{{ Alex PoV }}

I stood over the unconscious and collared monster responsible for turning our routine job into a quagmire. 

"We're heading back now." I gave an order to Gary’s men, "Grab the bird, we’ll leave what we can afford to." I started unloading the wagon.

After a beat I added, "The yellow bird.” I thought it would be obvious but I couldn’t take chances with these two.

"The hell are you doing? Those are the goods, and... our shit!" he started coming at me.

"And who put you in charge? You're still fresh meat in this crew," the other chimed in.

This is why I hate working with thugs.

A swift punch to the gut had the first gasping for air before he could start to bluster.

I didn’t let him reel back and catch his breath. I pulled him in and pressed my dagger to his throat. That had Thing Two hesitating.

"I'm only going to say this once so listen close."

They didn't interrupt. Good enough. I continued, "The yellow one is a thunderbird, it's got magic. These two are fledglings, there must be a nest nearby and I want to be gone before a search is sent for these. The other game isn't worth spit compared to the thunderbird, so we’re ditching it we can save the space and the weight, we'll need both if we want to make it back to Redwall tonight." I withdrew my dagger and kicked Thing One to the ground, then continued unloading.

"What about Gary?" Two asked.

I scoffed, "What? You wanna tell his family? Cause he's not going home."

"And the other bird?"

I swear I said listen close…

Barely a moment since I turned back to the wagon I heard them grumbling at each other. They were each trying to get the other to be the one to pick it up.

"No way you saw what it did to Gary.”

"You owe me. I set you up with the first girl you ever been with."

"How many times are you gonna bring th—"

I pushed them aside. "Shut up and unload the wagon instead, cowards," I ground the last word in my teeth. They put distance between themselves and the thunderbird real quick. And the guild pays them more than me. What, for being big and punchy? I argued with the straw man.

It took nearly thirty minutes to get the wagon unloaded and repacked with only what we were keeping. Some of their choices were questionable, but I wasn't fighting for every pound. I caught them shooting me nasty looks already, so I wanted to avoid pissing them off more. If I'm lucky, then they wont try to pin Gary on me. I groaned inwardly just from thinking that.

I've heard there's good luck and bad luck, but I've only ever experienced the latter. If something could go wrong, it would. If I ever said “it’ll work itself out,” it wouldn’t. So I started staying as far from Luck as possible years ago. If Gods play dice with mortal lives then I wouldn't play dice, I'd plan.

There was a plan that didn't include rare hesht species and dead guild officers. Thing's didn't go to plan, which meant Luck was here. I should have smelled it as soon as Gary asked to break camp today, a full three days sooner than the plan. Gary made us play dice, and unlike him, we were still playing.

Time for a new plan then.

{{ Ghisé PoV }}

My eyes were shut tight, but I could hear them leave. They left me behind, stuck in the cage. The featherless people, I forgot the 'Ta-lish' word my sister used, only took her with them. I don't think I could walk even if I was free though. I was too scared to move when I woke earlier. Too scared to tell Tali that I could hear her whispering "everything will be okay" while I pretended to sleep.

What happened to Tali? What was that? She was so... scary. I've never seen her like that. It's Tali, she's our clutch "Princess", our crybaby little sis. I'm not supposed to be scared of her. I don't want to be scared of her.

I was though…

The sun nearly finished setting, and it would be getting very cold soon. That scared me in a different way, thinking of getting too cold.

Or too sick, or too hurt— I started feeling nauseous.

Suddenly a figure landed in the small clearing the cart. I couldn't see who, but it was definitely a grown up!

"HELP!" I cried out suddenly. She left the dead featherless was going to look at, and came to me instead.

She carried a torch and I could see her pretty grey eyes, they were like metal but brighter. Her plumage was either black or a really dark blue, I couldn't really tell with the torch and moon. And she wore armor!

I've never seen anyone wearing armor, how does she fly? And she's saving me, I'm going home!

She rushed over and opened the box, pulling me out gently. "I'm Guardian Jiju, can you move? Can you tell me what happened here?"

Right... I started crying softly. "They took sis Tali."

{{ Jiju PoV }}

The young girl didn't look too wounded thankfully. She had bruising, but her worst injury were the burns that dotted her skin. They weren't blistering, but they did look painful, and I worried she would develop a fever.

"Sis Tali. Talivi right? What's your name? And can you tell me what you saw? If you saw nothing, that is okay little one." After a moment I thought to add, "You are brave to talk about what happened." 

"My sis— sister Talivi! Yes." She blurted out the last bit gaining confidence as she said her sister's name. "My name is Ghisé, and I saw... some things."

She looked, guilty?

"Pink featherless people put me in that box and took Sis Tali," she continued, "Their hair was featherless too, and they had more hair on their wings and faces. There were four of them, three wer—"

"Okay, slow down. You're a very observant girl, I'm glad. You can tell me more at the village. You look well enough to walk, but it would make me more comfortable if I could carry you. Would that be okay?" I asked. She was fairly calm considering what she'd been through, but I didn't want her to push it.

"N- no!" she cried back, "You have to save her!"

"No." I denied her sternly, "I have to get you back to the village."

"But—"

"I know you fear for your sister, but you need saving too. You must understand it will take me time to find her, time you cannot wait."

She was biting her lip, thinking about what I said. She's bright beyond her Springs.

"Will you look for her after you bring me home?" she asked.

"I will," it was an easy promise to make. I would not abandon my charge Talivi, but neither could I abandon Ghisé.

"Then take me home please. As fast as you can please!" She climbed into my wings.

"Do you trust me? Even carrying you, I can fly faster than I can run." I released her, and from my pack, brought out equipment that would allow me to safely carry Ghisé. It was a pair of padded rings, each with four leather straps and sheathes that would cover my talons and allow me to carry an object, or in this case a person, without damaging them.

