Another Side: Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Five soldiers with flashlights on their helmets turned on were scanning the area. They currently had no camouflage equipped on their armor, just the basic white color. Reinforcements were being called from the squad on the other side of the mountain to help search the forest once the base had been searched and no one was found inside it. If one hour of searching didn’t turn up anything, then it was mission complete. Well, it was more mission failure. They had only gotten three Avos, and not one human. It was their job to capture the humans so they couldn’t disrupt any of Alek’s future operations and with all of them out in the forest, there was very little chance to find them. All of a sudden, a loud creek from a tree caused one of the soldiers to suddenly swivel his rifle up towards it, letting loose a shot. He stood there for a few seconds, hoping to see something or someone topple out of the tree.

“Did you see something?” One of the other soldiers asked the one that fired.

“No, but I thought I heard something.” He replied, his weapon still halfway raised toward the tree.

“Probably just another undocumented animal. Shame you didn’t get it though. I heard that the famous Dr. Gordon will pay almost anything for animal carcasses.” Another soldier said, the entire group walking off having forgotten the tree.

“The least the commander could do though is move that drop ship over to this side of the mountain.” Another soldier complained. “All the action is over here.”

As they walked off, sharing various complaints about their new commander, they didn’t see Gren drop from the tree, landing silently on the forest floor. He mentally cursed himself for his blunder. If Master Greenwell had seen that, he would have likely gone on one of his death threat rants.

“What in the name of Hibble was that supposed to be Gren Ayofra? I’ve heard less noise at one of my wife’s tea parties. If there wasn’t a ton of legal crap between me and you, I’d pull out every one of your feathers, make a nice curtain out of them, and carve profanity so profane into your beak that even those humans would shudder!”

Greenwell had been the kind of teacher that you hated having at the time, but only when you were through with him did you realize what all he had taught you. And now, Gren would put all he learned at the academy to use. Greenwell always said the best kind of test was a field test. Gren turned and walked in the direction of the mountain. If what those soldiers said was true, they should have another drop ship over on the other side of the mountain. And if they had taken prisoners, then that’s where they would be.

Ladnar stood over three bodies of Trevelyan soldiers. Two had stopped breathing, but the third was still alive. And this is the one Ladnar chose to interrogate.

“Have you took any prisoners?” Ladnar asked. He was glad he was still wearing his mask. He wasn’t sure how good humans were at reading Avos expressions, but if this human were any good at it, he would be able to see both the anger and worry in his face, and might choose to withhold information or try to bargain. But the mask instilled fear in the soldier, and that was making him more outward with information.

“I don’t know.” The soldier answered, his helmet slightly distorting his voice.

“How wouldn’t you know? Trevelyan squads are known to keep in constant contact with each other.” Ladnar observed. He had already short circuited this soldier’s communications system with a small ice spike to the side of the helmet, so there was no chance he was calling for help.

“There were two squads that came here. One was on one side of the mountain, and mine was on the other side. We kept communications limited to just our two teams. Only our Officer had contact with the other squads commander.”

“Why would you split into two groups? It seems you were well informed of our movements, but I’d wager you believed we might have an escape route and so thought it best to cover the entire mountain.” Ladnar asked, focusing more on the mountain detail than the chain of command communication.

“Yeah, that’s what we did.” The soldier said. Ladnar wasn’t so good with reading human facial expressions, but he was good at telling things from people’s voices, and this soldier was being truthful so far.

“Who informed you of all these details?” Ladnar asked. He knew this would be when the soldier might start choosing to lie.

“Alek Desoto himself.” The soldier answered.

“And how did he know?” Ladnar inquired.

“He doesn’t tell us anything. We just follow orders. Only one of his higher members would know something like that.”

“Well then, thank you for your time.” Ladnar said. “I would advise that you not make any sudden movements for a while. I have to make a call.”

Ladnar stooped down to one of the dead soldiers, and yanked the helmet off him.

“Your one of those Bird things aren’t you?” The soldier asked, though it sounded more like an accusation.

“I can neither confirm nor deny that.” Was all Ladnar answered. The Arcadian council had already made it very clear that the Avos government’s presence in human affairs could not be compromised.

“I can see your beak through that mask. It’s not a very good disguise.” He mocked.

“Yes, but it would hold up quite well in a court. Perhaps I’m a human just wearing an ingenious contraption designed to make me look like an Avos and get them pulled into this.” Ladnar put out, holding the helmet near his head.

“Now, tell me, what was the name of this group of yours?” Landar asked, gesturing to the bodies.

“Search squad six.” The soldier answered.

“Not very original. And what was his name?” Ladnar asked, gesturing to the body he had removed the helmet from.

“Lee Smith.” The soldier answered. Ladnar fond the soldiers willingness to comply very suspicious, but he didn’t have time to look into this now. He had never been very good with mind spells. Satisfied with all the information he had gathered, Ladnar tried his best to get his mouth close to the helmet’s mic. He couldn’t fit it all the way over his head, but he could see enough to know how to operate it. Using the buttons on the outside of the helmet, Ladnar brought up a list of frequency’s for the communicator. He selected the one with the simple listing of officer. The soldier was still lying on his back, almost acting relaxed. Ladnar had half a mind to freeze his limbs, just to make sure he didn’t try anything. When the helmet’s visor said he was connected, Ladnar began to speak.

