Fly (2nd in the feather series)

Fourteen

Once I told Amy this I went back to the clearing, where Ava was sitting.

"What happened?" She asked curiously.

"Cats leaving this area of the country to go to the south of England. I'll never be able to see her again." I answered gloomily. I continued, in a more cheerful note, "But Ava, I found out who owns the 'feather prize.'"

"Go on then, tell us who's it is so we can find them." Ava requested cheerfully.

I took the feather prize out of my pocket and traced my finger over its number code. I walked over to Ava slowly and then held out the 'feather prize' to her.

I answered, thinking she would be delighted and pleased to have her prize back,
"It's yours, Ava."

Ava looked surprised and snatched her 'feather prize' from my hands. She examined it in a panicked way and recognised it was her number code. Her eyes were wide with disbelief and she was mouthing something in a shocked way, her hands trembling. Then, I saw Ava's face cloud over. She looked at first upset, then clearly angry. Then, there was a horrible, awkward silence as Ava looked at me angrily. It was so silent you could've heard a single feather drop onto the ground. I saw Ava transform because of her strong feelings and I sensed magic. But it wasn't a good sense of magic. It was a prickly, uncomfortable sense that indicated only one thing.

Soon, I would have to fight.

I backed away from Ava, who was scowling at me. My tail fanned out behind me instinctively and I fluffed up my wing feathers defensively. Ava stood up and stepped over to me.

"What did I do to you?" I shouted at Ava. "I gave you your prize back! What's wrong with that?"

Ava snarled at me,

"Oh, you just happened to steal my feather prize the very day I won it! Then you put it in a potion to gain your ticket to Atlo!" She shouted at me, emphasising the word 'you'.

I thought back to the time when I'd escaped from Srrin 7 months ago. I hadn't stolen her 'feather prize' - it was purely by accident that I'd picked it up. I knew the truth but Ava seemed to think I'd deliberately stolen her prize.

"Ava, I didn't mean to! I picked up your 'feather prize' from the floor by accident as it looked like an ordinary feather and I was in a hurry to get out of Srrin before I stepped on a Sprjk!"

Ava shouted at me,

"Oh, well you just happened to 'accidentally' ruin my life at the same time! When I came back with no prize my family were ashamed of me! They threw me out of my home and treated me like dirt! I have since been roaming the streets, trying to find employment but no one wanted me! Even the poor folks jobs were occupied! I have been living 7 months of pain, sorrow and hardship!  YOU RUINED MY LIFE YOU TRAITOR!"

I stood there, stunned by Avas words. How could she think I'd wanted her life to be like that? Ava, her face as dark as thunder, suddenly rushed at me and terrified, I flew up into the air to dodge her. Ava was fuming as she launched herself into the air to attack me. Ava lashed out at me, kicked me all over and I, to defend myself, grabbed her hair and pulled it, hard. Ava winced and divebombed me and I only just escaped being injured by that. Then, I flew higher into the air, trying to evade Avas attacks as she tailed me furiously. I knew I had to keep flying away, otherwise Ava would do something very nasty to me. My heart was beating so fast as I tried to fly away from Ava, twirling in the air, doing loop-the-loops. I felt adrenaline flow through me and desperately flapped my wings. I was struggling to fly any higher and so was Ava, although she hid this fact. I curved my wings slightly and immediately, I was shooting downwards, peregrine-falcon style. Ava hadn't  a clue on how to do that and flew downwards angrily, trying to keep up with me. Nearing the ground, I curved my wings towards the sky and flew upwards like a bullet. But Ava was waiting for me. She saw what I was going to do and had got herself in prime position for an attack. As I soared on a light breeze, Ava flew towards me, shouted an insult and then reached out her hand. All of a sudden, I felt a sharp pain coming from my wing and I screamed. I slowly began to fall and it was only then that I noticed what Ava had done. Ava had pulled out 3 of my wing feathers. As I fell, I slowly angled my wings so that they acted like a parachute, slowing my fall. I was still falling but very slowly, so it wouldn't hurt much when I landed. I slowly sailed downwards to the forest floor, landing in a violet heather bush softly. I sat there for a moment, then examined my injured wing. My wings had many feathers on them, so having 3 feathers yanked out of my wing wouldn't really affect my performance. It would just hurt a tiny bit. Soon, Ava landed and I stood up to face her. Ava still looked angry and was all set to launch another attack on me when we both heard an ear-splittingly loud screech from behind us. The screech was like that of a bird of prey and was a sound all Aviars instinctively knew.

With Ava and I covering our ears and gasping, Amy stepped out from behind a pine tree, her hand over her mouth, ready to perform another Aviar screech.

"Seriously guys, you've taken this too far." Amy scolded us. "Stop fighting and find some other way to settle your differences - The Srrin civil war only ended a month ago, we don't need you two to start another one!" Amy told us off, shaking her head at us.

Ava stood up, looking guilty and ran off, flying away into the night. Amy approached me carefully, sensing I was quite stressed and asked me calmly,

"Layla, I think we need to take you to a Srrin doctor who treats Aviars to examine your injuries - Do you want me to teleport you there?"

"Yes." I answered Amy. "Please do."