‘You asshole. I almost shit myself,’ I said to Raven, when I had flown back up to where he was standing.

‘Best way to learn,’ he replied with a laugh. He sprouted wings of his own and joined me.

‘Let’s fly over the cave on our way home,’ he said. ‘See if Bill knows anything’.

We had already been walking towards the cave. Raven was looking for tracks of the creature. He didn’t find anything, but that’s how we ended up on a cliff on the side of the mountain in the first place.

‘Maybe you should tell me what’s going on first,’ I said. ‘How about that?’

‘What do you mean’?

‘What do I mean?’ I repeated incredulously. ‘Why don’t we start with the wings? Why do I have them’?

‘All the warriors have them,’ Raven replied.

‘I’m the missing warrior’?

‘Looks that way’.

So here I am a warrior now. I feel like a warrior too. As soon as I sprouted my wings, I felt the unity of the twelve warriors, although faintly and something I could set to the side while coming to terms with having wings. This unity thing is something we all share in the New World. It’s just hearing the collective consciousness. It wasn’t nearly as exciting to me as the wings, and flying which is as awesome as you thought it would be when you were a little kid.

Raven gave me a few moments to take in my changes. His wings are black as to be expected. My down feathers are a nice creamy golden color. The wing feathers are the same color, until you get about half way down and then patches of a complementary light brown start showing up, and the feathers at the tips of my wings are all light brown. Very pretty coloring. I’d say if you were judging me as a bird, I’m gorgeous.

‘Looks like you’re a hawk,’ Raven says. ‘Judging from those raptor talons’.

‘Talons?’ I looked back at my feet. Ah shit, I had talons. I hadn’t even noticed the talons in all the excitement. I kind of wished I didn’t have the talons. You just get to think you’re pretty styling in bird terms, and then you look down and you see these gnarly talons. No amount of beauty is going to mask those talons. Knobby, yellow lizardy skin, and then these long, curving, black talons.

‘They’ll serve you well in battle.’ Raven said, seeing I didn’t look too happy with them. ‘Did you notice mine are different than yours?’

I looked back. His were different than mine. The skin and talons were black, and the talons looked to be claws as much as talons. They weren’t obviously for hunting, as mine were. His looked more nimble if such a word can be used to describe talons and they weren’t as lizardy looking either.

‘The smarter birds have talons like these,’ he said, grinning; mostly trying to get a reaction from me, which he did because he thinks he’s so smart.

‘If you’re the smart one, I’m not looking forward to conversations with the other warriors,’ I replied.

He laughed. ‘Yeah, they’re dumbasses’.

Although I lost my feet to talons, I still had my arms and hands. While in flight, Raven showed me how to grab onto my radial bone along my wings. It gives you a place to put your arms while in flight, and serves as additional stabilization.

At first I was flapping all over the place, or at least a lot more than Raven. I was keeping up, but working a lot harder and getting tired as hell.

‘Use your wings to take advantage of wind currents,’ Raven said. ‘At this altitude you should be gliding through the air and using your wings mostly to steer, especially up around these mountains’.

I slowed my role a bit and we were soon gliding through the air. Pretty soon Raven, being of a different build, was flapping his wings more than me. I was a natural glider, and I would have preferred flying at a higher altitude.

‘What about the changes to our bodies?’ I asked. ‘I didn’t feel anything when I grew these wings. They were just there’.

‘That’s because you didn’t physically change anything, you transformed into what your spirit animal that already has wings. Actually, you transformed into half of your spirit animal. You can also transform completely into your spirit animal if you choose to’.

‘I feel like a hawk,’ I said.

‘You are. Your wings are more rounded than an eagle’.

We approached the caves and circled high above, surveyed the landscape. Even though I didn’t see anything unusual, I could feel something. I felt my senses heighten. My body bristled. From an instinct predating logic, I sensed my natural enemy was near, and like the apex predator I had become, was scanning the ground to find it.

‘Feel that?’ Raven asked.

I nodded. As a matter of fact I could feel the other ten warriors and Raven chomping at the bit inside my brain now too. We were all alert to our enemy.

‘Now we’re brothers’.

‘I don’t see anything,’ I said.

‘Yeah, not even Bill,’ Raven replied. ‘Let’s land and see where he’s at. Expect anything’.

