Immortal Darkness: Shadow Across the Land (22 page)

This question ringing true in his head,
Pesstian’s train of thought was interrupted when the sound of a
screeching creak filled his ears. Wondering what the human was up
to, Pesstian flinched his gaze over toward the trapdoor, to see one
of the human’s hands coming through the little crack in the
trapdoor’s opening.

Although he had first been frightened by the
human’s hand, Pesstian took a sharper and noticed how the hand was
clenching around something.
What’s he holding?
he silently
asked himself as he peered at the shadow-covered hand. Just when he
had thought he had figured out what the human’s fingers were
clutching around, Pesstian noticed as the hand released its grip
from whatever it had been holding on to.

Food!
Pesstian silently exclaimed. The
fear he had once felt in his blood now dissolved away. Little black
rodents spilled from a tethered bag, causing the only thing for
Pesstian to feel was a great sense of hunger. He felt as it growled
throughout the inner depths of his stomach.

Without any warning, the light spreading out
from the trapdoor’s little crack disappeared from Pesstian’s sight.
At the same time, almost every one of the owls in the room rushed
over to the pile of deceased rodents. Each of these owls shortly
came back with mice in their talons.

Although it had taken him a while to push
himself through the horde of owls, Pesstian soon found himself
face-to-face with the pile of mice. Once he had made his way to the
pile, he quickly picked up a plump mouse and placed it into his
beak before anybody could have tried to take it. His beak pointing
skyward, he chugged the mouse into his stomach— and later sensed
his chest expand just after feeling the rodent’s fur bristling
against the insides of his gullet.

Feeling a soothing pressure press up against
the sides of his stomach, Pesstian let out a sigh of relief. It was
at this moment when he began to stride up to the spot where he and
Leyai had earlier leaned upon before the human disturbed the owls’
peace.

Thinking of Leyai made Pesstian suddenly
remember the question she had earlier asked him about the humans.
How do you think the humans are doing up there?
he silently
repeated the question as a picture of the human came into his
head.

As he had recalled, the human didn’t
seem
to have any trouble staying on his own two feet.
Pesstian could not remember any images of the human struggling to
balance himself on the floor at all. Had the little owl paid more
attention to the human’s feet rather than the weapon itself, he
would have known.

While pondering on how the humans walked
aboard their vessel, the sound of footsteps vibrated through the
wood and into Pesstian’s ears. Even with these footsteps serving as
an obvious warning for the approaching human, a jolt of surprise
sparked through Pesstian’s blood when another owl’s feathers
tickled his skin. Once feeling the feathers, he gave his head a
jerk to the left—only to take sight of Leyai standing right next to
him once again.

“Oh—hi Leyai,” he greeted upon discovering
who it was who had brushed their feathers against him. “What’s
going on?”

“Better than last time we met,” Leyai
responded through a nearly inaudible giggle. “At least now I’m able
to talk to you without laughing—so I can breathe!” In response to
Leyai’s exaggeration, Pesstian released a loud hoot of
laughter.

“Don’t make it so that
I
won’t be able
to breath,” Pesstian joked in between two short series of laughter.
“I just ate!”

After another wave of laughter came into
place; a pause of silence drew in the conversation just before
Leyai asked, “Oh—I forgot! Did you figure out how well the humans
can stand up on this thing?”

A moment of hesitation split the air at that
moment.
Oh—I forgot!
Pesstian silently exclaimed before he
confessed in response, “I—I really don’t know. I was too startled
by that one owl’s death that I wasn’t able to see what the humans
were doing.”

Chuckling, Leyai turned her gaze into
Pesstian’s disappointed stare when she whispered, “You won’t
believe this—but—they actually
do
have trouble on this
device. I couldn’t believe it at all!”

A startled look spreading on his face,
Pesstian found himself nearly dumbfounded when he asked, “I knew
that we had a lot of troubles on this device, but why would the
humans make something that they can barely even walk on?”

