*A few hours later*
Inside the main cockpit, Finlay and Serko sat on their chairs, looking through the front window at the distant sky ahead of them. They had been flying for a while and it was completely peaceful the entire time.
They didn’t see anything odd nor did they face any problems with the aircraft itself. The weather was also clear and they could see everything around them. It was a nice time for them to relax, too.
As they were like that, they heard a knock on the cockpit’s door. That snapped them out of their thoughts and made them look back.
“Please come in,” Finlay said.
The door then opened slowly and someone peeked inside with his head only. The two immediately smiled when they saw who it was.
“Arthur!”
“Hey, you two. How are you doing?” Arthur asked as he walked inside and closed the door behind him. “I wanted to check on the two of you since you didn’t appear for a few hours.”
“Hehe, we have to make sure the aircraft is working as intended,” Serko replied. “If we leave for a while, bad things could happen.”
Arthur stared at the windshield and the distant sky beyond it. They were very high in altitude at that moment, hanging in the air without any way of going down if bad things truly happened. He immediately understood why the two kids were worried and didn’t leave the cockpit.
‘This is very unnerving indeed.’ He mused as he shifted his gaze to look at the control panel. As he expected, the panel was very complicated with a lot of options and buttons that he didn’t understand the purpose of.
“Where is the broken shard by the way?” Arthur asked curiously.
“Hm? it’s on the front of the aircraft, right inside the nose of the aircraft.” Finlay pointed beyond the windshield.
“Oh, is that a safe spot to put it?” Resting his hand on the chair, he asked with an attentive look.
“Yes, that’s the safest spot and also the most effective spot. It makes it easier to wire everything to the shard.”
“I see… Well, that’s good to know. By the way, do you want anything to eat? Well, not anything, we only have water, fruits, and jerkies.”
“No, we ate earlier today, we are fine,” Serko replied.
“We have all kinds of fruits. They’re really delicious, though.” Arthur smiled.
“No, we’re really fine.”
“Ok, if you say so. Well, I’m going to leave then. Make sure to call me if anything happens.” Waving at them, the boy turned around to leave. But, as he was about to look away, his eyes caught a fleeting thing in the distance. “Hm?”
Stopping, he turned around and looked at the spot again, a little confused. His eyes couldn’t recognize what he was seeing, it was very distant and very small. But, in the clear blue sky, it stood out like a sore thumb.
Slowly, he stepped forward and leaned to take a closer look. “Can you guys see that?”
“Hm? See what?”
“That small black dot in the distance.” He replied as he pointed at it. “… What the hell is that?” He muttered.
As the aircraft flew toward it, the dot started getting bigger and bigger, slowly forming a different shape. Then, it clicked in Arthur’s head as his eyes widened.
“Turn the aircraft to the left.” He said.
“Huh?”
“I said turn the aircraft to the left, quickly!” He repeated in a more urgent tone as his face turned pale.
The two kids didn’t even have time to understand what was happening before they quickly started working. Using the steering wheel, they changed the aircraft’s direction. However, by that time, it was all too late.
In a split second, the distance between the aircraft and the flying object was cut short.
“Oh no!!”
*BANG* *CRACK*
The object smashed violently into the aircraft, shaking it out of its balance. “Woah! Hold on!!” Arthur grabbed into the chairs to stop himself from falling. At the same time, Finlay and Serko shook in their places.
The windshield cracked upon impact as the object was impaled into the glass. When the aircraft stabilized again, Arthur looked up in shock. There, he saw something he didn’t expect at all.
“A bat?”
The creature was completely black from head to toe with considerably big wings and a big head. The impact had destroyed its skull and wrecked its body and it appeared to have died instantly. But, that didn’t ease Arthur’s shock at all.
Quickly, he rushed toward the monster and pushed it out of the glass again. The massive hole in the windshield created an immense amount of air and pressure that seeped into the cockpit, pushing him back slightly. “This is bad, this is really bad.”
Rushing through Ideas, Arthur hurriedly took his shirt off before he formed it into a ball and shoved it into the hole, closing it as tightly as he could. Instantly, the wind stopped and the chaos calmed down a little.
“Hah… Hah…” He breathed audibly as he stared at the hole. “The last thing I would’ve expected is for a goddamn horrifying bat to smash into the windshield!”
“Ugh…”
“Are you two ok?”
“… We’re… Fine. What happened?”
“It seems a monster of some kind had found its way into our path and hit the windshield,” Arthur replied with a frown. “Is the aircraft going to be ok?”
The two dwarves looked up at the closed hole. “This isn’t too bad… The damage was luckily minimal.”
“So everything is fine?”
“… We will deal with it. This aircraft is resilient, this shouldn’t cause a disaster.” Finlay explained with a thoughtful look.
Hearing that, Arthur exhaled a sigh of relief. He was ready to hear the worst news about the condition of the aircraft after this accident, but things seemed to be fine for now.
‘Though, what are the chances of coming across a bat in such a vast sky? We’re so goddamn unlucky.’ He mused. At that moment, Arthur suddenly had an epiphany.
‘Wait, a bat? A bat…’ Putting his hand on his chin. ‘A bat…’
“Arthur…” Finlay called for Arthur in a quiet tone.
‘If I’m not wrong aren’t bats usually…’ Wrecking his head trying to remember that one particular information he knew about bats, he ignored Finlay’s voice.
“Arthur.”
‘Oh right! They’re social animals which means they move in groups, don’t they?… What is a single bat doing here?’
“Arthur!”
“What? Don’t you see that I’m… thinking… of…” Hearing the dwarf call for him for a third time, Arthur opened his eyes and looked at him. That was when he noticed that the child had a horrified look on his face he had never seen before. His mouth was hanging open as he stared directly at the windshield.
Arthur instinctively followed the line of vision, only to freeze in his place as a nightmarish sight welcomed him with a wicked smile.
“…”
In the distance, a massive swarm of black dots appeared in their line of sight. It was so massive that it created something akin to a black cloud in the sky. Many bats flew around chaotically like a swarm of flies and the aircraft was flying right toward them at full speed, closing the distance rapidly.
“Finlay, move, move… NOW!!” Amidst his shock, he tapped the kid on his shoulder quickly. “Snap out of it! We need to avoid that swarm or we’re all dead!”
A//N: Don’t forget to give the book some golden tickets for good luck! :3
