Immortal Darkness: Shadow Across the Land (29 page)

All time seemed to come to a near-halt at
that moment. Fear seemed to swell around the nervous owl’s head; it
was the fear of being caught.
What if the humans caught me doing
this?
he wondered.
And they found out I spilled all
their—their—whatever these are.

The moment of fear had come to an end when
Pesstian opened his eyes. A wave of relief swept over his head at
that moment, realizing nothing had spilled. Everything but the one
little part of the net he had earlier cut was perfectly intact.

Upon taking notice of the oversized hole he
had just created, Pesstian stretched his leg into the cluster of
ocean creatures with ease. Pushing his leg almost all the way in,
he grabbed hold of a rock-like body and gently pulled it out of the
net.

The treasure is
supposed
in the
mouths of these types of creatures
, Pesstian reminded himself.
A treasure that is very rare to find among them.
He took a
look up at the large net of the deceased animals.
But with this
many of them, I’m bound to find it!

After a long moment of staring at the
enormous net, the success-stricken owl switched his gaze onto the
oceanic creature in his talon.
How exactly am I supposed to open
this?
he silently asked himself while grabbing the top part of
the body.
I
think
I’m supposed to open
—

In the midst of his thoughts, Pesstian
noticed as the mouth of the ocean creature flew right open. A small
shock of surprise and fear seeped into Pesstian’s skin when his
eyes caught sight of such a phenomenon. “Maybe a treasure is in
this
one!” he murmured, taking a glance into the mouth.

To his confusion and slight dismay, the only
thing catching his attention was a bright yellow meat in the bottom
part of this animal’s mouth. Although the meat was mouthwatering in
appearance, it gave off a horrible stench—which gave Pesstian the
urge to throw this creature away.

Still looking into this mouth, he suggested,
Maybe the meat is the treasure. If that’s the case, then we
should hunt for more of these things.
A look of nervousness
crossed Pesstian’s face when he drew a gradually-opening beak
toward the meat. He urged himself to ignore the scent of the meat
as it stung his nostrils.

Feeling as his tongue came in contact with
the meat, the curious owl dipped his beak into the creature’s
internal organs. The first thing he had come to realize was how the
meat held a very wet and cold feel to it. Only a heartbeat had come
to pass when the taste of the meat tickled his tongue.

No more than a single speck of the dead
animal came into Pesstian’s beak—and he almost immediately spat it
back out. “This tastes horrible!” he exclaimed, swiping away a
clump of the meat from his presence.

Attempting to remove the awful taste from his
tongue, Pesstian muttered under his own breath, “Obviously,
that
isn’t the treasure.”

With this thought in mind, Pesstian dropped
the half-eaten ocean creature, stuck his leg into the enormous net,
and pulled out another one. Just as he had done to the previous
ocean creature, he began to shake the body from its top, hoping to
open its mouth.

Hoping for patience and perseverance to come
to his aid, Pesstian shook and shook the animal’s rock-hard build.
To his disappointment, Pesstian soon found himself growing more and
more impatient.

For far too long did Pesstian search through
the net. One animal after another after another—and yet he still
found no treasure. A pile of the beasts surrounded Pesstian’s foot
as the other one reached in for yet another one of the
creatures.

Day could have popped into sight at any
moment now. Pesstian felt like surrendering to this futile task.
I can’t do it,
he realized, giving in.
There’s just no
way.

All that changed when a strange, white sphere
flashed into his eyes. It was on the creature’s tongue where it
sat, glaring at Pesstian, mesmerized. A sense of reassurance and
joy pumped through the owl’s veins at that moment.

Drawing himself closer to the treasure, he
widened his eyes and began to stare into the beauty of the ocean
creature’s white fortune.

This is just as beautiful as the things
that some of the humans wear
, Pesstian silently gasped.
How
is it possible that something so beautiful could have been created
by such a little animal?
Taking a look at the deceased creature
itself, Pesstian let out a small chuckle when he jokingly told
himself,
I guess he won’t mind.

With these words spiraling into the core of
his mind, he carefully pulled out the white sphere from within the
ocean creature’s mouth. Only a heartbeat later had he thrown the
body back into the collection of corpses on the floor.

