Morning

”Uh!” Aliyah woke up rather suddenly, with an inconvenient but small loss of memory. It took a moment to gather her surroundings; she was in a bed, with a generous amount of dressing wrapped around her torso. ”What…?”

Fortunately, Karma walked in, having heard her only two words. ”Hey- Aliyah, you’re awake! You’ve been out for days.”

”I… what happened?” she asked.

”One of those -nasty- bats bit you in the back! We feared the worst, but i’m relieved to know that you’re okay.” The mere thought of bats seemed to aggravate him.

Aliyah struggled to sit up slightly. ”Where’s Irving?”

”He’s fine; everyone else is fine.”

”That’s a relief…” Aliyah started to get off the bed, but slips while barely being able to keep her grip on the edge of it. ”Whah!”

Karma immediately walked over to help her stand. ”You should probably rest, Aliyah. We don’t want you getting hurt again.”

Aliyah almost shook his arm off in protest. ”But I-” She sighed. ”Alright. Just tell Irving that i’m here if it suits you.”

The mouse nodded. ”Sure thing. Hope you get a good sleep.”

I can see the blue sky through one of the windows, and you’re just gonna assume i’ll rest easy, huh? Sigh.

-----

Glass and Shynx, were hanging out on a bench near the pier, cordially discussing non-important topics such as evil bats. ”So, I heard you and a bunch of other wind masters went flying over the sea. Did you see some bats?”

Glass was relaxing, trying not to spend too much energy after yesterday. ”Yeah. Some of them were… kinda friendly.”

”Oh, they didn’t fight you?”

”Actually, they did. We had to shoot cannonballs and stuff at them, as much as I didn’t want to.” She thought for a moment to remember more details. ”They didn’t tell us why they attacked us, but then there was this one other bat with a hurt wing. He asked us to leave real nicely, and I guess our tribe leader couldn’t say no.” She paused a moment to think about that injured bat. ”I hope he gets better soon.”

Shynx took a minute to think of another question. ”Hey, at the coronation, you said you recognized the bats. When did you learn about them?”

It wasn’t a particularly exciting story, but Glass leaned forward to tell it anyway. ”Well, a really long time ago, when I was going out with some of my friends to see the great Dragon, I saw this thing fluttering in the sky. I couldn’t quite tell what it was, but it wasn’t flying like any mouse i’ve ever seen. So after we went to get dragon lanterns, I went to the library to go find out what they were, and there they were.”

Guess what the next question was gonna be. ”What’d the book say?”

”Well, the bats are nocturnal. They don’t like bright lights like the sun, and all of them can fly. The book doesn’t say much more than that.”

”If they don’t like the sun, then why is that one flying?” Shynx said, pointing at the sky.

”What?” Glass turned to look over the horizon, and sure enough, there was a tiny, fluttering creature flying over ocean. It didn’t fly like any bat they’d ever seen, though. It was unable to fly in a straight line, and it kept occasionally veering to the left before correcting itself. ”What should we do?”

Shynx hopped off the bench. ”...maybe we should tell someone?”

”I’m alright, I can keep going…” There was no mistaking it; it was a bat for sure. Suddenly, it stopped, and plummeted into the deep blue.

”Oh no!” Without really thinking, Shynx ran forward and jumped into the water.

”Shynx!” Glass looked at the water, looking for any sign that Shynx would come back up. But… ”Shynx! Where are you?!”

*splish!* There she was. With the bat in tow, she clambered onto the pier. She took a few deep breaths before speaking. ”Heh… heh… Phew, I was worried for a second.”

”You had -me- worried! You shouldn’t be so reckless!” Shynx didn’t really have a good response to that, but Glass calmed down quickly. ”It’s fine. I’m just glad you’re alright. How’s the bat?”

The mechanician glanced at the bat for a second. ”I think he’s fine, but that fall might’ve hurt.” She glanced at the bat a second time. ”Didn’t you mention a bat with a broken wing?” There was a very noticeable bandage with a tinge of red on the bat’s right wing.

Glass stepped forward for a closer inspection, and sure enough, it was the same bat. ”Yeah, that’s him! Why’d he fly over by himself, though?”

”I dunno, maybe he didn’t wanna fight? Anyways, we should find someone that could help him!”

”How about…?”

”What? Why should we help him?! These bats are dangerous, you know!” The two had snuck their way over to the Spiritual Guides’ tribe house, and Karma answered them when he knocked.

Shynx frowned. ”You don’t know that!”

”Listen, I know they’re not all the same! We don’t know why the bats attacked, so we can’t just assume everything!”

There was an obviously frustrated sigh from Karma. ”There could be consequences, you know. What if he’s a spy or something?”

”Now you’re just being ridiculous!”

”It could very well be true! I know a lot of things, and-” Aliyah had suddenly appeared behind him.

”It’s fine, come on in.” she said calmly. Karma reluctantly stepped aside, and the two brought the bat into the tribe house.

Wind Masters Tribe House

”Alright everyone, i’ll called you all here to address an issue that’s been plaguing us for nearly a week.” There were mice of all tribes gathered around for discussion.

”And what would that be, Irving?”

Irving pointed to an open window for dramatic effect. ”The bats, of course! We still don’t know what their intentions are.”

Kyano wasn’t quite as interested as everyone else. ”Yunno, with all these characters, it’s getting really hard to remember which color matches up with who.”

”I’m Purple, Kyano!”

Alex slammed his paws on a counter to get their attention. ”I’m sorry, but what is the relevance of colored letters?”

”And now you’ve got me!” John, a Spiritual Guide said.

Karma glared at him. ”Excuse me, who the hell are you?”

