*Thud*- Narice fell perhaps four feet onto a hard metal surface. Beside him clanked the sword that Jarrod had given.

He found himself in the dark again. But this was a more familiar darkness, neutral, natural.

The ground below him moved.

His eyes slowly began to adjust as he tried to get a feel for his surroundings. The immediate thing he noticed was light coming from a giant tube.The other source of light came from outside of a door. It was closed, but a small square window in the frame showed a staircase directly out of it.

Upon further inspection - he was inside of some sort of storage room it seemed- noticing the majority of boxes. He felt the hum of some sort of motor - and the motion indicated he was in a moving vessel of some sort.

Jarrod had certainly helped him escape then- after everything. Had they been able to follow him through the portal- Ka'atra certainly would have captured him by now. Knowing that the immediate threat was was gone- he took a breath of fresh air.

Narice was betrayed and alone. He couldn't return home now... his only true friend had just been killed. K'atra had taken over the council...

How could he expose K'atra?

“I dont recommend that…” he heard. Narice looked up. Where had that voice come from?

"Over here."

Narice suddenly noticed that the tube of light held a massive creature. He stepped back in shock for a moment. Upon closer inspection he noticed that the creature had feathers, a beak, claws. It seemed to be some sort of bird.

This wasn’t any ordinary bird however- it was taller than he was- perhaps nine or so feet. It looked fierce- covered in razorlike feather's. And it was surprisingly intelligent.

Narice sat back in shock "-what are you?"

"I'm not a what... I'm a who...

"Okay then. Who are you?"

Terahawk..."

"I've never seen such a large bird before..."

"We dont generally make ourselves known.."

Rather than a history lesson however- Narice really wanted a way out.

"Where are we?"

"A cargo ship- headed towards magic city."

“Why was I sent here?”

“Um. I assume you were teleported."

“Do you know Jarrod? ”

“All humans look alike to me..." the bird responded dejectedly

oh but i think i remember a human asking some questions from the guards…” Terahawk responded, "After he got some information, he seemed to use the portal from your location and escape somewhere. He was on this ship somewhat recently.”

So that was it... Jarrod must have been collecting information of some sort and it brought him here. That explained some things.

“Why are you here?"

"As soon as i left bird city- there was a trap for me from some wizards."

Narice saw an opportunity, "If i help you out of the tube- will you help me escape?"

The bird thought about it.

“Yes.”

“Ok then,” Narice said.

Narice stepped back into the shadows as he heard noises.

“I heard something over here…”

The door opened up as two guards blocked the entrance. One guard came up to the tube. The guard looked at the tube.

"You making noise in here huh, birdie?"

Terahawk glared at the man from inside the tube but was otherwise unresponsive.

“Hey birdie. Did you know you're going to be the next meal at K'atra's ascension ceremony? They’re going to chop you and eat you and use your remains for decor.”

“Kaw Kaw!” Terahawk replied.

“-Alright,” the guard spoke to the other as he exited, “It must have been nothing.”

Narice rushed back to the tube.

He started looking for a way to open the big bird’s prison. It seemed like it was sealed tightly. He tried knocking on it with his hands- but only ended up hurting his knuckes.

Narice fished through the case that Jarrod had given him.

As he saw a gemlike item- he remembered the fire jewel thing he'd been given earlier and held onto it- this one didn't have any swirling ability but figured it was worth a shot as he held his hand up to the glass.

"Fire!" he spoke. Nothing... "wind!" nothing agian.

"what are you doing?" He heard the bird speak from the inside of the container.

“I’m looking for a way to get you out," Narice replied - he went around the edges and noticed a key panel.

“There you go," the bird spoke- appreciating that Narice found the access panel.

"Yeah, but i dont know the password," Narice replied.

"the password is R5n2214,” the bird said, “I was playing dumb just in case i could use the information.”

Narice plugged in the code and the tube glass momentarily vanished. Another magic that Narice didn't have any idea how it worked. The bird stretched out its wings gratefully.

