The Death Breathers

Chapter XII

By the time Mynah and I had almost finished our training, Sparrow, Jay, and Swan were all planning how to ambush the Death Beholders.

They did extensive planning, dusk till dawn, never stopping. Jay told me that they'd done planning quite a while ago, but never as panoptic as this.

"Hey, Jay," I said after one of our training lessons.

"Yeah?"

"... When are we planning to do it?"

"When Mynah is completely confident and finished with his training. That'll be a few weeks though. But we've got you to award tonight, too!"

I had finished all of my training, and I felt really confident. I was getting my full Avis mark today, and finally finishing.

Mynah was only at the stage of Transforming. He was a cute bird, I'd seen him fly around.

I'd now officially learnt how to turn into other birds, such as sparrows, ducks, all those common garden birds.

I could also chirp. I could communicate in the Avis language. Somehow I understood what every bird chirp was.

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After dinner that night, we gathered in the clearing, and all the lights were on. Oh, it was so magical!

There were fairy lights wrapped around tree trunks, and spotlights hidden in trees that I didn't know existed.

It was so beautiful with the dark sky.

Jay took my hand and did the tattoo procedure again, but this time he murmured a certain Latin poem.

She shall become
She shall become
She shall become
A full Bird Warrior.

Added to the clan,
She will be strong
Making everything around
Strong as well.

She shall become
A full Bird Warrior.

He finished the connection, and smiled.

"You are now a full Avis Warrior. Fly freely, and fight fiercely. Never forget that."

I smile back. "Thank you."

I breathe out heavily and return to my spot in the horseshoe.

"So, as soon as Mynah has finished his training, we will get straight into preparing for the Death Beholders. We've planned for a week of preparing, so make sure you're all set and pumped. We are finally going to save the world!"

Everyone cheers. "Whoop!"

"Okay, let's all head back to our nests now, but of course..."

"Fly freely, and fight fiercely," we all say, our hearts swelling with imperishable pride.

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Jay comes to my nest with me. "So, you set?"

"I'm so nervous about this."

"Hey, everyone is. I know I am, I don't want to die. But, we all have to face it. It's what we've been preparing for our whole lives."

I sigh.

"You're right. I don't have to be neurotic about this! I should be brave and not afraid."

"That's the spirit!" He says.

We both smile in that knowing way, and lean in for a kiss.

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I sleep badly that night. I toss and turn, and every position I tried was either too hot or too cold.

I tried the usual; sticking one leg out of the side of the bed. It worked, but only for about an hour or so.

I woke up in a cold sweat, having nightmares about the Death Beholders.

I fell asleep a little bit after that, only after staring at the ceiling until my eyes started burning, and they automatically closed.

I woke up crying the next time, only to see Jay laying beside me, comforting me.

I knew I wasn't brave. I was so not brave. But I'd told him I was, and I needed to face the truth.

I needed to be brave. For him, I decided.

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The next morning, I wake up with him beside me.

His arm is wrapped around my waist.

Luckily, but also sadly, he has clothes on. I kinda like him shirtless.

Don't tell him that though.

I stay next to him and look up at the ceiling until he wakes up.

I hear him, so I roll over on my side and stroke his hair so he can wake up to my face.

"Mm... oh, g'morning beautiful."

I smile.

"Morning."

"Did you manage to sleep a little bit?"

"Yeah, kinda. But the nightmares..."

"Hey, hey, hey, it's alright. The Death Beholders aren't going to be nice because you had nightmares though."

"Huh. I know. But I'm just so scared. I don't want to die yet."

"I'll make sure we stick together and fight. I'll make sure you don't get hurt."

I kiss his cheek. "Thank you."

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We head down to breakfast later. Today they were serving up pancakes, probably for my finished training.

I munched on some, and being very surprised at how good they were!

After brekky, we went back to my nest to hang out.

"What do you wanna do?"

I looked at the bookshelf. Or, more specifically, the Harry Potter movies.

I didn't describe it yet, but the nests are actually sphere shaped. So there's actually a top floor and a bottom floor.

The bottom floor has a couch and TV. It's dark too, so you can just watch stuff in the dark. Hehe!

I took a blanket and the box set of movies.

"Let's go," I say in an adventurous tone.

We go down the trapdoor and into the basement.

It was so spooky! There wasn't even a torch to see anything. But we figured it out, and the next thing we knew, we were sitting right next to each other on the couch with the blanket over top.

"Hey, Phoenix?"

"Yeah Jay?"

"You never told me about your tattoo anecdote."

I laugh. "Oh, I completely forgot about that one. Okay, well, me and my three friends went to a house party a few months ago, and we were all drunk out of our minds. I've no idea who's idea it was but someone said we should get tattoos, so we stumbled to the nearest tattoo parlour and they all decided I should go first. So me, being an extrovert drunk, said "hell yeah!" and pretty much chose the first thing I saw. I really wanted it under my boob so that if someone saw it during sex they would think it was well kinky. Little did I know, that while having it done, my friends were planning to just leave me in the parlour while they went back to the house party. I got it finished, however I was the only one in the group to get a tattoo and they still mock me about it daily."

"Wow," he said. "Who knew a tattoo could have such a wild backstory?"