I can’t just keep this to myself!
a
selfless voice cried inside his head. Holding the white ball in the
grasp of two talons, an idea abruptly popped up,
I have to show
Leyai!

These few words ignited a bolt of energy to
spike its way beneath Pesstian’s skin, thus causing him to lift his
wings—along with the rest of his body—into the air. Wings beating
against the wind, he curled up his talon into a fist—and inside
remain his treasure.

Not caring whether or not a single set of
eyes could take sight of his body, Pesstian flapped his way back
onto the ledge of the humans’ vessel. During such a time did he
feel as the wind blew through his ears, causing him to feel a sense
of success.

Within the span of a heartbeat, Pesstian
listened as a childhood song rang into his head.

The song echoing within his head, Pesstian
noticed as one of the vessel’s ledges came within his sight.
Feeling as panic enveloped his thoughts, the disturbed owls placed
his talons out in front of his face. Upon doing so, he nearly
knocked a sleeping owl off the ledge.

With one talon open and the other holding on
to his treasure, Pesstian felt as his nails dug into the human’s
wooden finish. He hated when his talons seeped into wood; it made
him feel filthy. Regardless of such, he jumped off the ledge
successfully, still keeping the treasure in-hand.

Once a good distance away from the ledge, the
nervous, confused owl asked himself,
Where’s Leyai gone?
After taking a look toward the room where both he and the other
owls slept, a shrug formed in his shoulders when he suggested,
She’s probably in there.

After taking a few steps forward, Pesstian
stretched his free talon into the room—before a female voice cried
from behind, “Pesstian—there you are!”

In response to the high-pitched cry, turned
his gaze toward where he believed the call had drawn from, his
blood frozen. “Leyai!” he cheerfully called out, raising his wings
into the air.

Watching as Leyai rushed over toward him, a
small fear crawled into his mind.
Am I going to get ran
over?
However, this fear quickly faded away when his friend put
a stop to her running, her beak barely any distance away from
Pesstian’s face.

Now standing directly in front of Pesstian,
Leyai placed a smile on her face. “How’s it going?” she asked, a
hint of sarcasm squeezing its way up her throat.

“Oh, pretty good,” Pesstian joked through a
thick, foreign accent. “I’ve just been off’ve me fun time for maybe
two
or some days.” Then his accent broke. “Okay, I’ll admit
it—I’m lonely.”

A small chuckle escaped from Leyai’s beak as
she momentarily closed her eyes. After allowing a small pause of
silence to slip into place, she continued, “So—about what you were
doing earlier—”

It was upon taking hearing of these words
when Pesstian found himself with barely enough strength to keep
himself from releasing a small chuckle. Fortunately for him,
Leyai’s hadn’t caught the sound of his laughter.

“I was a bit worried that you were going to
mention it,” he muttered while taking a look at his talons, his eye
drawn to his closed fist. Taking a look up at Leyai, he continued,
“I was—just looking around.”

“Looking for what?” Leyai softly asked.

“Just—just looking.”

Convinced Pesstian wasn’t telling the whole
truth, Leyai allowed a small moment of silence to come into their
conversation. She wanted the truth—and she would either wait for it
or squeeze it out of Pesstian.

Once the awkward silence had come to pass,
she nervously asked, “Did you find what you were looking for?”

The sound of Leyai’s voice causing his
stomach to churn uneasily, Pesstian let out a sigh while giving a
blink of slight impatience. Upon switching a somewhat angry gaze
onto Leyai’s stare, he noticed a speck of fear within the core of
Leyai’s eyes. However, this speck gave an abrupt disappearance when
he responded, “Even better.”

“Is it in your talon?” Leyai asked while
taking a look down.

“Yeah—that’s it.” These words causing
Pesstian’s ears to rattle, he slowly opened his talon as Leyai
awaited the treasure within.

Expanded eyes and a huge, bright smile of
surprise resulted from the expulsion of this treasure.

Seeing as the shine of the white sphere
reflected unto Leyai’s eyes, she brought herself closer to its core
and asked, “What
is
it?” It was after asking this question
when she felt tempted to take a closer look at the white ball.

