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beautiful mind is-sss worth the trouble. And even if it were not, we are forbidden to return without you.”
    “Then, I guess I’m going to have to burn you all like I did the last one.”
    The melted-faced squal stepped closer. “There are three of us-sss this-sss time. How do you sss-suppose you’re going to take us-sss all?”
    “That’s a surprise.”
    It was so much of a surprise, not even Cross knew exactly how he was going to do it yet. His best option was to make it to the blade house. But the blade house was several houses away and the path to it was blocked by the squal in front of him.
    The dome shaped Bat Aviary towered right next to him. He could lose the squals in there and then make his way to the blade house.
    Cross sprinted through the alley of stone-carved bats leading up to the aviary. The squals chased. He slammed the iron aviary door behind him.
    The squals bashed the solid door from the other side. It cracked open just enough for them to slash their claws through. They ripped his shirt sleeve, trying to grab him and pull him out.

Chapter 3 - Ebony Bird

    Cross shouldered the iron aviary door with all his might . Finally, the squals snatched their arms back. The door closed. He slid the latch in place, locking the door, and backed away. He drew in a shaky breath. The squals would never give up.
    A narrow wooden bridge wound from the entrance through a jungle of dead trees and vines. It was elevated above the forest floor which was filled with boulders and a few hazy ponds, bubbling. It would be a bone breaking jump down. The canopy of the trees rose even higher, but barely touched the top of the dome shaped fencing of aviary.
    He spotted a wooden shack at the other end of the bridge in the center of the aviary. He had never been inside the aviary, let alone that shack. There had to be a way out somewhere on the other side of that shack. Most of the other houses of Xibalbá had back doors.
    The iron door banged. The squals were throwing their bodies against it without any regard to their health. Either they were going to break through the gate or end up breaking their own bones, possibly both.
    The canopy above wisped. Shrieks and flapping noises exploded throughout the aviary. Bats swooped down and swarmed out of their cave-like roosts below.
    Cross rushed across the bridge. Bats half his size snapped their fangs at him and snatched with their talons. He ducked them, sprinting toward the shack.
    Halfway across the bridge, a bat swooped in front of him. He swung the barbot wing and knocked it out of the air. It spiraled to the forest floor several feet below the bridge and splashed into a pond.
    Behind him, the squals burst through the iron door, knocking it off is hinges. A swarm of bats flew out the door, while others attacked the squals, lifting some of the pressure off Cross. Not nearly enough though.
    A bat wrapped its talons around the barbot wing. The wing snapped in half. Another bat slammed into his back, sinking its talons into his flesh. The force sent him tumbling into the dark shack. He rolled around trying to get the creature off his back and writhed in pain.
    “Off of him.” A squal snatched the bat off Cross. Some of the skin on his back ripped away along with it. Cross arched his back in agony.
    Both squals tussled with the bat. The lower jaw on one of the squal’s dangled. Cross must’ve broken it when he bashed it with the wing back in the palace.
    The bat latched its talons onto the slack jawed squal’s chin and ripped its lower jaw right off its face. Black blood gushed out of its neck. It collapsed, hissing.
    The squal with the melted face, whom Cross had stabbed with the lit candles, slapped the bat against the floor repeatedly until it quit flapping and shrieking.
    Melty-face then stepped over Slackjaw, who was lying on the senseless floor, and reached out to Cross as if it honestly cared about his wellbeing. “They did not injure you did they?”
    Cross backed away on