Dark Revelations

Dark Revelations, Chapter 2

Kade winced as he plucked another trio of feathers from his wing. After roughly an hour, he had finally managed to cut three notches in one of Yggdrasil's branches and began fitting his feathers into the spaces. Holding it up lengthwise to his eye, he found the feather placement adequate. He kept looking about nervously, unable to shake his uneasy feeling. His mind kept flashing back to Yggdrasil's grove, and Nidhogg's progress on the root.

Should I let the angels know? He thought to himself. He then shook his head sharply. Not my people, not my problem. Let them figure it out for themselves.

He started carving another notch into the front of the arrow for Nidhogg's scale. He paused for a moment. What about Raefiel? We are brothers, after all. Kade pulled a small scrap of parchment an a small stick of charcoal.

'Nidhogg's getting through Yggdrasil's root. Spread the word if you think you should.' He wrote out.

Opening the window in his hut, Kade whistled a few notes into the woods. On cue, a little wren landed on his windowsill. Taking a tiny length of cord, he delicately tied the message to the tiny bird's leg. He leaned in close to the wren. "Raefiel." He whispered lightly to the bird. He then tapped the little bird's back, which gave a little tweet before it flew off.

Go quickly, little wren. He thought. No one may know how much time they have.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

"C'mon Claire, we've been coming out here every day and we haven't found any invasive species for your report." Claire's partner complained, making her blue eyes roll in annoyance.

"Invasive species are everywhere, we just need to look more, and be patient." She replied.

"We're both getting covered in those sticky... seed... things." Her partner whined. Running her fingers through her dirty blonde ponytail, Claire found a single twig.

"I'll call Student Affairs." She grumbled under her breath.

"Why do we have to look for invasive species in the Redwood Forest? There are other places we can go closer to the campus!"

"It's generally more quiet, it's further from the city, and it's one of the nicest places in California that isn't a beach." Her partner kept whining, and Claire continued to block them out, listening and watching for anything that could help with her report.

Heavy, rapid footfalls distracted both of the students, and a large buck elk burst from the brush and ran past the two.

"What was that?"

"Probably a Roosevelt Elk." Claire paused, then frowned. "They're not usually that active in the mid-afternoon. It would usually take something fairly big to make them move like that around this time."

"So why aren't we running away?" Her partner asked. Claire ignored them, as her curiosity was overriding her fear. She began walking towards the bushes where the elk had come from. "Where are you going?" Her partner called after her. Claire came across a decently-sized clearing, where she found chains, ropes, and several patches of wet ground.

"What happened?" Claire asked rhetorically. Her partner grabbed her arm.

"C'mon, let's get out of here already." Her partner begged. The two jumped when they heard a weak gasp and a dry cough. Turning around, they saw a figure on the ground, their dark clothes blending in with the ground. Getting closer, Claire saw that it was a boy, looking only a few years younger than her. Only a few paces away, Claire realized that his clothes were dark to the point of being black because of the blood that had seeped into them. He was taking shallow, weak breaths.