DarkWing (Final Editing in Progress)

Chapter 20

DarkWing...

My eyes shot open and I spun around. I was in complete darkness.

"Death!" I screamed. There was no response. "Where are you??"

DarkWing...

It sounded as though it had come from behind me. I spun around and scanned the darkness. I couldn't see a thing except for a small imprint in the ground. The asphault around it was cracked and depressed. It looked as if something had landed there powerfully, or someone had punched it. I stepped over it, and began running.

DarkWing...

"I'm coming Death!"

DarkWing...

"Don't worry girl, I'll be there soon!"

DarkWing... DarkWing... DarkWing...

"Death, I'm- augh!" I tripped and fell forward onto the ground. It felt like something had grabbed my foot and caused me to fall. I pushed myself up and looked behind me. There was nothing there. Then I looked at the ground. My eyes grew. "No... That's not possible..." The imprint was right there in front of me. It was the same exact imprint that I had seen when I first arrived. I looked around erratically. "Death, where are you?!?" I screamed. There was no response. "Death!?!!" In the distance, I could hear a quiet hum. "No..." I whispered to myself. "No, please..." The hum approached me in the darkness, slowly growing, slowly overwhelming. It scratched at my ears. I crouched on the ground and covered my ears, but it did nothing. It was as if the sound was coming from my own mind. I couldn't stop it. It grew louder and louder. It scratched, then cut, then tore. It yelled, then screamed, then shrieked. "NO!!! DEATH!!! NO!!!" Cold tears rolled from my eyes. Dripped off of my face, and fell into the darkness.

Cold water dripped onto the back of my neck and pulled me into reality. A prominent sore pain pulsed from my back. For the most part, my right wing's feathers were burned away, and the skin of the ridge of my wing was blistering. My eyes slowly cracked open, and I found myself lying on my stomach on the edge of a large clearing surrounded by a forest. I was lying under a large tree, whose leaves and branches were gently dripping water. The sky was gray, but the air had a morning feel to it. It was fresh, and newly bred. I tried to push myself up off the ground with my arms, but pain shot up my spine as I tried, and I fell back to the ground while letting out a pitiful cry. "Acgh-!" My voice gave out mid-shriek, and I realized how dry my throat was. I turned my head over on the ground, and looked up into the tree. Perched on one of the branches was a raven, whose head was pointed toward the distance but whose eyes were focused on me. I smiled, and thought to him.

9 days... You've been out for 9 days...

My eyes widened and I put my head down. "Nine days," I thought to myself. "Shit, I don't have that kind of fucking time. Shadow needs me. Every second counts." That last phrase echoed in my head. "Every second counts..." I looked up at the raven again. "What happened?"

Storm. You were hit. You went down.

It all slowly came back to me. The clouds, the lightning, the thunder, the pain. "Where am I?" I thought to him.

South...

"That's helpful," I thought to myself. "I should've known. Birds don't exactly recite the names of all 50 states." 

I thought to him again and he nodded. He dropped down from his branch, and the other twelve flew to me from the surrounding trees. I smiled. They had stuck with me. Two grabbed my arms, and lifted my upper body up. I clenched my teeth in pain and held my breath, but refused to let out another whimper. I wasn't doing this for me, I was doing it for Shadow. Four ravens crawled under my now elevated upper body, and braced their backs against my chest. Then, two more ravens grabbed my legs. They lifted my lower body, my back now straightening and giving me an unimaginable amount of relief, and two ravens crawled under each leg. Then, with all twelve in unison, they all began to flap their wings and lifted me off the ground gently. We flew into the forest slowly when I passed out again.