The WINGED

Chapter Six

From left to right: Skylar, Marcus, Angel, Simon, Lily, Yeong

We flew for what I was hoping forever. Soon the clouds gave way into the starry night sky and I closed my eyes. This felt right, it was what I dreamed for what I was-

"It's what you were meant for."

I was pulled out of my thoughts by Marcus. "Excuse me?"

"Nothing, just trying to figure out what you're thinking. You seem to be enjoying yourself for someone who was only minutes ago on the run."

I sighed and crossed my arms, suddenly thinking about my brothers and parents.

"I saw some boys leave, your brothers?" I nodded and he continued. "Where were your par-"

"Where were you?" I snapped back, giving him the cold eye.

"Attacked again, Angel and I were exchanging watches when they spotted us."

I nodded, remembering what I had heard over the walkie-talkie.

"H-hey, pull up."

"Huh?" I realized that I was beginning to lose altitude and gave an exhausted flap of my wings. I was losing adrenaline, and I needed rest.

Marcus must have noticed this because soon he said, "We're not to far away now, hang in there."

A while later we flew to the mountain side and Marcus motioned for me to follow him. We flew in circles and I noticed that he kept looking at the ground, so I did too. It didn't take me long to find a light coming out of a cave, a flashlight. Marcus dived down and I watched how he landed and tried copying him and ended up losing my footing and falling on my face. Marcus helped me up and I saw the shirt blonde who was Angel with the flashlight.

"Nice wings you got Hatchling." She said.

"Hatchling?" What was that suppose to mean?

"You just hatched didn't you? Or would you prefer Chick? Most girls don't because it sounds sexist. Your pick."

I swear I'll never get used to a seven year-old talking like she does. Marcus gave me some info after I met Angel, he told me that the Winged don't age after we "hatch" which is a term used after our wings separate from our backs.

"Hatchling will do." I said deciding that it was indeed better than "Chick."

She nodded. "Well come on in then! Meet the rest of the Flock."

I went inside the cave, rather "Nest" and that's pretty much what it was. They had gathered twigs and grass and anything really to create a bird's nest. In the middle of the cane the ground was bare with some rocks creating a circle around a fire. I saw some familiar faces by that fire and was reminded of my dream. I have to prevent their deaths, I have to.

"Simon," Marcus got the attention of a dirty blonde haired guy with... pigeon wings? He looked like he was about 23! "How's Robin?"

Simon tsked. "Not good. The wound got worse, he's inflected and has a high fever... Lily is in the girl's room." Then he saw me and waved. "Hey there Hatchling, you'll have to imagine us on a better day."

"I say we leave him and leave." Said an Asian looking guy with blue hair and wings. He seemed to be... 19 perhaps?

"Yeong you know that's not an option. We don't leave each other behind."

Yeong rolled his eyes. "He's dead weight! What if we get caught? Hmm? Then what?!?"

"I... can hear... you..." said a voice from behind Simon.

Simon moved and on a make-shift bed of mostly grass laid a boy with reddish-brown hair. He was laying on his back so I couldn't see his wings. From what I could see he was about my age.

"Robin you need to rest, we won't leave you behind." Simon chuckled, "Lily would kill us."

"You bet your ass I would!" Came a strict voice from a tunnel on one side.

A girl with pink hair came out. She was maybe a few years younger than me. But something struck me. I looked back from her to Robin laying on the bed.

She rolled her eyes. "This better not happen every time! We're siblings okay?"

My eyes grew wide and I looked at Marcus.

"Relax, it's very, very, very rare. This is the first case I've ever seen to be honest."

"But what about my brothers? What if they change? What if they grow wings??"

Angel stepped forth and rose an eyebrow. "I didn't sense anything about them. Did you? Since your their sibling you would know if they were a Winged. So do you?"

Marcus had briefly told me how they know who's a Winged and who's not. He said he was hard to explain but it was something we could just sense. I thought about it. I did sense something about Marcus and the others that I never sensed before. It was like... a tighter bond than what a normal family would have. Like all of us had gone through so much, and know we'd go through more. I've never sensed anything like this before.

I shook my head. "My brothers aren't one of us."

They all nodded. The girl with pink hair stepped to me and held out her hand. "I'm Lily by the way. It's good to have another girl in the Nest. Do you need some rest? You look tired?"

Marcus nodded and answered for me. "Take her inside Lily, she's had a rough night. We weren't the only ones attacked."

We both nodded and Lily led me through the tunnel she came from. It wasn't very long and at the end was a small round room with twigs and grass.

"This is the girl's room. We'll be sharing this with Angel when she decides to sleep."

I only nod and sit on the grass. "So... not only do you call this a Nest, but you decorate it like one too?"

She nodded and sat by me. "You... kinda get used it to I suppose. We use a lot of bird terms."

"Care to share? Marcus and Angel told me some but a refresher couldn't hurt."

Lily nodded and took a deep breath. "Where we live is called a Nest, we never stay at one Nest for long. The Winged who are growing their wings are usually called Eggs, but no one really uses it. Once your wings grow and stretch out from your back, you're a Hatchling. I personally think they should take out Chick completely, it's so sexist. Anyways. A group of Winged is called a Flock. We always fly in Flocks, unless your Marcus or Angel and watching over an Egg. Flying alone is risky.

"Now our biology is something else too." She continued and I felt like I should be writing this all down. "First thing you should always remember is that the Winged stop growing as soon as they get their wings. We don't age so don't go assuming that just because a Winged looks young that they are. I bet you assumed that the first time you saw Angel huh?" I nodded. "While we may not age, our wings still grow and the bigger they are, the more powerful. Since your wings are like a hawk's I bet you'll be able to fly longer and faster."

"Are you Hatchlings still up?" Angel's voice came as she entered.

"I was giving Skylar a little Q&A"

Angel nodded and yawned. "We need our rest, especially you Skylar. Tomorrow we leave. And we're taking Robin with us."

"He's fit for travel?" Lily and I both asked.

"Not really, but we have no choice. A storm is coming and we have to stay ahead of it."

Lily nodded and stared at the dying flames of the fire. There were no blankets but after I saw how Angel and Lily wrapped themselves with their wings, I got the idea. My wings were big enough to cover me and my mind wondered to how different my life would really be before my nightmare of drowning came back.