Immortal Darkness: Shadow Across the Land (21 page)

Unlike the humans, Pesstian’s face contained
two large eyes—which had been adapted for seeing through the
blackest of darkness. It was likely he would have died at a young
age if his eyes hadn’t held such an adaptation. Thanks to this
ability, he was able to tell all the different owls apart in this
shadow-blanketed room.

Pesstian continued to observe the activity
around him as he slowly stumbled backwards. He continued to do so
until he noticed his back pressing up against a wooden wall, his
left shoulder brushing against another owl’s feathers.

The feel of the feathers sending a startling
shock through his blood, Pesstian flicked his head over to his left
side to notice a female little owl. He noticed as she started at
him momentarily, a great spark of youth flashing in her eyes.

At that moment, Pesstian half-expected this
stranger to put an expression of annoyance on her face. To his
surprise, she hurriedly apologized, “Oh—sorry!”

As a short pause of silence came into place,
Pesstian broke the silence by responding, “It’s alright; I’m too
excited to be angry at anybody, anyway.”

“Me too,” the female owl chuckled in
response. “I’ve been wondering what the humans have been doing for
a long time. I just wanted to do something exciting for once in a
while. Life at home’s grown boring. But do
you
have any idea
what they’re going to do with us?”

“I have no idea,” Pesstian admitted with a
sigh. “My best guess is that they’re going to turn
us
into
humans—if that’s even possible. It seems to me like—if they could
make homes for their selves—then they could do anything.”

Laughing at the thought, the female owl
replied, “I’ll have to agree with you. The humans will probably
give me one of their weird names if I were turned into one of
them.”

“What is your name, anyway?” Pesstian
blurted, a pang of curiosity escaping from his throat.

A pause of silence came into place before the
female owl broke the silence by responding, “Leyai. The humans
would probably call me by one of their strange names—like—” Another
pause of silence came into place as she seemed to struggle for a
name. “They would probably call me Lazara; I
think
that’s
how you say it.”

“I wish I could tell you whether or not
you’re right or wrong. I would be able to tell you if the humans
didn’t talk so
weird
!” At the sound of these words, both
Pesstian and Leyai released heavy bouts of laughter into their
little room. “Maybe then,” Pesstian continued, “
We’d
be the
ones making homes for ourselves.”

“Instead of Pesstian, my name would probably
Pinkal—if that’s even a name!” Pesstian chuckled.

As her laughter came to an end, Leyai peered
toward Pesstian’s face, noticing as his chuckling came to share the
same fate as Leyai’s laughter. It was then when she mumbled to
herself, “Pesstian—where have I heard that name before?”

In confusion, Pesstian put a look of awe on
his face when he asked, “Do you know Karon?”

With a nod, Leyai replied, “Of course I know
him. One of my old friends used to be trained by him.”

“He’s my father,” Pesstian explained, as
sending a shock of surprise to trickle down Leyai’s spine.

“I knew you looked like him!” Leyai explained
as a picture of Karon’s face formed in her head. “I think my friend
has told me about somebody named Pesstian, but I would’ve never
guessed that was you!”

Yet another pause of silence came into place;
Pesstian changed the subject when he asked, “Do you know why these
kinds of human devices are always on the water?”

“Maybe they don’t work on land,” Leyai
shrugged. “Haven’t you ever seen them move across the water?”

“I think I’ve seen them do that at least
once,” Pesstian muttered, partially to himself. “Are the humans—are
they controlling them?”

“If they
are
controlling them, I think
the humans are using them to go to other places.” As these words
escaped from her beak, she began to think of the times when she had
witnessed the humans splashing around in the water. She could
remember seeing as they swam in the oceans without the need for
their oceanic vessel.

As these pictures came into her head, she
murmured in question, “I don’t see why they would need them,
though. Humans already know how to swim; that should be enough for
them to get through the water.”

It was after letting out an exhausted yawn
when the sound of footsteps—each of which emanated from the
ceiling—caused his heart to leap. He allowed an irritable growl
escape from his beak when he complained, “How am I supposed to
sleep if the humans won’t stop being so noisy?”