“This is Lee Smith of search squad six checking in.” Ladnar spoke into the helmet. He hoped he was following the proper procedure for this thing. There was silence for a few seconds, but then he heard a faint response from the earpiece, which due to Ladnar’s head shape was not in his ear.

“Repeat?” Ladnar asked, trying to angle the helmet so that he could both hear and speak.

“I said good to hear from you squad six. Status report?”

“Still nothing. What’s the status with the other squads?” Ladnar asked

“One of the commander’s squads got quite a haul. Three of those bird things, though I think one is dead…”

Ladnar’s blood froze at this, more so than its usual frigid temperature. Choking back on his rage, he continued.

“Thank you. Our squad will be returning soon.” Ladnar said.

“Ok. See you back at the ship.” The officer said, hanging up on his end.

“Oh, you will.” Landar thought.

He dropped the helmet, turning to the soldier.

“Why tell me all of this information? What do you think you’ll get for it?” Ladnar asked the soldier, almost daring him to respond.

“Because, you Avos are pretty honorable I hear. If I told you what you want to know, then I would get to live. And all that information I gave would be useless unless you planned to take on my entire team to rescue those prisoners. You may be some fancy wizard, but I don’t think you’re magic will work that well when you’re full of…”

The soldier stopped mid-sentence when he saw something strange going on with the Avos. Was he… glowing? Ladnar was definitely glowing a dark purple. He clutched his chest, where his heart was. Ladnar could hear the voice of Master Vanitas in his head, urging him to go full dark.

“He is mocking your power. He has taken your apprentices. Given the chance, he and every human would kill you to keep themselves safe. You must kill him before he does harm to you, or others you cherish.”

Noticing that Ladnar was distracted, the soldier made a dive for his weapon. But before he could grab it, he felt his arms and legs suddenly go numb. The soldier fell face first onto the ground, his limbs completely frozen by instantaneous frostbite, but they would be fine once the power was released. Ladnar had not been so distracted as to not be prepared for the soldier making a move.

“Use the power, Ladnar. I can help guide you to rescue your apprentices, but not if you continue to deny me. You are my best student, but even you can’t take on a human force as experienced as Trevelyan.”

Ladnar had made his decision as to what to do. No matter how much knowledge he gained or how many spells he had, he was still weak compared to the heart of a hardened killer. That was his reason for joining the Shadow fraternity upon his graduation from the Avos academy. Now he could take anything thrown at him on an emotional level, and turn it into power. Ladnar thought back to his old friend Velse, and to Pallium. Both friends had betrayed him in some way, and it had been them that drove him to his choice. But it hadn’t just been them. Ladnar thought to the strange being known as Nestante, who had caused Ladnar so much pain during his time in the Lucifian realm. His anger began to take the shape of real power, as the purple aura began to surround Ladnar, but this time he didn’t hold back. At this point, Ladnar had lost concentration on his frostbite over the soldier, but that didn’t matter. The soldier had retrieved his weapon and was now unloading regular bullets into Ladnar, but the dark aura reflected them wildly back into the forest. Ladnar thrust out his chest, darkness exploding outward in a small and eerily silent explosion. The force knocked the soldier backward, but as he fell, a large icicle erupted out of the ground, skewering him and holding him two feet off the ground.

“A good kill, but there is still work to be done. Trevelyan has captured your apprentices. You must rescue them, but if you leave any soldiers alive, they surely will testify as witnesses to Avos conspiracy.” Vanitas informed.

“What will you have me do master?” Ladnar asked, inspecting his staff.

“They must all die. No one can leave here alive. Get your apprentices, and get out. Of course you could just leave them as well. They would likely be attempted to be used to prove Avos conspiracy. But without a master, they wouldn’t be adequate proof, but somehow I don’t think them is an option for you. ”

Ladnar knew Vanitas was right. They had taken quite possibly the only friends he had left that weren’t blood, and even then there was only his sister, Yeblia. His apprentices would be tortured for information they wouldn’t have, and when they were finally returned home, they would be scarred. One of the verses of the shadow hymn was “Do not let innocents come to harm on your behalf”. It was his duty to solve problems, not cause more. Ladnar’s tail feathers flared up in a wide ark, the pattern on each feather resembling an eye. But while they were normally green, they had now shifted to black, with the eye pattern being dark red with purple centers. Ladnar’s light blue robe disintegrated, revealing a simple Avos combat suit underneath. It was a completely black suit that covered everything but his hands and head, and while it appeared bulky, it allowed him to easily fight. As Ladnar continued to power up, purple runes began coming to life on the suit. Translated, they would be the hymn written by Master Enver, the first shadow Master. Grasping the metal rod on the bottom of the staff, Ladnar pulled, unsheathing a long black sword that had been hidden within. Ladnar cast his staff aside, the staff dematerializing into thin air. He then reached up and pulled off his mask, the first time he had done it since arriving, revealing a peacock like head underneath. Ladnar felt no joy or adrenaline at the thought of the coming massacre. He accepted it for what it was. The truth.