Immortal Darkness: Shadow Across the Land (44 page)

Are they outside?
wondered Xemson.
Did I oversleep and now Aphost is teaching Leyoht and Biaulae
how to hunt?
He could only wish.

Eager to answer all the questions hidden
beneath his skull, he rushed out through the hollow’s opening,
spread out his wings, and glided out into the open, free land.

At first Xemson intended to simply scan the
area for his missing family—but his impatience got the better of
him. “Leyoht?” he shouted into the air. “Aphost? Biaulae?” From the
distant mountains did the father’s deep, loving voice bounce across
the winter wonderland that was his home.

Even with this thought in mind, not even the
stirring of a squirrel was heard.
Did everybody run away?
thought Xemson.
Did something happen and I missed all the
excitement?

After scanning
some
of the snowy
plains, Xemson decided to take a dive into the small, dying forest
he’d earlier taken the children. With a quick swoop down, the
baffled Xemson found himself in the midst of this collection of
trees. Such a collection almost made him feel as if he were truly
unfamiliar with his surroundings.

“Leyoht?” wondered he out loud. “Is anybody
here?”

“
I
am here.”

An ignition of fright spreading about in his
heart, Xemson hesitantly responded, “Leyoht?”

“Leyoht is no more,” the voice sneered,
“There is only Neionmt!
I
am the one for whom you shared
your nest—and also the one for whom you have shared your nightmares
with.”

“
Who are you
?” screeched Xemson, more
afraid than anybody had ever heard him.

At that moment, Xemson’s faceless opponent
finally came out from the shadows—chuckling all the while.

From what Xemson was able to tell, the
shadows hid behind them what was once the owl he had known as
Leyoht. Yes—Leyoht’s pelt still remained black—but now he had
acquired the horns of a great-horned owl, the teeth of a canine,
the claws of a feline. Such an unnatural look upon somebody he
thought
he’d come to know caused his blood to come still,
his spine to chill, his heart struck ill!
But—is this really
Leyoht?

“The time of Leyoht has come and passed, just
as has
your
time on this Earth!”

With these words, the menacing, black owl
lurched toward Xemson in the blink of an eye. Xemson hadn’t
prepared for this; he wasn’t even sure if he was prepared for the
moment in which he would find his family!

No time to think about what could have
been—for Xemson now felt a strange, consuming feeling wrapping
around him. Only a heartbeat had come to pass when he took a look
back at the spoiled excuse for what was once an innocent child. It
was then when Xemson realized a black puddle of goop clinging to
his feathers.

He bit and kicked and slapped at this
goop—but to no avail. This colony of black matter seemed to rise up
on top of each other until all that was left of Xemson were a few
shredded feathers.

--

With a flick of his eyes, Xemson found
himself in the midst of his own home. The children slept peacefully
by Aphost’s side and did not seem to hold a care in their weary
minds.

With a sigh, Xemson furtively swept out
through the hollow and out into nature’s fingers. The only thing
lighting the way was a blanket of stars accompanying the black sky.
Littering this blanket were multiple patches of exposed clouds.

With the intention of resting h is mind in
absolute solitude, Xemson glided down to a side of his home—nearly
crashing into the tree in the process. Regardless of how he’d
nearly messed up his flight, Xemson ended up victorious in the end.
As a result, he thought of what had just happened while leaning up
against his home.

Leyoht? Was that Leyoht? If so, what did
he do to everybody? And
why
would he want to drive everybody
away?

At that moment Xemson took hearing of a
little moan coming from above.

“Huh?” wondered Xemson while taking a look
up. It was then when his eyes took in the sight of Leyoht gripping
onto the hollow’s edge with his feet.

With a sudden flap of his wings, Leyoht fell
off this edge and came down to the ground—screaming all the while.
Fortunately for him, he was able to receive balance in his wings at
the last moment. It was, however, a moment too late to keep him
from lightly crashing into the ground.

“Leyoht!” Xemson hissed, paying no heed to
whatever pains plagued Leyoht. “You could’ve woken somebody
up!”