I was ready. I felt stronger, and my mind was clear and focused. I’ve always been a sturdy guy, and fairly strong. I’m even in good shape due to all the hiking I’ve been doing, and now all the running around to get things set up for the festival. I felt stronger than that though, and when I landed by the cave, the power coursing through my veins was not just mine. I felt smarter in the ways of the warrior too. This is what I had gained from my connection with the other warriors.

Nothing looked unusual at first glance. All was quiet. We couldn’t find Bill anywhere. We expected he’d be camping by the forest edge at the foot of the cave, but there was no sign of him or a campground. We walked through the forest a bit. Nothing. There were no signs of him anywhere.

Finding nothing, we made our way up to the cave. Nothing was there but the decaying carcass of the dead mother Sasquatch. The outer body wasn’t decomposing at all, but the wound itself was starting to fester, and turn into a sludge that was oozing down into a dark pool what was becoming a cavity in the carcass.

‘Holy crap that smells,’ I said, turning away.

‘Yeah,’ Raven said, but not turning away. He looked closer. ‘That is nasty’.

I took another look. ‘This isn’t natural decay is it’?

‘I don’t think so,’ Raven replied. ‘I think it’s coming from the Borderland. Let’s leave it and wait and see what the Chiefs say about it’.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

‘Do you think Bill’s in there?’ I asked.

‘I don’t know. Let’s keep looking for him’.

We transformed into our natural bodies and started to trail down the cave. At first, everything seemed calm and peaceful, but after awhile we could hear sounds coming from deeper down. The cave had become dark and Raven squeezed my arm to signal caution. The Grendel or something was down there.

We walked down slowly. The cave was pretty much in complete darkness and we descended by hugging the wall. After a time, we could see the dancing glow of a fire against the cave walls. Staying in the shadows, we moved closer, and looked around the bend where we could see a small fire.

The Grendel was there, pacing by the fire. He was still injured, favoring his side, and hobbling a bit on one leg, but he was up and moving. He was definitely on the mend, and sounding ornery as could be, grunting and squealing.

There was someone else sitting there too. He was sitting so still, at first I didn’t notice him, but then the fire flared and drew my attention to his face. It was the creature from the night before, the forked tongue flicking in and out.

I tapped Raven on the shoulder and pointed to the creature. Upon seeing him, Raven quickly recoiled from view and started making his way to the cave entrance. We moved quietly, but quickly and as soon as we reached the mouth of the cave, Raven immediately took flight and I followed.

‘What?’ I asked, but Raven wouldn’t answer. He was looking straight ahead, and flying purposefully towards the First Nations.

What?’ I asked again, after we had flown a few more miles.

Raven looked behind him. Not seeing anything, he turned to me. ‘The Dark Angel,’ he said.

‘The what?’ I asked.

‘The Dark Angel,’ he repeated. ‘The fallen angel who serves the dragon. There are others, but he’s the main one’.

The ten other warriors had sensed our danger. We hadn’t flown much further when they appeared as far away dots in the sky, but very quickly came into full view. At first I thought they were fighter jets, they were moving so fast and flying in formation. Man, those guys were moving. They shot right past us and fanned out looking for anything that might be on our tail. When they were satisfied we weren’t being pursued, they fell back into formation and followed us back to the First Nations as a rear guard.

As soon as we landed, we reported to the Chiefs who were waiting for us in the big house with Tasha. I immediately felt a new bond with the warriors and even Tasha.

‘What was it,’ Chief Jim asked.

‘The Dark Angel,’ Raven replied. ‘I saw him’.

‘The Dark Angel!’

‘He was with the Grendel,’ Raven continued. ‘We couldn’t find Chief Bill’.

‘Any signs of struggle’?

‘None’.

Chief Dan and Jim both moved back in their chairs, visibly stunned by the information.

‘Something’s going on with that Sasquatch corpse too,’ I added. ‘It’s filling with sludge’.

‘War is upon us.’ Chief Jim said. Chief Jim was more or less the tactical advisor among the Chiefs. ‘The Dark Angel wouldn’t make himself known, unless they’re planning to make a move’.

‘You were with Bill just a few days ago, weren’t you?’ Dan asked Jim.

‘I was, and everything was fine. He was thinking he could come back, and we could send up a couple of the warriors to keep an eye on things’.

‘We should have been up there all along,’ Tasha said. ‘The Dark Angel would be dead by now if we were’.

‘Would he,’ Chief Dan asked. ‘Until today, without Raven, your circle of warriors was incomplete’.

