Chapter 3

Whoo, its done. I expect that Chapters 4-6 and possibly 7-8 will be done soon edit: I found some grammatical mistakes, so I fixed them

Molento opened his eyes. Above him, late evening light streamed through a window, illuminating swirling clouds of dust. Molento turned his head and saw a table and some chairs. For a moment, Molento wondered where he was. Then it all came flooding back to him: waking up with no clue about anything, Eliena, David, the plow, the village, John, the Nekons, the castle, and the fight. Then, some older memories: the Army, two letters, the flight, and the arrow. Other than that, nothing.

Molento sat up, bandages on the left side of his torso and left arm constricting his movement. From his new vantage point higher up from the floor, Molento realized that Eliena was sitting in one of the chairs, head on the table, apparently asleep.

David walked in the front door and looked over at the corner where Molento sat.

“Ah, good, you’re awake,” he commented.

“Wergh,” Molento responded.

“I wanted to talk to you about something.”

He pulled up a chair and sat in it, taking care to not wake Eliena. “Where exactly did you go to run away from the Nekons,” he asked, facing Molento.

Molento’s head started throbbing, and his eyes drooped. “The castle.”

“What castle?”

“The one above the… village,” he said, a huge yawn cutting through his sentence.

“What! How did you get up there? I know you could fly, but what about Eliena? For that matter, how did you outrun the Nekons? Eliena can’t fly, and she certainly can’t outrun Nekons.”

“I… carried… her,” two huge yawns separated his words.

“What! You carried her? That distance? Are you crazy?”

“It was… important… and I… probably am… slightly…crazy.”

“Why was it important to you?”

“No more… civilians… should get… hurt.”

Having said that, Molento’s eyes closed and he immediately fell asleep once more.

 

Eliena woke up. She looked around, surprised. Judging by the light, she had been asleep for a few hours. Molento still lay before her, on the bedroll her and her father had rolled out for him the day before.

“I wonder if he’s alright,” Eliena worried to herself, not knowing her father was right behind her, “he’s been asleep for so long.”

“He woke up earlier,” David said, startling Eliena, “We talked for a minute or two before he fell asleep again.”

“What did you talk about?”

“What happened when you two ran from the Nekons? Judging by what he told me and what I witnessed myself, he wore himself out to keep you safe.”

“I wonder why he did all that to protect me.”

“He said it was because he didn’t want more civilians to get hurt, whatever that means. Come, let’s have dinner, he needs to rest and recover, but he’ll be fine.”

Eliena continued to look at Molento, unconvinced. David put his hand on her shoulder and she got up reluctantly.

 

Molento woke up again. This time, bright morning light filled the house, and Eliena was nowhere to be seen. He sat up and looked around. Finding the room empty, he stood up and looked out the window. Still finding no one, he walked over to the door and reached for the knob with his left hand. Blinding pain in his shoulder stopped him before he had lifted his arm more than a few inches, and he let his hand flop down to his side.

Molento reached for the knob again, this time with his right hand. Opening the door slowly, Molento checked to make sure that no one was around. Still not seeing anyone, he continued outside and closed the door behind him.

Around him, the farm was completely plowed and planted, but the neat, orderly rows were completely deserted. “How long was I out,” Molento thought as he looked around. He heard something at the back of the house, and started his way towards it.

As he rounded the corner, Molento was presented with a strange sight. Eliena was standing on the roof, and a ladder stretched up, allowing access. David stood about twenty feet away from the house, beckoning her to jump. Neither had noticed Molento yet, so he leaned back and rested on the wall.

“Come on,” David said to Eliena, “Jump down, extend your wings and fly.”

“I-I don’t think it’s that simple,” Eliena replied, voice quavering with fear, “I can’t do this, I’m climbing down.”

Eliena started to turn to head back to the ladder, but she lost her footing and fell. Immediately, her wings snapped open, fitting through slits cut into the back of her shirt, and she gently floated down. Astonished, she touched down right in front of her father. A grin split David’s face in half.

Seizing the chance to let them know he was watching, Molento started clapping slowly and walked over to them. At the sound of the applause, Eliena and David turned toward Molento, surprised.

“Look who’s awake,” David said dryly, “took ya long enough; you were out about two days.”

“Really, that long,” Molento asked, surprised.

“Yes, and you’re lucky it wasn’t longer. In the state you were in, you should’ve been resting, not running around and getting into fights where you were hopelessly outnumbered.”

“Would you rather I hadn’t?”

David sighed in resignation. “No.”

“Then what’s done is done. It needed doing. I survived, Eliena survived, you survived, so no use dwelling on it any longer.”

Turning to Eliena, he continued. “Nice flying for a beginner, but how about I show you how an expert does it?”

“No,” David answered for her, “I am not going to let you kill yourself after saving Eliena’s, and possibly my, life. You are going to go back and rest.”

“Ah, you worry too much,” Molento replied, walking towards the ladder, “I’m not going to kill myself. I’ll be fine.”

Molento climbed up the ladder and walked over to where Eliena had been standing a minute ago, not even slipping slightly on the slick surface of the roof.

“Watch a master at work,” he said, and he jumped. Midair, he decided to mess with them a little. Timing it just right, at the top of his jump, he yelled, “Oops, I forgot how to fly,” and allowed himself to fall towards the ground.