A chuckle sprouted from Leyoht’s beak when he
apologized. “Sorry; but forget about that!”

“What do you mean?”

With a small grumble, Leyoht wrapped his
wings around his stomach. “My stomach’s hurting me.”

It was at this point when Leyoht released a
dry cough from the back of his throat. Gradually did a fit of
coughing go from dry to wet, from faint to cacophonous. While this
series of hacking seemed severe in the eyes of an untrained person,
Xemson simply sat back as Leyoht continued to cough.
There it
is!
he silently exclaimed as the sound of vomiting emerged from
Leyoht’s beak.

What resulted from this fit of coughing and
vomiting was the appearance of a pellet sitting upon the ground.
Upon opening his eyes, Leyoht looked down at the owlet pellet with
disgust clinging onto his stomach.

“Wh-what
is
that?” he stammered.

“What?” Xemson chuckled, “You’ve never seen a
pellet before?”

“No!” snapped Leyoht, peering ever-closer to
the pellet.

“Since you ate some fur and bones along with
that lemming,” began Xemson, “you’re going to have to get rid of
them through your beak.” A moment of silence commenced between the
adult and the child.

“That
can’t
be right!” sneered
Leyoht.

“Well—it is.” With these words, Xemson
released a sigh just before flying back up to the tree.

With a pout forming upon his shoulders,
Leyoht took a sea while still staring at the furry, slightly
glutinous pellet in front of his face.
If that
will
come
out of me every time I eat something, I may as well not
eat!

Stupid Xemson. Why haven’t I ever seen
this thing come out of anybody else’s beak? Let’s see him explain
that!
These thoughts in mind, Leyoht suddenly loosened up
enough to lean closer and closer to the pellet. With time he came
to the point where two of his razor-sharp talons started digging
into this waste.

It doesn’t feel
anything
like I
thought it would!
silently the hooked owlet cooed. The
components of this pellet made him believe a ball of fluff had been
compressed long enough to make up this stable log-shaped group of
fur and bone.

Leyoht found nothing but fur until his
fingers ran into what felt like a pebble.
Huh?
wondered he,
curious to find out what this hard bump was. With a little more
excavation, his eyes led him to what appeared to be a skull.

I—ate that
? he asked of himself,
dumbfounded. Now that he’d thought about it, it would have caused
him a great deal of pain had these bones not come out through his
beak.

This thought delving further and further into
his head, he realized that the action of the pellet coming through
his beak hadn’t hurt him much at all.

A sigh surpassed him when he continued to dig
through the cluster of fur and bone. Through excavation was he able
to decipher what was fur and what was bone; such actions made him
feel the curiosity and willpower of a human child.

Before too long Leyoht ran into the vertebrae
of the lemming he’d earlier eaten.
I can’t believe I ate
that!
The bone hung onto his claw as this thought and many more
aroused his head.

It wasn’t too long when a yawn surpassed his
beak. At the same time did his vision start to fade. In an attempt
to save himself from falling asleep in the mist of the dangerous
outside world, Leyoht flapped his way back up to the hole in the
tree. It was then and there when he slept peacefully.

--

Even when asleep, Leyoht’s mind continued to
stir.

Leyoht’s mother was dead.

Leyoht’s father was dead.

Leyoht’s old neighbors and friends were
dead.

Leyoht’s only sibling was dead.

Only
he
was left.

Chapter XIV

A Familiar Setup

It was another regular night for the two
little owls—a night of prosperity for Pesstian and Leyai. Not a
single problem had come to pass upon them. No blizzards, no death,
no starvation; what could have possibly gone wrong today? The
answer to such a question was: boredom.

For the past few days had Pesstian taken
notice of the human’s progress to make their selves at home.
Or—at least I
think
that’s what they’re doing.
If
anything else but insanity-inducing boredom was notoriously
ever-present on this day, it was the amount of confusion placed
into Pesstian’s head—all concerning the humans. Over and over again
did he loop the images he’d seen last night—all the images of the
cylindrical compounds making up the human nests.