With a nod I took to the sky and plucked her from the ground in a smooth motion. The flight was too windy to talk any more, but she seemed content to lay limply in my talons, trusting and tired.

{{ Alex PoV }}

We were making decent time back to Redwall, but a determined pursuer could certainly follow the trail. Even if unlikely, I had to factor it into the plan, no sense leaving things to Luck.

The second issue was Thing One and Thing Two. I caught them shooting glances are me every so often, or mumbling. It seemed like my fears from before would come to pass. They weren’t exactly being subtle.

“We’re making good time, I think a couple more hours and we’ll be safe from any Hesht that might try and follow us.” I saw the two of them look relieved at my half-truth, they must have actually been worried. Then again Gary probably should have worried more, and it could’ve been any of them. “I think once we’re in the clear we can start rotating rest. Two can sleep in the wagon, and one of us can lead the beast.”

The two of them looked at each other briefly having some silent conversation, after which One offered, “Why don’t we take first and second watch, you can take third.”

Shit guys, could you at least try to keep me guessing? Well if they were going to go ahead, then I won’t feel guilty for what I have to do. I probably wouldn’t feel guilty even if they were offering me free cake instead of murder to be honest. They were low lives, and their lives would help me.

- Jiju PoV -

After dropping the fledgling off I immediately returned to the small clearing. Even without a child’s life in danger, there were other reasons to spend the night searching. We’ve avoided taking broods from the nearest man settlement, and our discretion could be undone if they found out about us.

The trail would be difficult to follow in the dark if I moved too quickly, but too slowly and the snow drift would make the trail disappear before I found them. I could do it though. I knew these woods well, and have spent many hours of my life tracking game and occasionally man through them.

Once back to the dead man, I found the trail for the humans' cart and started moving quick as able. Being able to fly my way to low branches gave me vantage points, and being quicker than their cart, allowed me to close the distance.

At a certain point I knew I would be able to find them. It was looking like they may have even stopped. Our patrols didn’t come nearly this far out, but I was no typical patrol. I saw the cart in the distance, it was sitting at the bottom of a small ravine near a creek. There was no fire set, but I heard the shouts of a man, bloody cries in their common man tongue.

I hastened my approach and could hear growling and barks in addition to the cries of the man.

Are they being attacked by wolves? The Lightblessed!

I flew up to a low branch that overlooked the ravine. The yelling and growling were both coming from where two men were tied to a tree with rope. One was fighting off the wolves, but their feet have no talons and could not strike a decisive blow. The other wasn’t moving. The cart held some pelts, and some other game that were being picked apart by another group. I didn’t see sign of the girl anywhere.

The Lightblessed’s plumage would be yellow, easy to spot, but I didn’t see even a single feather. If she was here, then she left before the wolves came. The man bound to the tree was also strange. I’ve never seen a man camp like this, but I didn’t understand it.

There’s one other missing, the fourth common man… Ghisé said there were four of them, but including the dead man back at the clearing I’ve only seen three.

The fourth common man has Talivi, they left the cart and the two others. The wolves had disturbed the area too much, taking the trail further was impossible. I had failed to find Talivi, and hope that wherever she was now she was alive.

I’ll return again at first light, but I must inform Chief Getra of Talivi and the threat to the village.

I also had to tell the child’s clutchmates she wont be coming home tonight.

- Talivi PoV -

It was nine at night, which meant Dad would be here any minute to pick me up. I found myself waiting by the door, coat on, heavy backpack waiting on the floor by the door. Mrs. Thompson waited with me patiently, not saying much. I already said goodbye to my friends, I could still hear them laughing from upstairs.

It’s been like this the past few times we come here recently. Sam and the rest of our friends were having a sleep over party tonight, and it hurt to hear the laugher from upstairs when I had to leave. I wanted to be laughing with them, and several minutes ago I was. I didn’t want to go— to have to leave the people I cared about most.

I wasn’t allowed to stay though. It was a new rule, and when I asked why I was told now that we were older, I wasn’t allowed to stay past nine. A rule that, of our group of four friends, only I had to follow.

A soft honk drew my attention. Begrudgingly, I slung my backpack on, my thick textbooks nearly knocked the wind out of me. “Goodnight,” Mrs. Thompson said politely as I walked out the door.

[Today I Learned.] Loneliness.

{{ Vander PoV }}

It was a warm afternoon, the sun was setting, its golden rays coming in low. It was picturesque in a way that you could find in thousands of different movies, described in millions of different books… a total cliche. But, put another way, “a classic.” I enjoyed the classics, and I was enjoying this one as often as possible since coming here. Reading a book, eating an apple, the whole bit. I did opt for Honeycrisp over Red Delicious though. I enjoyed the classics, but not at the cost of taste.

Yet what more classic than a prophetic message from a goddess!

The message wasn’t prophetic, and the goddess was my sister, but it was still an occasion which fit the scene. The contents of the message though were bittersweet. Red delicious would’ve been more appropriate after all.

Looks like I won’t be waiting another decade… Hmm, how far is Redwall though?

Dreyva

I will admit, this chapter ended up being a difficult to complete. I wanted to tell the story of what happened while Tali was unconscious in a way that would also let us get to know three (and a half) characters who have only been minor or referenced so far.

The challenge was telling that story while also come up with details about characters personalities and internal tone of voice for four characters at once who I myself didn’t know much.

So I hope I managed to do so without it being a mess to follow. To reach my writing goal I also had to accept I didn’t have time to spend much time editing so this was a doozy. (I did update the Vander PoV a little after it went up)

I hope you enjoyed this one a little differently. I’m excited to get back to Tali PoV next chapter. And I hope y’all are too.