“I don’t know,” Leyai replied with a shrug.
“The humans have always seemed strange to me, but I never—” Without
any warning, Leyai was interrupted by the group of humans as they
stood above her, gradually creaking the door open.

As two moaning humans opened the trapdoor,
the owls were mystified with how the humans hadn’t any food to
offer—even though they had just been fed. Once they had taken sight
of the humans, they noticed as the invaders almost immediately
pushed themselves away from the trapdoor, leaving it wide open all
the while. Confused, a wave of murmuring passed between the little
owls.

“What’s going on?” Pesstian whispered to
himself in question.

Thinking the question had been meant for her,
Leyai nervously responded, “I don’t know—but I don’t think we’re
going to like it.” It was at this moment when every feather in
Leyai’s body began to quiver and press up against Pesstian.

Continuing to shake, a large part of Leyai
mind screamed at her,
Your fate will soon become that of the
swimming owl’s.
While this part of her only helped to ring a
bell of fear through the walls of her head, another part of Leyai
told her she was to rise up against the humans.

As she struggled to decide which side of her
mind she should have listened to, Leyai gave her eyes a tight close
while fighting back tears. Trying not to seem emotional—or even
weak—in Pesstian’s presence, Leyai twisted her head in the
direction opposite from him.

Even with her body literally shaking and
flowing with fear, Leyai opened her eyes just a slit. With time did
her eyes open wide—with time did her head point toward her body
ceasing to shake. Feeling her fear easier to control than it had
been a moment ago, Leyai violently shook her head and blinked.

As her talons shook, each of her claws dug
into the wooden floor. Although she had taken little notice, the
majority of the rushing in her blood came from a sense of
anger—rather than fear. It was only after opening her wide eyes
when the whole of her fear was replaced with anger and contempt for
the humans.

Taking notice as his friend pushed herself
away from him, Pesstian confusedly asked through a whisper, “Leyai!
What are you doing?”

The words echoing in her head, Leyai didn’t
even dare to pause in response to Pesstian’s question; she hadn’t
taken any acknowledgement at all. Without a single word, Leyai
lifted her wings into the air and flew up through the hole in the
ceiling.

Landing upon the top floor of the humans’
oceanic device, Leyai constantly repeated to herself,
I can
fight against the humans! They’re nothing without their special
equipment!

The dangerous little owl expected the humans
who had opened the trapdoor to have been on the same floor that she
had just flown up to. Much to her confusion, there hadn’t been any
trace of the humans anywhere.

Worried for Leyai’s sake, Pesstian hovered
his head up over the ceiling’s hole and stealthily gripped his
talons around the edge of the trapdoor.
She has no idea what
she’s getting herself into,
he silently sighed.
As do I
.
Upon successfully doing so did Pesstian quickly flap his way behind
a large pole—hoping to safely see what Leyai was up to from a
distance.

Aware of how rude he might have seemed for
invading Leyai’s privacy, Pesstian gave his body a quick shudder
before Leyai could have noticed anything. Thoughts of worry
entering his mind, a sense of guilt ebbed through his head, urging
him to head back into the room.

However, before he received the chance to
take so much as a single step, a shock of confusion sprang through
his mind when he asked himself,
Where are the humans?
It was
only a heartbeat after silently asking himself this question when
he noticed as Leyai asked herself the very same thing through a
murmur. As such a noise rang in his ears, Pesstian noticed as Leyai
curiously hopped her way across the floor.

All fear of losing his life beneath the
human’s grasp suddenly faded away as Pesstian came away from the
pole and softly asked, “Where do they think they went?”

Paying no heed to Pesstian’s words, Leyai
drew her gaze toward a strange, transparent human fabric attached
to the doors of a small room. Behind this fabric came a strange
light; she noticed as its shades of yellow and orange penetrated
her tear-brimmed eyes—almost like a flame. Unsure of what this
flame could have been doing in the room, Leyai nervously asked her
friend, “Pesstian—are the humans dying?”

