Modified: How It All Began (ORIGINAL)

34. Privileges

I snap my eyes open to a clamber of hooves approaching, I quickly look towards the herd to see them being herded into a different pasture by a sheepdog, weird I've never seen it before, I look further onwards to see Mr lanction with a stick slowly following the herd, they stomp on past me and I hear the clatter of the gate closing, I look down and watch as the dog comes to a sudden stop at the base of the tree and starts sniffing around I see his hackles raise and I keep perfectly still, I watch out the corner of my eye as the farmer shoos him away and scratches his head in wonder and then move on.
After they go back to the house I quickly do a perimeter check before I go and get my breakfast.
I touch down at the porch startling Danny nearly dropping Penny, she laughs at me as I smile at her innocently, Penny instantly spots me and crawls out of her mum's arms and wanders over to me with a big grin, I bend down to her and ruffle up her hair she giggles as I let my eyes glow for her,
"Hello Penny", she grins even wider as she hears my voice and lets off little giggles, I snap my eyes up as I hear scrapes of claws against hardwood floor, my eyes land on the dog from earlier and it instantly freezes with its hackles raised and it begins to bare it's teeth at me, my eyes glow even brighter and my wings and tail puff out, Danny watches me and cocks her head at me, then the dog begins growling and starts taking menacing steps forward, my wings half unfurl which makes Penny jump on me, the dog snaps and launches itself towards me barking and snarling, I jump back with a slight backwing sending Penny onto her back, the dog takes position in front of her snarling, I hiss loudly at it showing my fangs, it begins barking again and snapping at me, I keep baring my teeth as I hear Danny shout for her dad, it lunges for me again and I quickly dodge it's snapping jaws, I growl out which just makes the dog more aggressive as it starts jumping side to side and snapping wildly at me, I see a blur of movement as Mr lanction comes forward and trys to grab the dog, It lunges at me and I smack into the wall trying to dodge it but It grabs onto my arm while I'm distracted and begins shaking his head wildly, I twist myself so I get ontop of the dog so my arm is still clamped in its jaws and my other arm is laying on its neck and head so it can't move, Mr lanction quickly comes forward, I wriggle my arm out and close its mouth shut, he quickly clips a lead onto it and gives a tug so when I get off it won't be able to turn around and bite, I quickly get off it and it begins to bark and try to jump at me again, he takes the dog inside and comes back out and looks down at my arm.
My arm is dripping with blood with multiple gashes from it's teeth, I sigh at the sight,
"It will heal", I say as I shake my wings out,
"I'm really sorry about that Belle I thought he would be fine with you", he explains with worry,
"Most dogs don't", I say with a shrug, I look up as Danny brings me some berries fruit and a full rib from the bear yesterday, I smile at her and fly off back to the tree, I see why cats don't like dogs now.

I finish with the last rib bone as I freeze as I hear a familiar voice off in the distance towards the house, I get up and begin flying over, I land just outside and my heart twists, my breath catches in my throat as the door opens and Caleb rushes out to hug me, I smile wildly as he spins me around on the spot crushing me to his chest,
"Oh my god what are you doing here?" I ask as soon as he lets me go,
"He came to visit for a bit and get to know where your saying", I look towards the doorway at the man's voice, I smile wildly at Caleb as he looks me over,
"Come on let's go in", he softly says taking my hand in his and leading me inside, when we get inside I notice the TV straight away with pictures of people like us but in hospital, but it's muted,
"Oh they were just saying how because of the amount of people like you two we are finding a law has come out that if someone attempts to kill you are allowed to defend yourselves", Danny says as she bounces Penny on her knee, she looks up and instantly squeals, she hops off her knee and toddles over to me, I swiftly put her on the back of my wings again where she begins to make baby noises and idly messing with my feathers, Caleb looks at me with a raised brow,
"You've been busy", he says with a smirk, everyone laughs and I nudge him in the arm.
We talk about random things that somehow leads to our time in the facility and others like us,
"So they are still making more of us?" I question looking round the room,
"They aren't found at the facility you was at but there is a different one they know another is out there but they don't know where", Danny answers as she looks back to the TV,
"Did you know the facility where you two were at made the strongest ones?" She adds as she turns to us, I slowly shake my head,
"How?" I ask as I eye Caleb looking and slightly smiling at Penny still giggling on my wings,
"Well because you two were mainly the only ones who survived from your facility, it just proved you had to be strong enough to be able to change like that, whereas in the other facilities they are considerably weaker, I'll show you," she stands and whips out her phone and walks over, she shows me the screen to a girl with the obvious wings poking behind her back and a noticeable tail,
"The main difference is that her eyes don't glow like yours and they don't have the cat pupils either but they can see slightly in the dark, and her claws? They don't retract like yours do, and she can't hear smell or see as well as you", my eyebrows raise as I look at Caleb who has the same expression,
"And with her wings as well," she slides over to the next photo which shows her with her wings spread, I raise an eyebrow at how small they are, they are probably as big as if her arms were outstretched,
"Because she has smaller wings she can't fly as good as you she can only fly short distances, and with her tail as well, she doesn't have feathers on her tail to help with flying so that doesn't help either", she says as she zooms in on the girls small skinny tail, I let out a breath as she clicks her phone off,
"So technically you two are the only successful hybrids they made", I visibly cringe ruffling my feathers which half covers the small girl perched on my wings.

After a tense silence Caleb turns to me,
"I told the farmers I was going to go out and hunt some elk as well not too far away wanna come?" He asks hopeful, I smile and retrieve Penny from my back and hand her back to Danny, I quickly leave as she begins to scream for me again.
We both take off towards the forest and start to scour the trees for the elk, I notice movement and go straight for it, I crash through the trees and go straight after a big bull elk that tries to dodge me but I catch it's leg with my claw and it trips and falls, I grab onto it and sink my teeth into its skull with a sharp crack, I come back up as I start to pant from the adrenaline rush, I look to see Caleb land on the kill and sniff it over, he stands and brushes me into a hug,
"I don't know when the next time I'm going to see you is but I will ok?" I nod against him, he leans back and gives me a much needed kiss, he leans back over the elk and digs his claws into it,
"I love you", I freeze in my tracks and look back at him, I feel my body go red,
"I love you too", I smile up at him and take off into the sky and back towards the farm, I still feel giddy by the time I land on my tree.
I'm looking at the treeline when I look down as a small cry can be heard, I pin my eyes and see Midnight slowly climbing up the tree to me,
"Midnight!" I exclaim and reach down to her, she grabs onto me and I swiftly take her into my arms,
"They let you out finally?" I ask her, she begins to purr and rub her head along my nose and cheek, I giggle at her as I kiss her on the head and put her into my lap, she begins to look around and starts going along a branch, I roll my eyes as I already know I'm going to have to rescue her in a bit.

I watch the sun roll down the sky until there is no more light left and I start to huddle down, Midnight instantly makes her way into my lap through my feathers, she settles down onto my tail and begins to rest her head, I look around and start to listen for anyone or anything, after sometime I begin to drift off into a light sleep just like the past nights before.