Sparrows POV:

I woke up to giggling the next morning.

"Shhhhh, you'll wake them." A voice said.

"Too late." Elmont said from under me. The giggling only got louder.

"My god. You like a bunch of school girls." I said and sat up, opening my eyes to the giggling grown ass men that stood around elmont and I. I stood and stretched myself out.

"Oh man. I haven't slept that long in months. And I needed it. Thank you, elmont." We continued on climbing, reaching the top in only a little time. I flew ahead of everyone and landed, staring out at the beautiful scenery. I turned around as Jack came up and looked too.

"Well, there's our house. Or whatever's left of it." I said.

"Well, look at that." Crawe said as he and Elmont came up and looked at the giant ugly head with water pouring out of its mouth. We got up to the house and started our search. There wasn't much to search though and she wasn't there so we climbed up to the head.

"Well she's not in the house. This is the only other place she could have gone. If she climbed down, we woulda seen her." Crawe said as we walked into the cave and Elmont examined a boot print.

"She didn't climb down, she climbed up." He said.

"Why would she do that?" Roderick asked.

"Cause Why not?" I snapped at him.

"If she were cold or hungry." Crawe said.

"Or looking for an adventure." Jack mumbled to himself as we followed Elmont though the cave and out to the other side. Elmont started handing out some bread. He handed me some but I shook my head.

"Yes. You have to eat."

"Sometimes when rations are low, I don't eat. Save it for another time. For a time of dire need." I refused.

"Please. Have a little, at least. There's woods here. I'm sure we can find something." He said, taking my hand and placing the bread in it.

"Very well." I sighed and ate a little, making him smile.

"Thank you."

"Yeah. Whatever." I grumbled but the smile on my face told him I was joking and he chuckled a little. We started for the forest, me up at the front. At the first tree of the forest, there was an i carved into the tree.

"It's her, isn't it?" Elmont asked.

"Of course it's her. She's a smart girl. It's so she can find her way back." I said.

"Keep up or you'll be left behind." Elmont said to Roderick, Wicke and Jack, who were getting slow. We kept moving, watching for I's in trees.

"There's another mark, half finished." Crawe said after examining another mark.

"Something happened here." Elmont said. They then started shouting her name. I covered their mouths in panic.

"What are you doing?" Crawe asked, almost seemed like was trying to intimidate me.

"What is wrong with you? Isabelle got snatched up so your gonna yell to attract the thing that took her? We can't exactly save her if we get snatched up too. You have no idea what the outside world is like. You ride around a little kingdom atop your horses like you know all and nothing can touch you. News flash, buddy. The world doesn't work that way. There's stuff out there that you don't even know existed. But I know and seen it all. So shut it before you get us snatched up too." I snapped at him, my feathers ruffled with annoyance, and with every word he seemed to shrink back. They all stared at me in shock.

"You are all way out of your element, but me? This is what I do for a living. You follow me and do as I say when I say it. Do I make myself clear?" I barked and they all nodded.

"Good."

"She hid in here. I think something grabbed her." Jack said as he came back over.

"Why would you think that?" Elmont asked as we turned to him.

"Because this is the book I gave her. Now look at those broken branches. Something big pulled her out of there. She's in trouble." He explained.

"Baldde, you go with Wicke and Roderick, take the high ground. We'll continue on this way. And don't engage in anything unless you have to. Remember, our mission is to find and return the princess. And we must assume that this is hostile territory." Elmont ordered.

"And that every story your fathers told you was true." Crawe added and we followed Elmont. It started to rain so I spread my wings out as far as they would go and let the water rinse my feathers. I sighed at the nice feeling.

"Is that nice?" Elmont asked teasingly.

"Yes, yes it is. I never really got the chance to wash all the blood on them off after the last travel I went on." I said.

"Sometimes, I swear, your crazy." He joked.

"I swear, I get that a lot." I mocked him jokingly back and we laughed.

"See, now will you eat more?" He asked me when we rounded a corner and found a flock of sheep across a small shallow pond. Jack and Crawe started crossing the water to get a sheep but trip wired a trap and as of now are stuck in a net hanging about ten feet up. They started calling for our help as Elmont and I rushed over to the bolder that held them up. Elmont went to climb the rock so he could start cutting the rope but I stopped him.

"Allow me." I pulled my sword out and sliced through the rope with one swing.

"Wow." He mumbled to himself.

"Just leave it to the professional." I patted his shoulder and went over to the boys, who were struggling to get the netting off of themselves. I threw the net off Crawe first and he got up.

"Sparrow?" Elmont called from next to the rock.

"Yeah?" I asked.

"Come here." He said in a quiet voice, he seemed worried.

"Yeah?" I asked again when I got to him.

"Look, the animals." He pointed out.

"Something not right." He said as the ground started to shake and thuds were heard. He pulled me behind the boulder as Crawe ran behind a tree to hind and Jack held his breath and went under the water. Elmont hugged my wings to me to make sure they were hidden. I watched as one of the the very things that nearly whipped out my people's existence walked out of the trees. The giant snatched up a lamb and ate it. It walked through the water and ripped out the tree Crawe was hiding behind, leaving him out in the open. I couldn't watch anymore so I turned away. Before I could stop him, Elmont took out his sword and ran at the giant, stabbing it in the leg, getting kicked over and snatched up as well. It started coming back the way it came so I hid myself against the rock. Jack and I followed them, Jack running while I flew from tree to tree. We soon came up to a bridge that must have lead to their home.