“What do you mean?” Pesstian asked hesitantly
while brushing up next to Leyai. “What makes you say they’re
dying?” he wondered as he turned his gaze toward the orange light.
It was only a heartbeat after looking through the transparent
fabric when he shared the same thoughts as Leyai.

His heart leaping out and about in his chest,
Pesstian flapped his way toward the doors as he peered through the
transparent fabric. His talons clutching onto the rim surrounded by
fabric, a sigh of relief escaped from his beak.
The humans are
alright!
Confusingly enough, however, the humans inside the
room had paid no heed to the fire—as if they had meant for it to be
there.

Peering even further into the room, Pesstian
noticed as of one of the humans caught sight of him. Such an
incident found himself far too dumbfounded to move so much as a
single muscle. Much to the little owl’s surprise, the human simply
gave a small gesture of his hand while—at the same time—allowing a
smile to sprout between his lips.

This sight splashing into his eyes, a wave of
questions flared in Pesstian’s mind as he jumped away from the
doors.
The human looked at me—and he’s not going to do anything
about me being here? Then why did that other human—?

As he slowly floated down to the ground, the
words, “What happened?” sprouted from Leyai’s beak. Shaking
lightly, Pesstian found himself unable to immediately respond to
Leyai’s question.
It looked at me!

Growing impatient, Leyai repeated, “What
happened?”

Pesstian slowly turned his gaze toward his
repetitious friend as he pointed toward the two large doors.
Trembling slightly, he responded, “It smiled at me!”

“So they’re okay?” Leyai asked with a small
sneer forming in her voice. A pause of silence filling the air, she
decided to break the eerie silence when she asked, “And what do you
mean ‘it smiled’ at you?”

“It didn’t even attack me,” Pesstian
muttered, his blood growing slightly warmer. “The humans in there
were fine—and they didn’t even mind that I was there.”

“Wait,” Leyai began as she put a confused
look on her face. “The humans aren’t dead, they saw you watching
them, and they didn’t do anything?”

“All they did was look at me. Well—at least
one
of them looked at me!”

“Why wouldn’t they do something about us if
they knew that we were out and about?”

Sighing, Pesstian attempted to think of
whatever the reason should have been for the humans not doing
anything to bring the owls’ presence to an end. While thinking of
such a reason, images of the little owl falling into the ocean
clouded his eyes once more.

When the other owl was killed
, he
silently reminded himself,
the human was very angry at
all
of us.
A pause of inaction disrupting his train of thought,
Pesstian remembered how he and the other owls placed a series of
scratches upon the human’s skin.
If that happened to me, I would
be angry, too,
Pesstian thought with a chuckle.

Maybe the human killed one of us because
it was angry
, Pesstian hypothesized once the enjoyable moment
of laughter had come to pass.
If
I
were as angry as the
human was earlier, I would probably want to hurt somebody. I don’t
know if I would want to
kill
another animal, though.

After allowing this short moment of thought
to slip into place, Pesstian concluded through his beak, “I guess
the humans in that room are actually
letting
us come out
from the room!”

The muscles in her face tensing, Leyai nearly
let out a snort of laughter when she responded, “That’s silly! Why
would the humans want us to come out
just
after they killed
one of us?”

“Only
one
of the humans killed one of
us,” Pesstian pointed out. “Just because one of them killed one of
us doesn’t mean that
all
of the humans want to kill us for
leaving our room. The last time they opened the door, they kept it
open without doing anything else.”

These words echoing against the walls of her
head, a spark of impression swelled through Leyai’s blood when she
murmured, “You’re even smarter than I thought you were!”

As a small grin made its way onto his face,
Pesstian flipped his gaze toward the hole and took sight of the
group of small owls poking their heads through. This sight nearly
blocking his vision, Pesstian beckoned the other owls when he
explained, “Hey—it’s okay! The humans are fine with us being
here.”

Both confusion and relief spread over every
one of the little owls as the sound of joyful fluttering began to
fill the air. Such a noise made both Pesstian and Leyai feel almost
as if they had returned to their original homes.