Wings | Fleeting Feathers Book 1

Chapter 11 | Michelle's A+ Parenting

In Owl's opinion, things could be worse. By all accounts, the fact that the Hestia Incident was their only large issue was a godsend, but Owl couldn't shake the feeling something was off. This feeling was only reinforced when the next morning, a sealed envelope had been shoved through the mail slot in their door, which they hadn't even noticed. This envelope had both their address along with the last name they had all used on their files.

Flock

Second Building, Room 213

It was fairly creepy in Owl's opinion, but the context of the letter was even worse. Apparently, Michelle hadn't liked being separated from her child, and she'd decided that despite her child being grown, she was going to sue David (Apparently Rivera had a court, who knew?). And to make it worse, Eagle wasn't happy with the letter that had been addressed to himself personally, because he'd rushed away to his and Buzzard's room looking much like he'd seen a ghost. Buzzard had followed after him, but from what Owl could hear, Eagle had hidden himself under something and wasn't coming out. Owl pushed that from the forefront of her mind, she had bigger things to worry about.

The letter was official, addressing that the Flock (along with an adult) would be witnesses in a court hearing over custody, apparently, Michelle was "worried about her son's safety" and "worried about how her son might be influenced by such dangerous delinquents". Owl called bullshit, but what did she know?

"So what the hell do we do?" Peafowl wondered, staring at the letter.

"Well, we have to show up of course," Falcon replied.

"Well yeah, but how do you prove to a court that the mother is a problem in her grown child's life?" Peafowl asked.

"First we get David, that'll give us an edge. Second, we plan this with Eagle, he needs to have a choice in this, does he stay away, or do we let him go back without a fight? Then we convince the court of what Eagle wants, obviously." Owl replied, before walking into her room.

Owl returned with a piece of paper along with a pen and started to write things down. "First, we let Buzzard calm Eagle down. In the meantime, Peafowl and Canary I want you to get David, if anything he's probably already coming here but we should find him if not. When Eagle's calmed down we'll make a plan for this, and hopefully, we'll win." Owl explained, sighing.

"Is there an easier way to do this?" Peafowl asked.

"Well if she's dead there isn't much need for a custody case," Owl suggested.

"No, we're not killing her." Peafowl refuted, looking Owl dead in the eye.

"Then we have to do this the old-fashioned way, convincing or bribing the court to listen to us," Owl replied, shrugging.

"What could we bribe a court with? Money isn't exactly valuable anymore." Peafowl asked.

"Judging by the size of this compound, there's gotta be at least two hundred people, maybe three hundred, so things like fruits and meat are probably in low supply, so, me and Falcon gather a shit ton of such foods, which we can then use as a bribe. That or I can play lawyer." Owl explained.

"Do I want to know how you guessed all that?" Peafowl asked.

"It's not that hard, have you looked at the ground? It's covered in footprints and it's not like this place is good at subtlety. It's likely most of them have been in this stronghold since the Fall and have refused to be a part of any job outside of the walls, meaning they don't have enough hunters to secure such large amounts of meat." Owl replied, shrugging.

"I'm not even going to ask," Peafowl muttered, before walking away.

* * *

Everything felt wrong, to Eagle ( ̶C̶h̶a̶r̶l̶i̶e̶), so much so that he'd wrapped himself up in a jacket he'd found lying on the floor and had hidden himself beneath the bed, hoping that being there would do something, anything, to get rid of the numb feeling  ̶(̶i̶t̶ ̶n̶e̶v̶e̶r̶ ̶h̶a̶s̶,̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶h̶e̶ ̶k̶n̶o̶w̶s̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶b̶u̶t̶ ̶h̶e̶ ̶h̶a̶s̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶d̶o̶ ̶s̶o̶m̶e̶t̶h̶i̶n̶g̶,̶ ̶d̶o̶e̶s̶n̶'̶t̶ ̶h̶e̶?̶)̶.