When Wings Burn

4 | TATE

At base, The Alpha sits stony-faced at his handcrafted pine desk. He doesn't speak, doesn't fidget. He's motionless with thought, like an eagle waiting for prey. I busy myself staring at the large desk in front of me. I remember when that desk was brought into this room. It was a gift from the east, for a favour he has never told me. Strange carvings curl up the legs and the top is decorated with the natural grain of the wood. I love this piece. When I was young I would tell my mother that I wanted one just like it when I was old, and she laughed and said I wouldn't have the patience to sit at it. She was right, because I'm here now, fifteen years on, and all I can think about is being released into the outdoors again.

"So," The Alpha starts. "The human saw you."

The statement holds no question. I don't flinch. I have stopped questioning how and if my leader knows my actions. I had expected this.

"She was awake."

The Alpha thinks for a moment. It is strange she was awake, something I had been curious over also. My experience with humans has been to date indirect at the least and I am curious as to what insight The Alpha can offer me.

"What happened," he asks after a thoughtful pause. "Tell me her response."

I exhale a long breath. I remember her shining hair, the way her body curved into the shadows of her room.

"She saluted," I recall. "She saw me and then saluted."

The Alpha barks a short laugh, "You didn't do it back did you?"

I smirk, "Not at all. I stood there for a moment, and when she took her eyes off me, I left."

"She didn't see you go?"

"No." This I am sure of. I don't know a lot about this human girl, but I do know the techniques of disappearance and I use them effectively, every time.

The Alpha doesn't question me. My talents are well known.

"It's interesting," he says finally, words precise like hail. "Interesting that out of all the South Region...the one to attempt contact with our kind is a child."

I stay silent. It is curious. Children tend to be naïve at best. Such a detrimentally stubborn action is not expected of them. An immature adult possibly, but certainly not a child.

Outside, footsteps decorate the tunnels. We can hear the dull thud as combat training happens below. Distantly, I hear laughter, commands and casual conversation. We're a busy kind, productive by nature. Soon they'll be sending out the evening watch. The rest of us will gather in the various commonplaces for a meal or conversation. It's nearing winter now, a busy time for information, and there are always many things to discuss.

"Presence?" The Alpha taps his fingers across his desk and I get the impression he's listening to his thoughts more than my voice.

"None," I say flatly. "No supernatural, no human."

"You wouldn't have been close enough to feel human presence," The Alpha rationalizes. I nod. I know that.

"It all seemed fairly normal, assuming the girl doesn't go off her head about it," I say.

"She won't if she knows what's good for her," The Alpha raises a wiry eyebrow at me and I nod. We both know the cutthroat nature of the humans and neither of us respects it. A dull feeling hits my stomach to think perhaps of the young girl being brutally killed. I hope she's smart. For some reason the idea of the delicate human in such treacherous circumstance disarms me but I look up at the face of my leader and know such a thought, such a feeling, is forbidden. If the girl dies, she dies. I will not stand in the way.