“Why do you want to sleep?” Leyai asked, a
confused look crossing her face. “I thought you were excited.”

“I
am
excited,” Pesstian yawned in
response. “But the humans have been using me for their own
purposes—like they do with everything. I’ve been passed around from
one human to another for days, and now I don’t wanna stay up
anymore. I just want to sleep for a while.”

Giving a blink of slight disapproval, Leyai
shrugged when she murmured, “Well—okay, then. I guess I should
leave you in peace.”

With these words, Leyai strode away from the
tired owl as her lovely, dark-gray plumage blurred away from
Pesstian’s sight. As his eyelids grew heavier with every passing
heartbeat, Pesstian thought to himself,
At least I’ve found
somebody to talk to on this thing.
With this thought in mind,
he knew his time on this human vessel wouldn’t have turned out to
be a slight waste of time—as he had first theorized.

His thoughts slowly fading from his mind,
Pesstian quickly found himself asleep in a matter of moments. The
only hope he had was that neither the humans nor owls would make a
break in his peace.

--

Through what seemed to be only a short period
of sleep, Pesstian’s mind spilled out many thoughts of what the
outcome would have been of this journey. These overnight thoughts
came in the form of questionable dreams—dreams which had taunted
him to believe whether or not his choice to help the humans was the
right thing for him to have done.

Before these thoughts could have even settled
peacefully in his head, the sound of rushing water splashing
against lumber woke Pesstian up from his sleep. It was only a
matter of heartbeats later when he soon discovered how the humans’
vessel was surfing its way through the sea. At the same time, he
noticed how the entire room seemed to be pushing and pulling each
of the little owls away and toward each other.

While he gave a slight struggle to keep his
stance at a perfect balance, Pesstian nearly released a huff of
laughter when he took sight of the others owls struggling. He
noticed as a small fraction of the owls tried to fly from their
problems—only to hit their heads on the ceiling.

After watching the other owls’ pointless
attempts of escape, Pesstian thought his best solution to his
dizziness was to relax himself by leaning against the wooden wall
resting just behind him.
Hopefully I won’t fall in the
process.

The sound of young, female laughter suddenly
filling his ears, Pesstian turned his head toward what he believed
was the source of this laughter—and noticed as Leyai waddled up to
him. She seemed to be having just as much trouble with standing
straight as everybody else in the room.

As she carefully and gradually waddled her
way toward Pesstian, Leyai constantly held her gaze on her talons.
The fear of accidentally tripping over her feet ebbed through her
head as she constantly told herself,
Keep looking down!

Once Leyai finally made her way in front of
Pesstian, her gaze quickly switched off from her talons when a loud
cackle escaped from her beak. She continued to do so while
struggling to meet her gaze up with Pesstian’s stare.

Slightly confused, Pesstian watched as Leyai
seemed to struggle for breath and balance. Thoughts of what she was
thinking of—which had made this moment so amusing for her—rang out
through Pesstian’s mind.

Very gradually, Leyai’s laughter began to
fade away when she took a look down at the wooden ground.
What
is she doing?
she could imagine Pesstian thinking. She gave a
series of rapid blinks in an attempt to fight back these tears in
which her humorous mood had nearly caused her to shed upon.

With one last howl of laughter, Leyai finally
met her gaze with Pesstian’s confused stare. As so had been done,
she felt as the human vessel gave tilted in the water once
again—which only caused another uneven shift to form in her
balance. “This is hilarious!” she cackled all the while. Just when
her series of laughter had come to another mere pause, Leyai sensed
another great shift in the floor beneath her feet.

Such an imbalance caused her to topple toward
the wall. It was then when she found the elbow of her right wing
coming in contact with the top of Pesstian’s chest.

Pesstian noticed as Leyai’s right elbow
pressed up against his chest. All the while did he fight the urge
to release a cry of, “Ow!” in response to Leyai’s elbow. Although
he had felt this to be a time of anguish, the sound of laughter
filled his ears once again.

