If Alex expected any kind of reaction from mentioning her traveling companion, it was not this. The old greenwing shrieked in outrage before turning on her like a viper ready to strike.

"You are what?! Have you completely lost your mind, girl?!!!"

"Stop yelling, I don't even see what the problem is." Her ears folded back to shield her from the shrieks.

The old bat looked at her in disbelief. "What the problem is? You are traveling with a giant bat, with... with one of those beasts and you are honestly telling me you can't see what the problem is?!"

"Well so far I haven't had any issues with him." That statement wasn't entirely true, but said issues still weren't that much of a big deal.

"Has everyone really become so oblivious to the danger? Have they forgotten what happened? What those things caused?!" The greenwing went on with her rant, throwing in a few curses here and there.

"Hey, I don't care what some other giant bats did, you don't know him and shouldn't judge him based on whatever some of his kind did before. Besides, Setrin is just one, how could he even do something to cause such trouble?"

She scoffed. "Just one, last time it was only two, and those were more than enough. Girl, this obviously happened before your time, but it is no excuse.... Get rid of him, whatever way you can think of, just send him away from here before history repeats itself."

"I... How can you even ask this of me?! You have no idea what we've been through to even get here! He's done nothing wrong!" Now it was Alex's turn to shout.

The old bat's expression grew distant and cold. "You weren't here, girl. You weren't here when the owls came.... But I was. I was even younger than you are now, and I watched as the owls took over the sky, when all bats were interrogated and held in custody. My brother tried to stand up to them... and was viciously struck down. The whole colony was nothing but a gathering of fear, that event was a living nightmare for all bats. And all because of two giant bats who murdered several birds."

"Wait a minute, is that your issue? Owls? You're blaming a whole kind based on what two of its individuals did that made a whole other species go crazy and turn into tyrants? What kind of botched logic is this?! Be angry at the owls, not the giant bats!" Alex kept shouting, poking the other bat in the chest to get the point across.

"Bah, you just don't understand, you're young and foolish and naive. I don't know what kind of a illusions you hold about that bat, but you must get rid of him as soon as possible, else it won't end good for you. It might not end well for all of us."

"Think what you want, you old crone, but I am not leaving Setrin behind. And I swear if you try to do anything to harm him I will be at your throat faster than the damned owls." The little nightwing hissed in anger, determined to defend her companion if need be.

What happened next was unexpected. The old greenwing relaxed and carefully placed both hands on the younger bat's shoulders. She took a deep sigh and looked at Alex with an expression so tired and sad it made the bat look even more ancient. "He will kill you."

Alex tried to respond, but the deep sincere belief in those words made her pause.

"No matter what you think now, no matter what you do still, he will kill you. Perhaps not anytime soon, but one day, it is his nature." Her voice was soft but firm as she spoke, trying to get the younger bat to understand the danger she brought herself into.

Alex remained silent for a few moments before stepping away and turning her back to the greenwing. "Perhaps it really is his nature, but I will be safe with him, he promised."

"Then you are beyond rescue, girl. Never forget that I warned you."

Without another word Alex flew away.

----


Original description:
Well then, I had this sketched out and scanned about a couple months ago but then didn't feel like working on it for a while, til today.
This is canon to the yet to be written Silverwing AU story I have in the works, originally it was just a random idea but then I ended up liking the scene quite a lot and I'd like to implement it in the actual story.

The whole thing was inspired by a small bit mentioned in the TV show, early on in the "giant bat craze" I believe one of the owls mentioned they ran into a greenwing colony they would interrogate. It was just random trivia and completely non-consequential to the show but I though it would be interesting to go more into detail about that. If we think about it there's probably a lot of animals who suffered thanks to Goth and Throbb's shenanigans, if I remember right there was curfew on all bats at some point. So by all means there's a lot of potential to adding some darker twists on the story.

I still don't know how close my story will get to the Silverwing canon, it'll mostly be limited to referencing a few things from the show (and books when I finally read them) but it won't actually contain any of the canon characters.

And another thing, while my story is going to be lighthearted most of the time, it is still going to have some dark themes going in the background. It is going to be one of the darker fictions based on that franchise and I believe this little scene is a nice introduction to that.


Characters © me
Silverwing © Kenneth Oppel