Previously:

After the giant birds laid waste to a whole division the enemy, Aiden is missing. Disoriented, Hailey tries to find the village with the help of Zarasa and finds Bree and a team of Aeolian soldiers on the way, sent by Autumn. (Bree made her stay at the Outpost.) Back in the village and despite her fatigue, she convinces Chase and Bree to let her tag along in search for their missing friend.

Chapter 28

Zarasa led us straight towards the clearing. Before we could break through the trees, Bree put a hand on my shoulder, stopping me.

"You stay here while we investigate."

Chase nodded. "Zarasa will stay with you. We shouldn't be long."

I opened my mouth to protest, but closed it again as the blood curling screams I had heard echoed in my mind once again.

"Fine," I said.

I leaned on a tree trunk while Zarasa sat down next to me and started preening her feathers. Chase and Bree disappeared in the undergrowth.

When they came back a few minutes later, they were both a bit pale. Bree's mouth was pressed into a thin line, and her hand rested on her knife belt.

"No sign of Aiden," she said. Chase kept quiet. "We'll look around. He could have fallen not far from here. Some outlanders may have survived... Even wounded, they're dangerous. You'll stay here with Zarasa."

They were walking away before I could answer.

"This sucks." I told the gryphon.

In answer, she just showed me her back, shaking her wings up before opening them as much as the undergrowth let her.

"I can climb on your back?" I checked that I had understood what she meant. Climbing on a gryphon's back uninvited seemed incredibly stupid, and I had already tested my luck once today.

She shook her wings again.

"Okay, let's go."

As soon as I was on, she was speeding through the trees. I dug my heels into her side and grabbed clumps of thick fur so I wouldn't fall. Finally, she came to a halt.

I looked around. "What is it?"

"Oh, how nice of you to finally show up," a weak voice reached me.

"Aiden?" I called out. "Where are you?"

"Just hangin' out. Look up, stupid."

I lifted my head so fast I cracked something in my neck. Aiden was swinging above me, tangled in a net of in vines and tree branches.

"Aiden! Are you okay?" I looked around for a way to get him down.

"Just splendid, you?" His tone was falsely cheery and did a bad job at hiding his weariness.

I slid off the gryphon. "Zarasa, go get Chase and Bree." She disappeared in the undergrowth. "What happened, Aiden?"

"I was flying back up after the dive - I hadn't even dived that low before I dropped the egg- when something large smacked into me. I went flying, and not in the good way. I think I blacked out. I woke up here. Then you came with Zarasa."

Something came crashing through the trees.

"Aiden? Hailey?" it called.

"Can that thing slow down?" Another voice grumbled.

Bree and Chase were running towards us as fast as possible in such a thick forest, Zarasa at their head.

"We're here!" I answered.

Chase breathed a sigh of relief. "Is Aiden okay?"

"Just peachy!" Aiden answered. "Take your time, please."

"How did you get up there?" Chase looked up in confusion.

"Better question," Bree interrupted, "how do we get you down?"

It wasn't easy, but with the help of Zarasa and two fairy scouts who had been alerted by the noise, we were able to detangle him and bring him to the ground. One of his wings was bent at an odd angle, and his skin was bloody from crashing through branches. In addition, he was too dizzy to stand.

"You must have taken a blow to the head," Bree judged. "I hope it didn't kill too many braincells; you didn't have many to begin with." Her tone held a hint of worry despite her teasing words.

"We have to get him back to the village," I said. "They have healers there."

"Carrying him through the forest will be too difficult. We'll go by sky." Chase pointed a Bree, the two fairies, and I. "You four get ready to cover me in case the rest of the Outlanders spot us. Zarasa, can you clear a way for us?" Then, ignoring Aiden's protest, he picked him up bridal style, muttering some unflattering comments about his weight.

Zarasa shot up, clearing a tunnel through the trees straight to the open skies. We all followed her, and as soon as we were clear, Chase dropped Aiden onto her back as carefully as he could. Still, the latter barely suppressed a wince.

"Goddess, you're heavy!" Chase took the lead. He didn't seem to want to look at Aiden too much. "I thought I wasn't going to be able to take off."

"I could have flown." Aiden looked down.

"And risk damaging your wing even more?" Bree asked. "Out of the question, Aiden."

"Don't worry," I added, "we'll be in the village soon, and I heard they had very good healers. At least, that's what Autumn said." As we flew, I tried to distract him with recent news. "She got to the outpost, and she stayed there to rest while some soldiers came to help us. This should soon be over, and we'll go meet her there. I don't know about you, but I miss Aeolian food. I hope they have cookies at the outpost. What do you think? Doesn't seem very military, but who knows?" Aiden didn't take part in the conversation, but he kept his eyes on me, which I took as an encouragement, so I kept on speaking of whatever I could think of until we reached the village.

There, the knotted trees unraveled to let us pass and closed behind us again. I let out a sigh of relief as my feet touched the ground of the village.

"We need a healer!" Chase called out.

"Lawrence, Hobson, get your butts over here and help!" Bree barked. "Damn it, where are the idiots?"

"Probably outside fighting?" I suggested.

"Well, they better be, that's what I brought them for." She seemed distracted.

Soon, but not soon enough, Aiden was laying on a bed of moss as the white-haired shaman and two other healers busied around him. They applied herbs on his wounds and straightened out his wing, putting it in a splint. I stepped out of the makeshift infirmary. I couldn't look at him while his face was twisted in pain and he struggled not to cry out.

The fairies all seemed worried about Aiden's health, which I found touching. Groups of them sat in respectful silence outside the Shaman's hut – well, I don't know if the silence was respectful or fearful: the shaman could be a tyrant when it came to respecting the wounded. Occasionally, a scout would rush into the village and one of the fairy would get up to replace him, or groups of them rotated with the ones making the sleeping darts.

Outside, the thunder-like sound of falling trees had stopped. Scouts came in less often, but weren't as exhausted when they did.

Chase came out of the infirmary. He had dark circles under his eyes – I probably did too. He drew me into his arms with a sigh.

"It's going to be alright," I said, trying to reassure myself as much as him.

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So here's the update! And a cute sleepy fox cub:

The lovely cover at the top was made by BlackFeather24 :)

See you guys in the next update!