TMLoCL - Chapter 48 P1

*Cadence Lee (as Hewka) POV*

With a strong jump and a beat of my wings, we were in the air and rapidly pulled away from the ground.  I was tempted to put the new saddle to the test and see what Rei thought about flying upside down, but her focus on the mission in front of us helped me keep focus as well.  In theory, our job was easy and safe.  All we had to do was use Taunt and arrows to draw the ire of the Bronzebirds and then use my superior speed to keep just ahead of them until we drew them into the trap.  Simple.

Probably.

Of course, there was the slight issue, which had been brought up, that the Bronzebirds had to come from somewhere.  The chance that a whole flock of some other bird Monster had all evolved into Bronzebirds was higher than it sounded at first - because if they lived in the same conditions they might act similarly in situations and all qualify for it - but it was far less likely than an older Bronzebird had laid Bronzebird eggs.

But where was the older Bronzebird?  There were at least two and they would be far older than the current flock, but no one had reported seeing a larger than normal Bronzebird.  Not that sleep deprived caravans were the greatest at reporting in the first place, it can be hard to tell the size of things in the sky because people lack something to reference as a comparison, but you would think someone would have mentioned it if they noticed.

Hopefully, if there were a couple of older Bronzebirds, they had just been shot down in one of the caravan raids. They still probably couldn’t catch me, but in theory if they were old enough or had a strange evolution path…  Actually, the worst possibility was that they had evolved into something else that would be able to catch me, but unless they were a lot faster than me I didn’t think any of the possible evolutions mentioned would be able to catch me before I made it back to the ambush point, and catching me was only half of the fight.  Rei and I would hardly go down easy.

Without having to accompany a caravan or stay on the ground, I was able to cover a lot of distance and soon we could see the location the Bronzebirds were roosting: a couple of rock formations that jutted out from the forest.  Now came the fun part as I prepared to use my [Aerokinesis] to launch a nonlethal, but extremely annoying, sound attack on them.

Suddenly, however, a wave of sound crashed into us!  A high-pitched metal on metal screeching, almost industrial, sound that immediately caused me to lose my concentration and feel a strange sensation.

“Hewka!” Rei, shouted over the din as she brought her hands to her ears.

“It isn’t me!” I cried out as the strange feeling intensified into a strong feeling of vertigo.  I vomited out the jerky I had eaten even as I fought to keep myself airborne.  The flock of Bronzebirds added their cries to the sound as they took to the sky and the sound paused allowing me to get ahold of myself and see a much larger bird rise with them, its steel feathers gleaming in the sunlight.

Before I could collect myself it opened its beak and once again I was hit by a wave of horrible sound.  It didn’t actually damage me, but the vertigo that accompanied it made flying incredibly difficult.  Forget escaping to the ambush point with my speed, I was having trouble figuring out which way was up!

Another pause in the screeching had me trying to pull my thoughts together. I could do this, I had experience with, and knowledge of, sound.  My Aerokinesis was the only tool I would need, if I could just focus!  Another wave of sound disrupted my thoughts again as we fell towards the forest.

The Bronzebirds, now above us, threw down their feathers and I heard Rei cry out as one of their feathers pierced her shoulder.  Feeling that pain through the bond gave me something to concentrate on and even as the flock descended towards us, something in me snapped.

I was Annora, but for all Annora’s deadliness she wasn’t one to initiate unless told to do so.

I was Hemere, but for all Hemere’s political and personal power, she was so shy and nervous that she rarely confronted anyone.

I am always Cadence, but that core of Cadence is a normal person.  She doesn’t want to fight.

But now, in this life, I am Hewka and despite my lack of focus, I seek out my problems and confront them.  I don’t back down. I don’t give up.  I am all of me that came before and something new besides, and I will have pride in myself and in my past selves.

And since I carry that pride in my past I will not allow myself, the [Siren Princess] Hemere of Ra’Sharon to lose to a wannabe rusty pokemon that can’t carry a tune!

“You will be silent!”

I ordered the world to obey and the air stilled as all sound died, and I flare my wings to catch myself.  Notifications were going off, but I ignored them. The flock had backed off in confusion for a moment, but they were quickly coming back, so I needed to…

SING

“They tried to turn sound against me!?  I will kill them here and now!” is what I wanted to say, but the exhaustion that hit me as my mana dropped to zero and my stamina reached critical levels made that impossible.  I lost control of the air just in time to hear Rei urgently shout to me:

“Hewka, we need to go!”

She had to pull on our bond because I was still furious, but she was right and I started winging it back to the ambush point.

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Thought I'd put part one out right now so that those worried about flags can relax a little.  Flags can have a lot of meanings.  *waves semaphore flags randomly*