Turning his head, Pesstian took sight of
Leyai’s uninjured body as she lay on the wooden floor. The feel of
her feathers tickling Pesstian’s talon caused him to lift his talon
from the floor. It was at this moment when he took notice of
Leyai’s body—watching as it shook uncontrollably with laughter.
Regardless of his current angina, he found himself unable to hold
back a round of laughter.

As she picked herself up from the floor,
Leyai held her breath, trying to stifle her giggling. Leyai
continued to do so as her legs stretched upwards, bringing her head
only a short length away from Pesstian’s shoulder. It hadn’t taken
long for her to make her way back on feet again. However, she was
unable to stand up without having the need to against the wall for
support.

To make an easier attempt to meet her gaze
into Pesstian’s, Leyai decided to lean against the wall as the
shoulder in her left wing. Once completely settled, Leyai bit back
a small round of laughter when she softly asked Pesstian, “What do
you think the humans are doing up there?”

The question echoing in Pesstian’s head, he
began to think of how he could have possibly answered such a
remark.
I want to tell her the humans are having just as much
trouble us. But that would be a lie.

Shrugging, Pesstian concluded, “They’re
probably not having as much trouble as the rest of us.” Just as the
thought came into mind, Pesstian’s gaze flew toward the ceiling,
noticing as ray of moonlight shined into the room. As his sight
delved even deeper into the light, he quickly discovered one of the
humans on the device had opened the door in the ceiling.

Once the realization had been made of the
door’s opening, all of the owls flew their way through the hole in
the ceiling, a great sense of freedom flowing through their veins.
At the same time, a series of scratches came to rest all over the
human’s body as a horde of little owls came flying out.

Ignoring the pain he still contained in his
chest, Pesstian gracefully flew out into the open air. The feel of
the moon’s white light reflecting upon his eyes, he took sight of a
large sea of salty water ripping through the hull humans’ vessel.
Although the sensation of the cool breeze brushing between his
feathers helped to ease his pain, his peace came to an end when a
loud human cry split the air.

Nearly falling out from the starry sky,
Pesstian turned his gaze over to the yelling human—noticing a bow
equipped in the human’s hand. In the human’s other hand was a
strange stick with a tip of metal at its end. Using much care with
the tools in his hands, the human slowly placed the stick on a
flexible string—the likes of which helped to keep the bow
together.

A sense of thanks surged through Pesstian’s
blood when as the human’s bow pointed toward another owl.
Well-aware of the danger this particular human device could bring,
Pesstian sealed his eyes shut as the sound of the flexing string
filled his ears. It was a heartbeat after doing so the sound of a
great blast of wind came off from the human’s weapon and
skyrocketed into his ears.

Feeling as if the deadly stick were being
shot straight at him, Pesstian fell from the sky. It was shortly
thereafter when his talons screeched and scratched into the floor,
causing him to come to a stop.

He watched as the owl’s once live-withholding
body dropped suddenly, a wooden shaft sticking out from beneath his
wing. Once struck by the human’s weapon the owl quickly found
himself plunging deep into the sea below him. A mix of red and blue
slowly as the owl made his entrance into the ocean.

After witnessing one of the most horrible
displays of killing they had ever seen, almost every one of the
little owls’ wings stopped moving as a chilling moment of silence
came into play. While most of the owls started wistfully making
their way down to the floor, a small fraction of them launched
their selves up toward the sky. At the sight of this, the angry
human shot another arrow—only to stumble and watch as it barely
nicked one of the escaping owls’ feathers.

Another pause of silence came into place
before the human slowly turned his head over toward the shuddering
owls, watching as they remain encased in darkness once again.
Turning around, a loud, angry cry passed from the human’s mouth as
he pointed over to the trapdoor with a polished metal in his hand.
At this site, a sense of panic swept over Pesstian as he pushed his
way behind many of the other little owls.

The sound of many irritated hoots and hisses
echoing through the dark room, the human nearly closed the
trapdoor—but let it open by just a crack. Unsure of what the
human’s next move would be, Pesstian waited in horror as a strange,
shuffling noise was heard from the other side of the trapdoor.
Mystified, he asked himself,
It sounds like they’re panicking up
there! What is that human doing?