The Thief With Wings (BOOK 1# OF THE TRILOGY SERIES) *Completed*

Chapter 30.

-Gale's pov- 

"Gah!"

I nearly stumbled over my own tail as I awoke later that morning, the remaining fragments of the nightmare still trying to shake themselves off of me. Was that a vision or was it more like a common nightmare... If it was then why did it feel so realistic? on the other hand, why was it only showing Cree and nobody else except for those masked figures? Questions whirled through my mind like wild fire, spreading ever so quickly and painfully it was making my mind feel extremely dizzy and fuzzy. However a soft hand soon came in contact with my fur and began to rub itself around in small circles, trying to help me snap back to my senses which nonetheless turned up making me almost stand on end with quaky feet. "Whoa! Easy there, don't get your fur in a tangle... It's just me." A familiar and soothing voice spoke as it's hand removed itself almost instantly as I tensed up. I turned my head towards the source of the voice to find Cadence kneeling beside me, her face still cloaked under that dark dusky lavender hood while her eyes still shined brightly like the sun over a clear sky.  "Sounds like you had a rough sleep, didn't you? A nightmare perhaps?" She spoke softly as she kept her calming pale blue gaze targeted straight on me while the faint sounds of her gryphon snoring echoed behind her. I nodded before turning my gaze over towards the dawning sky.

"You know... I remember a scenario like this, quite recently to be totally persist." Cadence spoke as she dumped some water into a wooden bowl beside her from her canteen, pushing it towards me incase I needed a drink and boy did I ever need it right now. " A few weeks back, we... well I and a few of my friends who were in the same thief clan as I was. We were traveling back to our hometown, known as the thief city and with us was a young girl. A young girl that we managed to rescue from the facility, she was pretty much banged and bruised up greatly along with having these extraordinary pair of wings that almost shined like a swan flying against the moon's gentle light. At first Raymond was quite happy that we managed to bring her back with us for he had... Plans that would probably help brighten her world up a slight bit at the very least. But then... almost a week later, she had mysteriously vanished into thin air without a trace.  Nobody knew where she went nor if she was even planning on coming back, I wouldn't exactly blame her after the kinds of hell she went through but after what was about several days... Raymond had considered her dead and that all hope was lost now. That was the reason I  decided to leave the thief city completely... to see if there was any shrew evidence of any sort that-"

"That I may had still been alive." I finished her sentence, cutting her off completely. I figured it was time she knew the truth behind my actions and how I could understand human characteristics surprisingly well considering how I appeared to be a primal wolf who had spent most of her life in the wilderness. Glancing back towards her, she nearly appeared to be quite rattled that I... No a wolf could speak fluently in human language. "H-How? How do you know how to speak my language? W-Wolves can't talk!" She spoke in a startled tone. I sighed before allowing my mind to link with Olivia's, giving her one simple command that was pretty much all she needed to hear. "Olivia... allow my wings to be seen once more." With that, I felt myself become enveloped in a dazzle of light and before I even had the chance to blink... I could feel my body reversing itself back to normal along with my wings untucking themselves and stretching towards the sky.

"I... I don't believe it! It was you hiding under that beast's body this entire time?" Cadence nearly blurted out to break the shocking silence, her eyes looking quite bewildered from what she had just witnessed. I could only feel a slight tint of happiness crawl upon my face only to have it washed away by sadness, I made a sworn promise to William that I wouldn't change forms that much unless it was truly needed and yet here had that promise been broken slightly by revealing my true self to Cadence when she could have just known me as a way warding wolf who was just wandering this world for a mate and nothing else. "Im sure you've got a few questions about me and the actions I've made but to be completely honest, most of them were ones I didn't choose to make." I spoke as I placed one hand over my other arm, turning my gaze down towards my feet in slight disgrace. Instead a hand came into place while another went onto my other shoulder. " I do apologize for my sudden gasp of shock, it's just that I didn't think that the winged child herself was capable of doing such things like that! Since when could you change forms?" She spoke in a more calmer tone, her eyes filled with curiosity that it was nearly leaking at the very base. Heck, if she thinks that being able to change forms is something then she hasn't seen anything yet.  Without any questions, I quickly grabbed ahold of one her hands to see a small knife like cut poking out of her leather coat. "what's this?"

"Oh this... It's nothing... Honestly"

"It doesn't appear that way to me, besides it's going to get infected if you leave it open like this. Let me help..."

As the moment passed when my eyes fell to the darkness, I could feel the slight tingles of my energy tinkling away towards her arm. Picturing the wound's recovery state without even happening to glance at it, not only would my ability to heal would patch up the wound but it would allow its healing rate to move a lot more quicker with any others that were nearby. Parts of the time I could feel Cadence fidgeting slightly from my grasp being a little tight, but after another brief moment I finally allowed myself to let go.  "There, that should take care of it at least until it can fully patch itself up on its own" I spoke calmly  as my hands retreated to their sides. 

"How... How in the world did you do that?"

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-Conner's pov-

"Jesus, I didn't think that our gryphons could fly this rapid! Well at least Rainquill at the very least."

Whisking above the snowy pines, I could feel the sudden bursts of wind attacking me at the front. Feeling like frozen spears of ice whipping themselves against my face at a very hasty pace till it felt like my entire body had been bruised by it without much mere contact. The gryphons didn't seem to care though, all they wanted was to show us something rather important and I doubt they were going to allow us to turn back at any point now. Determination filled their eyes before Rainquill made a sudden decent towards the forest, aiming for a thin straight clearing that was leading towards the horizon while Thorncrest followed closely behind her. Making me almost get flung off by his brutal strength like flipping coins, however the queen kept a firm grip on me while holding onto the saddle at the exact same time so she wouldn't accidentally fall of from the side. "Are your gryphons normally this hyper?" She asked as we started to slow downwards when the ground began to decrease in distance, I shook my head while keeping my eyes open for any straying branches. "No, normally these guys are quite calm and docile even on search missions. I've never seen them this agitated and determined. Especially Rainquill, she is usually a lot more calmer and tranquil then Thorncrest here so its quite rare to her in this kind of state." I responded before both of them came to a screeching halt. "Looks like we are where they wanted to go so lets see what's got them so fired up." 

As we unmounted ourselves from our gryphons, I noticed that there were tracks... Tire tracks, leading away from the straying wood and towards the distance which appeared to be thinning out a lot more. Indicating that a large frozen field lied ahead of us. But why would Rainquill bring us here? Its not like there is any evidence of a struggle or some sort of kidnapping going on here... Thats when I noticed it. There hiding in the snow was a small shiny dagger along with a note tied to it with a thin black ribbon, Wait a minute... That was one of Cree's ribbons! "Um dude, I think I found a little something that this cargo holder left behind... and I might know who had sent it." I spoke, picking up the dagger without cutting the ribbon or paper by accident. Unraveling it, The note had only a few mere scribbles which only lead to pure horror amount our very eyes.

"I have been caught by what I think are bounty hunters... by the time you read this note, I will already be long gone. All I know is that we are heading to a city that's located close to the mountains and by the sounds of it, I won't last long.

Please help me..." 

-Cree Rose-