---
The tunnel entrance rumbled with a deep, rising tremor. Dust sifted from the cracked ceiling as shadows danced across the broken stone floor. Everyone paused. Outside the tunnel, even the smallest of the lizards on the trees perked up.
And then came the sound, it was an ear splitting cry that tore across the mountain air, like thunder being shredded by a thousand knives.
Kai's eyes flicked upward. His eyes twitched. A smile crept across his bruised face.
"She is here," he muttered.
With a whoosh that bent trees and scattered moss, Alka descended from the sky like an avian storm beast. Her sable feathers flared outward like twin curtains of night, shimmering with ocean deep hues. Her wings alone spanned wider than a warship's deck. Her obsidian talons curled beneath her as she dropped lower, wind howling through the tunnel's broken opening.
