Fly Free

Prologue

A beautiful night to be out to see the fireworks. But he wasn't here for that. His feet flew over the ground, as he felt the wind slice through his dark grey feathers, an intoxicating feeling that gave him the last burst of speed to reach his destination. At last he stopped, his heaving chest on fire, and blood pulsing through his head, making him dizzy and nauseous. Still, he had no time for rest.

He reached into the solitary prickly bush beside him. A soft beep was heard, and he quickly looked around to make sure no one was there, and entered the dark hole that opened up in front of him.

He snapped his fingers twice, and immediately the lights came on. Two faces were illuminated in the harsh glare of the light bulb. "Is it true? Is it true?", he panted. The other person waited for him to stop breathing so quickly. Once he had calmed down, she gave him a quick nod and opened up her laptop. Stabbing the power button, she opened up a file which showed seven pictures of newborn babies. Normal enough, but all of them had different colored wings. Pink, red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet hues adorned their feathery friends. It was beautiful, but it was also terrifying.

"What now?" he asked," How do we keep them alive?""I don't know. We have to inform the Council immediately."

"No, you won't!" A harsh voice rapped out. They whipped around, only to see that they were trapped. Glinting weapons surrounded them on all sides. The owner of that voice stepped out of the cloaking material that had hidden his team of from plain sight. He held a serrated dagger pointing straight towards her throat.

"You thought we wouldn't ever check this place, eh, Victoria? Now your foolishness will cost you your lives. Unless..." he leered at his captives.

They remained silent, Victoria glowering at the one that had betrayed them all. He had destroyed her life, and now he would destroy everything she lived for. She couldn't let him get to these seven. A plan formulating in her mind, she glanced at Arthur, who met her eyes and gave her an almost imperceptible nod.

Arthur launched himself at the general, letting out an otherworldly shriek as he morphed. Extra legs painfully grew from the sides of his abdomen. His fingers stuck together and curved into claws. A segmented tail and sting grew from the bottom of his spine. He shrunk to no more than 6cm in a nanosecond. The shocked team of assassins wasted another valuable second staring at him, which gave Victoria the time she needed to set the plan in motion.

She grabbed the laptop and took off into a maze of  secret natural tunnels. Discovered by accident one day, Victoria had kept it a secret from everyone, even Arthur. The thought of him snapped her back to reality. He would only buy her a few seconds before they came after her. She sent him a silent thank you for all he had done. They would never find the seven now. 

While she ran lightly over the obstacles, her hands worked at full speed, sending all the information of the seven to the Council. Every trace of them was deleted from her laptop. Now I can die easy. 

Victoria pulled out a semi-automatic, already fully loaded. She hadn't used it in the room because the bullet could have bounced off a wall and hit her or Arthur. But now, she pointed the gun at her forehead, barely stopping before a shot was heard.

Five bodies were recovered by the Council that day.