Finally Free- A Novel

Chapter Three

I looked behind me, to see huge, hairy men, their hands holding shotguns, ad rifles. They were shooting at us. "Down!" I yelled, dive-bombing to the forest floor. At the last minute, I tucked in my wings, landing with a thunk on the mossy ground. The three other children landed near me, with grunting noises. Bullets flew past us, hitting trees, and causing the bark to spilt in an explosion of tree and bullet. Quickly, I shifted into a wolf, and realized that the others did the same. We were now a pack of four. "Run!" I barked, rushing forward. Quickly, my little pack followed behind me, the men chasing after us. Another shot sounded from behind us, and a yelp.

'No....' I thought, spinning to see the black wolf, the oldest boy, still running, his shoulder gushing blood. The bullet had grazed past his shoulder, leaving a deep, long cut. 'Thank god it didn't lodge into his shoulder.' I thought, stooping behind a group of rocks. "You ok?" I asked, and he nodded, before finally speaking. "Fine." He said, looking at me and the two others. "We should get going. I think there's a clearing ahead, so we should get ready to shift and fly." I said, and the three nodded.

We kept running for a ways, before coming to a clearing. Quickly, the youngest shifted back into human form, and took to the sky, flying up into the clouds. The older boy and I followed, and for the first time I realized his wings weren't just black, but speckled with a lighter black at the tips of his feathers. I shrugged, well, as much as I could in the sky, and flew on. We reached the others, and began to fly toward a large group of mountains. No more gunfire sounded below us, and it seemed some of the tension had lifted.