What was it about the compounds making up the
nests that perplexed Pesstian? The very textures and shapes of
these compounds looked as if the humans found them in an unfamiliar
place to owls. Even with this fact in mind, Pesstian felt as if he
knew who or what these objects were; he almost felt sorry for
them.

In Pesstian’s mind, the humans’ nests were
unfamiliar, yet made within the familiar. Pesstian was wrong.
Boredom wasn’t insanity-inducing; this series of unanswered
questions was insanity-inducing! Only answering these questions
could resolve the problems on the minds of anybody involved.

There he was, sitting next to Leyai—who had
just awoken from a deep sleep. Rubbing her eyes, she glanced over
to Pesstian when she took notice of the worried look on his face.
Such a look caused a hammer to swing down at her heart. While she
wanted to ask what was troubling him, she was afraid of disturbing
his thoughts.

I’m going to investigate.
Pesstian
decided. With these few silent words, he raised his wings into the
air and lifted off toward the humans’ homes.
What
are
those humans doing?
Never before had he felt so intrigued by
their works, so confused by their actions.

Pesstian’s flight came to a halt at the sight
of a cart made of the same material as the humans’ homes.
What
are they going to do with that?
wondered he. Before the answer
could have come to his head, a few words of the human language
started the cart off.

Startled by such a sudden movement, Pesstian
hopped into the cart at the last moment. Under the human’s noses,
he remained in this cart—paying no heed to the way the cart bumped
him all around and about.

A long ride commenced from that point on. All
the while did Pesstian wonder how he could have stayed so long in
the same area—so close to the people he was spying on—without being
caught.
These humans must be more blind than I thought.

With time the rumbling of the cart came to an
end. Pesstian was unsure of how many times his head had come in
contact with the grain of the cart. Dizziness bogged his mind, his
mind still boggled with the thoughts of the humans’ actions. With
the thought that the humans wouldn’t move the cart floating about
in his mind, Pesstian rubbed the top of his head.
I almost wish
I told them that I was in here
, he resented. With every will in
his body did he fight the urge to release a chirp of pain—but he
couldn’t only imagine what would happen to him then.

Alone with his thoughts, Pesstian continued
to rest just below the humans’ gaze. Less and less did he begin to
worry about the consequences of being caught the longer he remained
in this crate. More and more did he think about Leyai—all the
adventures they’d shared and all the feelings he’d felt for
her.

Pesstian was developing a fetish for Leyai.
Through the time he’d spent with her, Pesstian felt more and more
attached to her.
But—maybe it’s because she’s the only owl I’ve
actually known in this place,
he realized.
Has fate brought
me here?

Unlike the many of the female owls Pesstian
had admitted to having a fetish toward, Leyai showed respect toward
him—treated him like a true owl and not a weak mouse-tail she’d
simply tagged along with on a trip. At times, however, Leyai seemed
a bit strange when confronting Pesstian. In a sense, she seemed
shy
in Pesstian’s mind.

Pesstian could only imagine a day when Leyai
showed resentment toward him. In her wings he longed to be—but
would he ever be there? If Leyai truly
were
to hold any
resentment toward him, it would have seemed a horrendous
scenario.

It wasn’t long when Pesstian heard a strange
chop—chop—chop
in the near distance.

It sounds like the humans are digging into
something,
Pesstian inferred. What could this something have
been?
I have to look—but what if they see me?
The answer to
such a question immediately exited his mind when one of the humans
threw a chunk of wood into the cart.

His eyes taking in the sight of the flying
wood, Pesstian flapped his way out of the cart. How any of the
humans didn’t hear the rush of wind coming forth by his wings was
beyond his understanding.

They almost crushed me with—wait—what was
that?
Curious to know, Pesstian took the risk of flying back to
the cart—only this time he lay low to the ground.

Nothing could have saved Pesstian from what
he was about to see. At first he’d expected to find nothing more
than whatever it was the humans had thrown into the cart. A simple
look up, however, nearly brought him to tears.