• Previous Chapters:
    Chapter One - 'Thoughts'
    Chapter Two - 'Rebirth'
    Chapter Three - 'Flying Nightmares'
    Chapter Four - 'A Rogue Echo'
    Chapter Five - 'The Medical Roost'
    Chapter Six - 'A Chance to Think'
    Chapter Seven - 'Interrupted Dream'
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    ‘Condolences’

    -Noxx/Mist-

    Aria sniffed harshly as she smelled the sharp scent of smoke in the area, the owls had stoked one of their hidden Fire Keeps in preparation for The Burning ceremony. In a few hours, a procession of owls would be slowly flying towards the Nursery Roost with burning branches in their claws…it would be just like a century ago, only the intention of the owls weren’t particularly harmful this time; the only thing that would be burned now is the body of a dead bat…maybe two, if Muse and Lyre had spoken the truth about Katarra.

    Without giving Noxx a second thought, she spread her wings and took to the air. Her destination wasn’t quite as high as her two underlings; she was heading for a ledge protruding from the outer wall in the center of Tree haven, a ledge commonly used for announcements.

    She spread her wings to their full length and held them high, signaling all who saw her to silence themselves and those around them, “My fellow Silverwings,” she began, a hint of convincing, yet false, sadness rang in her voice, “It is with great regret that I come to you this evening to inform you that our beloved Corona Silverwing has passed on…”

    She paused for a moment to let her news sink in. Her lips parted in a small smile as she listened to the gasps and whimpers of the bats around her, she liked to hear their disappointment the most, “The Burning Ceremony will take place at dawn. I’m sure it would have been Corona’s wish for you all to see her fly into Nocturna’s nurturing wings.” As she finished, she folded her wings around her and bowed politely to those who listened, and took to the air to join her fellow elders in signaling the Torch Carriers.

    Many bats went about their normal business of grooming and hunting, others were genuinely shocked to hear about Corona. She had always been healthy, or at least she always seemed it. She had been taking more and more trips to the medical roost, but many always thought that she was just concerned about Katarra and wished to learn how to treat any possible problem she may have…to have her die so suddenly, it was horrible news indeed.

    Cautiously, Noxx sniffed the air to look for the scent of Aria or the other elders. When he was certain that none of them were around, he rolled over onto his belly, he must’ve moved around quite a bit last night, he remembered going to sleep on his stomach. He had two places he needed to visit; his mother’s roost and the roost of that white female. Right now, his mother was his main concern. Aria had given them herbs to sleep, he was sure they were safe. Both he and his mother ate them nearly every night and they were still alive…but they normally only had one between the two of them…what would three do to her?

    He hurriedly flew off to his roost, hoping to see his mother’s smiling face as he approached. For once, his hopes weren’t dashed immediately, his mother was still lying down, but he was sure he had caught his scent as he flew, because she had turned her head just slightly and was smiling kindly at him, “Noxx…sweetie, how are you feeling?”

    His heart fluttered as she spoke, even though it had only been a night, he felt like he hadn’t been around her in a lifetime. He suppressed a small giggle of happiness as he pressed himself into his mother’s soft fur in a loving nuzzle, “I feel just fine mom, I slept so well!” his smile faded slightly as he remembered how tired she looked the night before, “How’re you, mom? Are you feeling any better now?”

    She smiled and slowly ran her claws through the fur on the back of his neck, “…I’m still a little tired, honey, but the herbs haven’t really worn off yet. Aria’s announcement woke me…” she yawned slightly, “…a few more hours and I’ll be okay…then we can see poor Corona off together…”

    He nodded, he didn’t want to tell her about what he had heard and what was beginning to think the elders were doing. She was still tired and seemed to still have a lot on her mind, he wasn’t going to worry his mother any more than she already was if he could help it. “I’m going to hunt for a little bit, okay mom?” he wasn’t lying, he’d go out and hunt later…he needed to see Katarra first.

    Serena yawned much louder this time and she was having trouble keeping her eyes more than half open, “okay Noxx, please be careful…and stay away from the owls, they may not be a war with us anymore, but you can never trust a bird carrying fire.”