‘That wouldn’t have mattered,’ Tasha replied confidently.

‘I think it might,’ Chief Dan countered. ‘The first thing the Dark Angel went after was your missing warrior. I’m willing to bet he risked showing himself to ensure the warrior bond was never completed’.

‘He wanted Ethan?’ Tasha asked.

‘I think it’s possible. As a fighting unit, the twelve warrior’s capability increases a hundredfold when they reach unity. By eliminating Ethan, unity could never be gained.’

‘Ethan’s one of my warriors I brought from heaven. Who says the Dark Angel could kill him?’ Tasha challenged.

‘I wasn’t a warrior at the time,’ I replied. ‘I feel he could have easily killed me’.

‘Well, you’re a warrior now, and our circle is complete,’ Tasha pressed. ‘I say we go kill him.’

‘Hold on now,’ Chief Jim said. ‘We don’t need you up there tearing things up until we know what’s going on’.

‘What’s going on is we’re sitting here waiting to be slaughtered’.

‘We’re waiting for the right moment to act. There’s a difference, and this is what we agreed upon,’ Chief Dan said with a degree of authority in his voice. ‘You and your warriors will remain here until needed. You bring disruption with you. We want to keep your presence secret as long as possible; from ordinary people as much as the Dragon’.

‘Well, I say, if the Dark Angel is here, we know everything we need to know.’ You could tell she was itching for a fight, and yes a full moon was approaching.

‘Jim and I will go have a closer look. When we return, we will decide what to do’.

‘We already know what’s going on at the cave. There’s the Dark Angel and Grendel waiting for us to come and kill them. They’re literally just sitting there’.

‘Maybe,’ Chief Dan replied. ‘But we won’t learn anything by killing them. This is a war we’re fighting, not just the Dark Angel and Grendel. Those two are the tip of the iceberg of what we face. Jim and I will go see what we can learn, and when we return, we’ll decide what to do. We’ll take Raven, and Ethan with us. While we’re away you and your warriors stay put.

The Dark Angel

Of course he could smell Ethan and Raven when they appeared in the cave only hours before, but how can you set up a parley if you kill and probably eat the messengers? Now his tongue told him they were back and brought the two old angels with them. He could smell them standing by the corpse, examining the toxins of what only a few drops of his venom could produce.

At first he did want Ethan. He sensed something about him, and he wanted to capture him and bring him back to the cave to determine what it was. Then those campers showed up, and he had to abandon his plan. He even waited for Ethan the next day, and was just about to take him when The Raven landed, and he was forced to withdraw once again. Master insisted he conduct his mission unnoticed, and killing two warriors would definitely be noticed.

Yes, he could have won the fight between the warriors, but he wasn’t here to kill. He was told to make sure everything was in place, and once satisfied, present the enemy with terms of surrender just as his master had told him to do.

He was surprised they sent his old nemesis Jim into the cave. It was Jim who pursued him throughout the centuries, until he finally had to take refuge in the Borderland with The Dragon. That was then. Now he was ready for Jim and all of them. Little did they know the work The Dragon had put in over the centuries, preparing for this moment in time. Never had The Dragon been so strong.

Old Jim just strolled right into his den, right in front of his fire, and stood waiting.

‘We have only ever wanted the woman,’ the Dark Angel said.

‘Tasha?’ Jim replied. ‘You can’t have her’.

‘We are stronger than you’.

Jim looked around. ‘I see no evidence of that’.

‘Well you should,’ the Dark Angel hissed. ‘You’re surrounded’.

Jim pricked up his ears at that, and the Dark Angel feared he may have said too much. ‘Give us the woman, and there will be peace in the world. Otherwise, we destroy it’.

Jim, finding out everything he needed to know, turned his back on them and started walking towards the entrance of the cave. The Grendel roared, but did not pursue; nor did the Dark Angel.

The Dragon

He knew his time had finally come. After centuries of sending his fallen angels all over the earth to breed with human women, he had birthed enough soulless minions to destroy God’s work. They were all out there among the population, millions of minions, acting on his behalf and waiting for his command. Winning was in the numbers.

The Dragon would have his revenge. It’s all he had worked for since being cast from heaven. How dare he? Sending Michael to cast him out. He who was once an equal, cast out by a lowly angel.

It was decided. He would kill the mother of his only begotten Son, and he and her Son would feel his wrath and know his newfound power. In their weakness, he would rise and take what was rightfully his. All of heaven and earth.