Leyai began to poke around every corner of
Pesstian’s body. It hadn’t been long when she accidentally poked
the top of Pesstian’s back—right where his non-healing wound
lay—thus causing a shock of pain to spread beneath his skin.

“Stop that!” he snapped, feeling as Leyai’s
beak pinched his skin. Nearly poking Leyai on her left eye, he
began to scratch his recently-bitten. Shortly after furiously
scratching his back, he flicked a slightly infuriated glance toward
Leyai.

In response to seeing this furious look in
Pesstian’s eyes, Leyai let out a nervous chuckle while scratching
the back of her neck. “Oops—sorry!”

A small grunt escaping from the corners of
his beak, Pesstian ignored the apology and continued, “Anyway—I
found this in the mouth of some strange creature that the humans
had aboard on their device. The creature that I found this from was
the weirdest thing that you could ever imagine.”

Eerie silence came into the conversation as
Pesstian thought of a possible way to describe the ocean creatures
that he had earlier found. “They were—in the shape of one of the
humans’ mouths. They even
taste
as weird as they look.”

Piercing deep into Leyai’s eyes, he demanded,
“Promise me that you’ll
never
eat the meat inside them.”

A smile of amusement on her face, Leyai gave
a quick nod of her head and listened for her friend to continue.
However, no such continuation would occur for quite a while; the
only thing that Pesstian did was stare into Leyai’s eyes.

Finding herself confused, Leyai placed a
puzzled look on her face when she asked, “Is something wrong?”

These three words sending what looked like a
shock of fear through the owl’s blood, Pesstian gave a small flinch
of his body. A bead of sweat rolled down his face when he
continued, “Oh—nothing’s wrong. Nothing!”

It was after uttering these words when
another
pause of silence squeezed into the owls’
conversation. For fear of being humiliated again, Pesstian
explained through a sigh, “When I found this treasure, I felt like
I needed to share it with somebody. Since I don’t know any of the
other owls on this boat as well as I know you, I decided to give it
to you.”

Hearing as these words split her ears,
Leyai’s blood gave a sudden freeze, causing her pupils to shrink to
an unimaginably tiny circumference. It wasn’t until she sensed the
cool feel of the white sphere against her breast’s feathers when
she came out of her trance.

The sphere in the clutch of two of Pesstian’s
talons, Leyai took a look down—the ball still touching her
breast—as a wide smile showed itself upon her face. At that moment
did she hold out a talon.

Letting out a small chuckle at the sight of
Leyai’s smile, Pesstian gladly released his grip on the white
sphere, allowing it to plummet into Leyai’s talon. It was while
doing so when a small stake of regret pierced its way through his
heart.

Fortunately for Pesstian, his regret met its
end when he reassured himself,
If I found
one
of these
white balls, it shouldn’t be too hard to find a second one for
myself
. It was as if he had forgotten all about the trial and
error he had recently underwent.

Another gasp escaped from Leyai’s beak, her
shoulders rising in glee. Taking her eyes off of the treasure, she
stared into Pesstian’s eyes and exclaimed, “Thank you so much! I
can’t believe that you were able to get this!”

Leyai allowed the reflection of the white
ball to appear upon her eyes before she continued, “I
cannot
thank you enough, Pesstian!” A speck of sadness entered her mind
when she sighed, “I just wish I could repay you for this.”

“Ah—don’t worry about it!” Pesstian insisted,
not entirely sure he was telling the truth. “Once I found this
thing, I just
had
to share it with somebody. Just promise me
you won’t lose it.”

“Don’t worry; I won’t!” Leyai insured,
clenching her talon closed—hoping not to lose the sphere. “Well,
anyway—I’ll see you later!” Leyai winked at Pesstian while
strolling off toward the ledge of the human’s device.

What a night,
Pesstian silently told
himself.
And to think that it’s not even half over!

--

By the time the owls were supposed to be
asleep, the sun’s brilliant rays of light proved too weak to
penetrate through the many dark clouds in the sky. Nearly every one
of them cuddled together within what Pesstian liked to call the
sleeping room.