    He smiled at her concern, the more she warned him about things, the more he felt the strong sense of love for her, “I’ll be careful, mom.” he nuzzled her again, “Sleep well, okay?” Her soft breathing told him she was going to do just that.

    He turned his back to his sleeping mother and spread his wings, only to realize he didn’t know where Katarra and her mother roosted. He paused and sniffed the air, trying to find her scent in the mixed air of all the other scents; not only was her scent jumbled up somewhere in this mess of smells, her scent had been masked by the air of the medical roost, he wasn’t sure he’d ever find Katarra this way. Just as he was about to fly downwards to the exit knothole he was most familiar with, he heard a familiar voice.

    “…Smallwing…”

    He looked down and saw Mist making her way up to him. His ears lowered as he watched her, something seemed different, she wasn’t the cheerful little bat she always was. Her face was soaked with tears and that concerned Noxx…he had never seen his friend cry.

    When she landed beside him, he looked at her and tilted his head, “…I guess you heard what Aria said…” immediately after ‘said’ left his mouth, he wished he hadn’t said a thing.

    Mist’s eyes filled with tears again and she fell into him, sobbing loudly, “Oh Noxx…she was my grandmother…I didn’t know her very well…we only hunted together a few times, she was always so nice to me. She always let me have the best bugs when we flew together.” she pressed her face into his chest as she sobbed, anything else she may have wanted to say was lost to her tears.

    Her whole body was shaking and he didn’t know who to console her…what were you supposed to say when you’re friend lost a family member? Slowly, he wrapped one wing around her, trying to calm her shaking, “…it’s alright, Mist…Corona is fine now…” he scratched the back of her head with his left claws, it was all he could think to do, “…in fact, I think she’s with us right now…her spirit, I mean…”

    She sniffed, he felt her breath pulling his fur, “…How can you say that, Noxx? The Burning hasn’t happened yet…you can’t tell me she’s with us when they haven’t sent her to Nocturna yet!” she looked up at him with anger and disbelief in her eyes, “…don’t say things just because you think that would make me feel better!” she was angry with him, but she still clung to him. He was all she could turn to now, her mother never seemed to listen.

    He sighed, “…I just…” he wasn’t going to say he had a vision, she never seemed to like it when he talked about his visions…but he had to tell her somehow, he needed her to know what he saw. He took a breath as he remembered how Corona looked and sang out sound to Mist’s ears. He tried to show her bits of what he saw…he didn’t understand why he tried though, he was good at listening, but he was always so clumsy at using his own sound.

    Mist gasped as the image of her Grandmother flew through her mind’s eye. It was fuzzy, but it was so easy for her tell that it was Corona. Tears formed in her eyes as she watched her grandmother fly over fuzzy-looking, dried up riverbeds and through a flaming tree. Noxx couldn’t transfer the feelings he knew Corona felt, but he could tell Mist understood what he was trying to tell her.

    She stared at him in disbelief as he finished, “How did you?…” newborns couldn’t normally sing echo pictures to others, even most adults had trouble showing echo pictures to others. Mothers could show sound maps to their newborns, but they could seldom do little more than that. She didn’t want to ask anymore, she just smiled and pressed her face back into his warm fur.

    He could hear her mutter a muffled ‘thank you’ against his fur, and that made him smile. He was glad he could help her, he was glad he could repay her for all the times she made him feel better. Now that he knew that she was related to Corona, that meant she was also related to the white female. He’d ask Mist to take him up to their roost later, but for now, he wanted to help her get her mind off of things, “…Mist…would you like to go hunt?”

    She stepped away from him and nodded, “yeah, Noxx, I’d like that…” before Noxx had the change to spread his wings and jump into the air, she stepped forward and tugged gently on his wing, “…Noxx?…”

    He lowered his wings and turned to face her, “what?”

    She stepped even closer to him and pressed her nose to his in an awkward sort of kiss, “…thank you so much…” she giggled softly as she noticed a blush darken his fur and winked at him, the Mist he knew had finally returned, “C’mon Hero, let’s go hunt!” she jumped from the ledge and dove for the nearest knothole to wait for him outside of the tree.