something useful, “hey, any news about the kid?” “well nothing yet, but he does seem to be recovering well enough at the village’s doctor”, Liliana perks up from the information obtained from the conversing men then runs off to the others to tell them about her findings. Liliana runs through the crowds of people until she reaches two hooded figures “Apphia! Yojit! I know where he is!” Liliana jumps up and down like a child, both Apphia and Yojit turn around surprised and happy about the news.
“where is he?” Apphia asks, “well from what I heard he is with the village’s doctor” Liliana replies, but she continues disheartedly “but I don’t know where that can be…...”, Yojit scoughs and smiles “no worries ladies, as the team’s radar I already have that covered, now then follow me” Yojit walks off towards a big building surrounded by grass and trees, the girls nod behind him and follow him.
“now then here we are” Yojit smiles, “so Fishel is in there, somewhere right?” Apphia asks gleaming with hope in her eyes, Yojit nods and takes off his hoodie.
“oh, who might you be?” an old man walks out the door surprised by them. Yojit smiles and walks up to the old man “sorry we disturbed you, but we heard that our friend is being taken care of here?”, the old man smiles and nod “why yes, but from what it seems you must be new here.”, all three of them nod.
“Ahh, then that means you must be friends with that boy we took in couple of days ago” the old man continues with a smile “then follow me to your friend” the old man smiles and gestures inside. The group passes by multiple rooms with sick and injured people, some whom look far beyond help, and the group continues down the corridor until they reached the end of the corridor “now, you will find your friend here, your friend is very lucky to have people like you” the old man smiles as he shows them into the room.
“so, make yourselves at home.” The old man says to the group as he walks out the room closing the door behind him…. Click, “wait….. did you just hear that?” Apphia asks as she walks over to the door and tries to open it, “that goddamn old man tricked us!” Apphia shouts angrily. “is he going to report us to the empire?” Liliana asks worried. “don’t worry Lily,” Yojit pets her smiling, “Apphia get away from the door.” Yojit tells her and as she backs away he throws a bomb at the door blowing it away.
“Apphia go and catch that geezer!” Yojit shouts as he picks up Liliana, “I am already on it!” Apphia runs tackling the old man and holding his arms behind his back. “you better tell us where he is, or you are going to stay in one of those rooms for a while!” Apphia shouts at the old man pulling his arms even more.
“ahh!! My arm!! Ok ok I’ll talk” the old man whimpers as Apphia lets go of him, “but first lem-“ the old man was cut off by Apphia kicking him on to the ground.
“no time to waste old man!” Apphia shouts at him, “hey Apphia calm down a bit, don’t worry we are getting to Fishel” Yojit says as he pats Apphia’s shoulder and helps the old man up.  “now then, show us the way to our friend and no funny business” Yojit warns the old man.
“i-I won’t I promise I will lead you, just follow me” the old man walks ahead of the team and leads them to a different area of the building, “it is right there.” The old man points at a room that is well furnished and a stream of sunlight shines into the room illuminating the room with a golden light.
“Fishel!!” Apphia shouts as she runs into the room diving on Fishel and hugging him tightly, crying her eyes out after all the pain and grief she went through, following her is Liliana diving onto them both hiding her face and sobbing.
“oh wow hehehe” Fishel smiles and attempts to hug them, “it’s truly amazing to see you guys….. i-I am so happy.” Fishel blurts out before he starts crying with joy.
Yojit walks in with a huge grin on his face and tears streaming down his eyes, “its good to have you back man.” Yojit says while he hides his face, “its good to see you too, I won’t be able to do anything without my brother” Fishel says with a huge smile.
“w-wait F-fishel what happened to your arm???” Apphia says horrified when she sees his missing arm gasping and covering her mouth in horror, “oh ehheeh that I am not sure, but all I remember is crashing down and being in a lot of pain.” Fishel explains as a sense of melancholy overcomes the group.
“No!” Liliana exclaims, grabbing everyone’s attention, “no?” Yojit asks wondering why Liliana said that, “No! It is not the time to be upset, we just got him back we don’t need to be dreadful, if anything big sis Apphia can do an amazing job at helping Fishel!” Liliana retorts.
Yojit smiles and nods agreeing with Liliana, “you know she is right, Apphia your talented and you can help Fishel, we trust you.” Yojit nods with a big smile on his face.
Apphia smiles with a burning determination look in her eyes, “your trust in me is well placed! I promise I will not disappoint!” Apphia announces standing up proudly, then she looks at Fishel with a big smile, “Don't worry Fishel, I am going to help you.” Apphia beams brigthly at Fishel and winks at him.
Fishel blushes then pets Apphia's head and smiles “I trust you Apphia, and honestly where would I be without you guys." Fishel says as lays back down happy and comforted by the presence of his friends.