The Final Feast

Chapter 26

They landed at the front of the cave. As much as she hated it, One had to make sure they were all really dead. She walked slowly to the back of the cave, stepping over the bloody remains of the Máng Nù colony. It had worked. They really were gone. She turned, about to walk out when a soft squeak broke the silence. She turned her head. There, lying on a pile of corpses, was one of the bats, heavily injured and barely breathing. She stepped closer and knelt down to look at it. It was very small compared to the others, likely a baby. It was helpless. One pulled out a tranquilizer dart and stabbed it as gently as possible. It squeaked once and fell asleep.

She fed it some meat and sat down on one of the piles of bats. After a while it woke up and sniffed her, squeaking for more. She fed it again and picked it up, cradling it in her arms. The onyc fell asleep again and One walked out of the cave. She whistled, letting her tames know to stay passive. "He's one of us now," she said, climbing on Corvi's back. They returned to the beach, both defeated and victorious. One checked on each of her wounded tames and then walked back to her hut. The baby onyc was asleep on her bed, squeaking softly as he breathed. She wrapped his wounds and then took one of his little arms, marking "Vincent" into his implant.