”It’s just John, and you are?”

”Karma.”

”What are we even talking about?”

”Alright, everyone shut up, please!” Irving bellowed. ”This is not the time for theatrics, okay? We need to act fast to uncover the mystery behind the bats.”

”Why don’t you go ask them?” Klara suggested, though that may or may not have been sarcasm.

Aliyah cleared her throat, before talking. ”We should know that not all bats are bad people.”

”Yeah! We could become friends with them if we really tried.”

“What makes you so sure?” A random mouse asked.

The spiritual guide smirked, before turning her attention to a door. “Rigley, you may come in.”
All the mice looked at the door with anticipation. When it opened, there was a bat there, with a fresh bandage on his right wing. ”Uh- umm…” Everyone quickly started murmuring as he sheepishly stepped forward. ”H-hello… my name is Rigley.”

“Why did you and the other bats attack us?” There were mice asking too many questions.
”I wasn’t part of that!”
“Can you tell us the motive of the attack or not?”
”No- I-”
“How do we know you haven’t been sent here to do something nasty yourself?”
”Please, just-”
“Who do you think you are?!”

”Enough!” Kyano yelled. After quickly regaining his composure, he looked over at Rigley. ”Rigley, would you kindly tell us all why you travelled to our village?”

The bat looked at the mechanician with a certain spark of certainty in his eyes. ”I wanted to escape from the bats. They’re starting to do some terrible things, and I didn’t want to be a part of it.”

”I knew it.”

Kyano smiled slightly under his mask. ”Is that all?”

Rigley shook his head. ”No… there is something I must tell you all. Before this war started, the wizard-bats had captured a shaman.” he turned to Irving. ”She’s in that stone fortress you saw when on your first visit.”

”I see… thank you, Rigley.”

Aliyah gave the bat a little nod, then addressed all the mice in the room. ”Alright, that’s enough counsel for today. You may all leave.” In a few minutes, most of the mice had flooded out of the tribe house. Aliyah slowly stepped down from her pedestal, wincing as she felt something in her torso. ”Uh. Hh.”

Irving quickly stepped over to support her. ”Hey, how’re you holding up?”

”I guess I really do need bedrest, after all. I’ll be fine, i’ll just go sleep for now.” She slowly walked out of the tribe house, back to hers.

Kyano walked over to Irving to talk to him. ”So now there’s a damsel in distress.”

”Indeed… Kyano, I shall leave this matter to you.”

”Are you sure?” Irving nodded. ”I can grant you and your team the power to fly for a few hours. Just don’t let it wear off before you get back.”

The mechanician started getting a pretty good idea. ”A team, huh?”

--It’s time to spread our wings.--
Kyano arranged a team of shamans to help him. There should be a few more mice than last time, because of the danger of the wizards. But not too many. They’d probably fly for less time if there were too many of them.
He asked Karma and John from the spiritual guides to assist, and they accepted.
”Hm. Now i’ll be able to get revenge for the things that they did earlier.”
”Sure thing! Not sure how i’m gonna fly across the ocean, though…”
Then his fellow mechanicans, Shynx and Klara.
”You got it! I want to see what those bats have to say!”
”Heh, just try not to get in the way of my cannonballs.”

Irving had given them wings, for a time. Now all they had to do was fly in and rescue this mouse. ”Alright everyone, let’s go!” Kyano leapt off the pier, and wings sprouted from the back. All four of his wingmen followed him, and they were able to fly too. They might’ve had a bit of difficulty, but they could manage just fine.

Everyone was too busy getting used to flight to talk during the long while they were flying towards the bats’ island.

<<Enemy shamans approaching head on! Wizards and Bats, take off immediately and the enemy!>>

”What’s with them and military lingo? Anyways, let’s take em on!” Klara and the rest dispersed so they wouldn’t get hit as easily.

”Here’s our chance for some payback!” Karma charged up a cannonball and let it fly at the first bat that starting flying from behind the fort, knocking it out of the sky.

<<One of ours just got hit!>> Several more bats flew up into the sky, assisted by a few random wizards. Kyano flew towards the fort while his allies scrambled around the air, shooting and dodging cannonballs. ”Can’t say i’m a big fan of survivor, but… eh.”

Kyano landed on one of the windows of the stone fortress and looked through it. There was a lone mouse sitting in there. ”Hello? Are you alright?”

”Huh? I hear the sounds of a shaman fight again.” the mouse had a grey fur and an eyepatch. ”Who’re you?”

”Just a friend. I’ll get you out of here, alright?”

”Try not to hit me with those cannonballs of yours, mechanician.”

Two bats made a splash into the water, thanks to Shynx. ”Yunno, Irving said there were three ‘aces’, but they’re not even trying.”

”I guess those regular bats can only bite us. Makes ‘em easy to shoot!” Karma said as he weaved past a few cannonballs.

Kyano charged up a cannonball and fired it at one of the stone walls. ”Brace yourself…” It gave away easily, and he flew in towards the mouse. ”You hurt?”

They saw that. <<One of those shamans broke through! Stop him!>>

”Uh- yeah, i’m fine.” Amazingly, she didn’t seem hurt or tired at all. ”Had plenty of cheese while I was here. I can fly too, by the way.”

The bats started to cover the sky like a thunder cloud. ”I think there’s too many of them! We should probably leave soon!” John turned and started flying away from the massive swarm of bats.

That was their cue to leave. ”Alright, let’s go!”

All of the shamans turned around and started flying away as fast as they could. Luckily for them, the bats were unable to keep up with them.

<<They’ve escaped from our airspace. Alright everyone, return. They won’t get lucky twice.>>