David and Eliena watched in horror, believing that Molento was about to get seriously injured. At the last possible second, however, he flared his wings, swooped gracefully back up, beet skimming the ground at the bottom of his dive.

“Just kidding,” he laughed, seeing the looks on Eliena and David’s faces.

“You idiot,” Eliena yelled once she recovered from the shock, “Why did you do that? I’ll kill you for pulling a numbskull trick like that!”

“Only if you can catch me,” Molento taunted, landing on the roof again.

Eliena, shouting in rage, ran over to the ladder and started climbing up it. As soon as she got up on the roof, she started to storm after Molento, sliding dangerously. Molento slowly backed up until he reached the peak of the roof, and turned, walking backwards along it until he was at the edge of the roof. Eliena, who had followed him up to the peak of the roof, her feet gaining better traction, started to approach Molento faster, looking triumphant. “I’ve got you now,” she cried.

“Nope,” Molento responded calmly, “You’re forgetting one thing.”

“Oh, and what’s that,” Eliena demanded, reaching him.

“I know how to fly.”

Molento jumped backwards, narrowly avoiding Eliena’s hand as she reached out to grab his shirt, did a back flip in midair, and hovered beside the house, just outside of reach.

“You- just- I- you- Grrrraaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh,” Eliena yelled, frustrated, and jumped out after him. Molento merely flew backwards and watched as Eliena slowly started to lose altitude.

“You’re not doing it right,” Molento told her.

“No, really,” Eliena replied sarcastically.

“Just watch my wings,” Molento continued, ignoring her outburst.

Eliena looked closer and noticed that Molento’s wings weren’t completely still, as she had previously thought, but moving slightly back and forth, keeping him aloft.

“It almost looks lit you’re treading water,” Eliena commented, copying him.

“Doing what,” Molento asked, mystified.

“Treading wa- you don’t remember how swim?”

“I don’t think I ever learned. Not that I don’t like water, it’s just I never learned.”

“Does that mean you remember?”

“Nope.”

On that senseless note, Molento swooped down and landed on the ground.

“You aren’t acting injured,” Eliena noticed, landing next to him.

“I guess I can handle pain; I didn’t even notice.”

“Hmm,” Eliena responded, following him as he walked through the field, carefully avoiding the seeds. “Where are you going,” she asked.

Molento didn’t respond; instead he stopped, his eyes fixed on a point off in the distance. Looking up, Eliena followed his gaze. “The castle,” she thought, “He’s looking at the castle.”

After a long silence, Eliena noticed that Molento’s shoulders were shaking and tears were silently rolling down his face. She reached out a hand and rested it on his good shoulder.

“It wasn’t your fault,” she assured, “there was no way you could have stopped it.”

“You don’t know that,” he responded his voice hollow and defeated, hoarse from his tears, “You weren’t there, you don’t know that.”

“No, but it wasn’t your fault, you weren’t responsible for them, it wasn’t you decision.”

“Yes it was.”

“What?”

“I built the Army from scratch. I was their leader. They believed in me, they believed that I would keep them safe, even though only a handful of people actually saw me or heard me speak. I used my second-in-commands for that.”

“Why?”

“I’m an abomination- half Avin, half Nekon. I’m also only a child. Who would follow me?”

“I would.”

Molento turned to Eliena, astonished. “But you’ve only known me a few days, and in that time I jeopardized your life multiple times.”

Eliena thought about that for a moment or two. True, he had put her life in danger, but, inexplicably, throughout the whole thing, she had felt safe. Aloud, she said, “Yes, but you also saved it multiple times.”

Molento smiled and turned back to the castle, eyes dry. “Thank you,” he said.

“For what?”

“For making me believe in myself again.”

Molento examined the ruined castle high above them; his eyes narrowed as he noticed something. “There’s movement up there.”

“What! Where,” Eliena asked, turning to look at the castle, “I don’t see anything.”

“There, look,” Molento insisted, “It looks like there are people up there.”

Eliena looked again, and this time noticed small dots of color moving around the castle.

“I’m going to go check it out,” Molento said, getting ready to fly.

“Wait, what if they’re not friendly? I’m coming with you, just wait a second.”

Eliena ran back into the house and a moment later ran back out, carrying Molento’s sword belt and her spear.

“We’ll be back soon,” she shouted to her father.

“Where are you going,” David yelled back.

“Just going to fly around.”

Eliena reached Molento and handed him his swords and he buckled them back on.

“Thanks,” he said, “but you shouldn’t come with me, it might be dangerous.”

“I’m coming,” Eliena said, rising into the air.

“Alright, then,” Molento conceded, rising alongside her, “but why didn’t you tell your father where we’re going?”

“He’ll just worry too much.”

They continued to rise as they talked. Soon they were level with the castle, but they continued rising until they were level with the top of the mountain the castle was on. Locking his wings, Molento glided towards the castle, and Eliena followed suit.

“Why are we so high,” Eliena asked, pulling up next to Molento.

“In case they’re not friendly,” Molento responded.

As they got closer, Molento thought he recognized at least some of the figures. They glided until they were directly above the castle. Three hundred feet below, about forty or fifty figures milled around, watching them. One of the figures ran over to another, and bits of a conversation drifted up to Molento and Eliena.

“One… different.”

“How…”

“… Has fur.”

The one figure looked back up and yelled at them. “You can come down now, friend.”