Sunwing by Kenneth Oppel

couldn’t they do? Shade peered up through the dense foliage, listening, but all he could hear were the sounds of the cannibal bat thrashing through leaves, getting closer.
    “It’s about time they fed me some real food,” Goth roared. “I’m to feast on you, Shade! I’ve seen it in my dreams, and my dreams always come true! I dreamed my wings were healed, and they were. And I dreamed I tasted your beating heart! And I will!”
    Shade’s legs trembled, and he tensed his exhausted muscles to still them. A drop of sweat snaked through his fur and into one eye. He tried to lie to himself, tell himself it was just another bad dream, but he knew this was real, and there’d be no easy escape by jerking himself out of sleep. He was horrifically awake.
    There was sudden silence, stretching out long enough to make Shade hopeful, and just as he was turning to Marina to whisper, their screen of leaves was swept back by a dark wing, and Goth swung toward them, upside down.
    Before Shade could even move, the owl had dropped onto Goth’s back, driving them both down through the leaves. Shade lit with Marina as the owl and the cannibal bat fought on below them.
    “No!” Shade cried out in dismay. “You can’t beat him!”
    He knew the owl would lose; it was only a matter of seconds. But there was no helping him now. Shade flew into a small clearing and nearly smacked into a Human.
    Robed in white, the hooded Human ignored him and Marina and moved into the heart of the thicket. In his hand was one of the long, netted sticks. Shade swirled to watch as the Human lifted the metal stick high in the air. There was a sharp crackle, and Goth slumped into the net. A second Human appeared from the far side of the thicket, poked the owl with his stick, and netted him as he dropped lifelessly.
    He saw them put Goth into one cage, the owl into another. Then they paused, looking around the jungle.
    They know we’re here, thought Shade.
    He heard a faint hiss of air, and turned to see a section of the stone wall swinging open to admit a third Human. And already the wall was starting to close behind him.
    “Marina,” he hissed, and led the way, pounding furiously toward the opening. The Human must have seen them, because it made a low, drawn-out moan of surprise, turning as they streaked past. The wall was almost sealed shut again, but Shade wasn’t stopping. He’d flown through fissures in waterfalls and he could do this. He flipped sideways, sucked in his belly, and trimmed his wings and made it through, Marina almost clawing his tail as she shot after him. With a sucking noise, the wall sealed itself behind them, and they were out of the fake jungle.
    He’d been inside a few Human buildings, but mostly in the high recesses where the Humans never went: cathedral spires, a clock tower, the attic of an abandoned mountain cabin.
    Now, they were in a blazingly bright passageway, with lights running overhead. The walls were white; so white, they’d be spotted in a minute. Instinctively, they flew to the corners of the wall and ceiling, trying to drag themselves into the tiny smudges of shadow there.
    For a moment they rested, and Shade could feel Marina trembling against him. Then he realized it was he who was trembling. “He saved us, that owl.”
    Marina nodded. “Never thought I’d ever get help from an owl. Why did he … why did you help him?”
    “I don’t know. It just … seemed right.”
    “Did the Humans kill him with those metal sticks?”
    “I thought both of them were still moving, only kind of stunned.”
    “Good thing for the owl the Humans came, or he’d be dead. What’s Goth doing here?”
    “Must’ve caught him again, but the bands—”
    “Gone, I know,” she said. “And his wings, did you see his wings?”
    “No scars.”
    Marina nodded miserably. “Maybe you’re right, Shade, maybe they’re just studying us for something. We’ve got to tell the others.”
    Shade wanted to get farther away from the