Night Fury's Wrath

Chapter 27: Manipulator

Fatigue was a new constant in my life. Roughly two weeks had passed since we escaped that Hel hole, two weeks spent mostly recovering, but I still felt tired. It was a small miracle that none of the Scoots had found us, though we hadn't escaped the island yet, so we weren't safe. It was with that thought in mind that we decided to leave the island as soon as Nibbler and I were strong enough to fly, even if that meant only reaching the nearest island. There was only one problem.

"What do you mean you can't fly?"

Nox avoided our stares, embarrassed. "I never learned. There was no point in there."

"Oh." That made a lot of sense, actually.

"How did you learn?"

I flinched, vividly remembering Mom dropping me to teach me the 'old way.' "W-We're not doing that." Not only would it be extremely difficult for me to carry Nox that high, it would also be impossible to catch her if she failed. Even the gentler way Mom taught me wouldn't work here; I still couldn't safely carry Nox that high.

"Then how do I learn?" This was probably the first time that she was genuinely interested in something other than flirting with me in the past week. I planned on enjoying every second of it.

"You'll have to learn on the ground." It would be awkward and tedious, for sure, but still doable. "We don't have any other option."

Nox brought her tail around and studied it, experimentally flaring her tail-fins. "What do these do?" If I had to explain what tail-fins, of all things, did, then this was going to be harder than I thought. Regardless, I resigned myself to teaching her pretty much everything her body was supposed to do to fly. She even looked shocked that she had to flap her wings to get off the ground.

Ignorance was understandable, but this was plain ridiculous. What did she expect her wings to do, magically lift her into the sky by asking nicely?

Still, despite my frustration, I was careful to keep my emotions hidden. If she knew how severe her lack of knowledge was, then she'd become discouraged and quit. If she quit, then she'd surely die here. As it was, simply getting her to stand on the scraggly grass had been a challenge.

After many hours of talking, my voice became scratchy until it stopped working completely. The moon was already low in the sky by that time, so Nibbler urged me to head back to the burrow, Nox following suit. Only when I laid down near the back wall and got comfortable did I really feel how tired I was. I hardly felt Nibbler settle down at my side before my exhaustion caught up with me, too tired to care.

I woke up to the sound of shuffling paws, seeing Nibbler squeezing in through the tunnel with two skinny rabbits in her jaws, dangling by their ears. Seeing that she was limping, I sent her a worried look. She flinched and tossed the slightly skinnier one at Nox, startling her from her sleep, then dropped the second one at my paws with a smile, neglecting to answer my implied question. It was by unspoken agreement that Nibbler and I got the fatter prey so that we could recover faster. Nox didn't need it as badly as we did.

I took the offered rabbit in my maw and swallowed it whole, giving Nibbler a grateful hum. Or, I tried to, but it seemed my voice hadn't returned quite yet. She grinned, teasing me for that.

"Yeah, yeah," I whispered with a roll of my eyes, unable to help a smile. "Very funny."

"Come on!" Nox grumbled, already turning for the exit tunnel. "Quit wasting time and teach me to fly." She didn't wait for an answer, squeezing herself into and up the tunnel. Nibbler shot me a disgruntled look, very clearly expressing her opinion on Nox's attitude.