"Ah- thankyou," the bird spoke as it hopped out.

“Ok then, now we just have to get out of here,” Narice said stumped.

“Well, I can fly…” the bird said.

"Hm," Narice replied, "well- since we're in this together- you're going to have to carry me."

Narice looked through a round window and noticed that seemed that the ship was built in layers. Narice and Terahawk slowly walked through the room they were in towards the light from above. A staircase separated them. He figured it would be good to see the guard’s path first and then move.

Narice looked through a round window.

Narice would have to make Terahawk’s way out by going ahead.

“Stay here…”

Narice walked into the hallway and then slowly crossed down the hall.

Narice was pretty sure the guards were also Aqayans under Marx’s- Ka’atra’s command considering they were guarding things on a cargo ship that Jarrod had been to recently. He wondered what other artifacts could be in the ship and for what purposes they were being transported.

He heard the voices of the guards and watched as they started climbing up some stairs and then motioned for Terahawk to follow. The nine-foot bird tried to piddle paddle as well as he could down the hallway towards Narice. It was a pretty funny sight. Under any other condition Narice probably would have had a laugh about it.

Narice climbed up the stairs and noticed two guards standing watch in the next hall. He’d have to get close if he didn’t want them to use their spells right away.

“Uh… hi.” Narice said.

“State your name!” they said, holding up guns.

“John… I’m sorry I was stowed away in the back- but-.

“John, don’t you know that it’s not good to stow away, we’re going to take you to the captain and see what he says,” one of the guards said.

“Okay…”

As soon as they walked up to him, Narice went for it. He knocked one of them in the knees while charging at the other and hitting him in the stomach. He held onto the gun they were using and called for the bird.

“Terahawk!”

The bird came sprinting up the walkway with an ostridge-like speed.

“We gotta go,” Narice said to Terahawk and they ran through the hall.

“Intruder!”

They charged up the last bit of stairs as fast as they could and got on the deck

Cool air breeze hit them in the face “finally…” Terahawk said, spreading his wings. Narice was surprised, it was so large- it seemed to cover two thirds the width of the boat.

Two more guards looked at them on the top of the ship and Terahawk flew towards them using its wings to strike them down.

“Well-” the bird said, “climb on.”

“Narice raced towards the bird and held onto the edge of its wings.

“Ugh,” the bird said as Narice climbed on top of him, but true to his word, it began to take flight, Narice noticed little whirlwinds underneath them as the wings began to pound. They then dove off the ship and after scraping the waters flew upwards into the height of the clouds.

By the time the soldiers got together to shoot them down, they were already far into the horizon over the sea.

—

“Where are we headed?” It had been about thirty minutes. Narice was getting tired of holding on.

“think how i feel…” the bird responded to Narice’s thoughts and then answered the question.

“We’re going home,” Narice then noticed the wings were straining more than before. Narice heard him say as they finally saw some land underneath them.

Narice didn’t know that Terahawk could tell how to get home, but it was proof as Narice saw it for himself that they were able to escape the ocean.

A large forest of trees. Narice wasn’t sure what kind of trees, but it must have been what was considered a ‘jungle’. They began to travel over them as the water disappeared behind and soon enough Narice noticed the trees increasing in size the more they went inland. Eventually, they almost seemed to reach the height of their flight, itself.

As soon as they came upon them, He noticed tress standing high above the rest, strangely enough they’d been in just normal woods a little before that and it only looked like a regular forest in the distance.

“Perception magic,” Terahawk. “The elves and us coexist here. He began to glide down into the trees and a group of birds like Terahawk seemed be circling around the tops of the limbs.

“Kaw, Kaw!” the birds sounded in the trees.

Narice looked downward and noticed that they were gently going down from the treetops to the ground. Beside him he saw other birds like Ka’atrahawk circling as well. They started coming down a little harder Ka’atrahawk must have been holding out for this- straining the last of his muscles to hold out to this moment.

As soon as they hit the floor with a great thud, Narice noticed a lot of spears pointing towards him.