Freezing Wings

Chapter 14

After a few minutes of shocked silence in the cave we all seemed to fall back, horrified expressions on our faces. The thing we had just seen was positively revolting, making my stomach do cartwheels and backflips in my body. 

The decimation of an army had happened in the matter of minutes, a steaming lake of green slime and tattered clothing the only evidence of the battle. Half-sunk helicopters and tanks were sticking out everywhere, their operators turned into the very lake they were now sinking in. 

The noxious stench clawed at my nostrils, my nose giving violent protest under the assault. The breeze blowing the smell into the cavern didn't seem to be quite as pleasant as before, the cold night air only accentuating the scent. 

The few who had dropped to the ground climbed back up, an ugly look on their faces. If we were still human I could have sworn that they had turned just as green as the goo outside.

We all covered our noses with our wings, trying to keep the stench out. A soft rumble came from the distance, stirring us into action. Although the idea of walking towards that lake wasn't appealing in the least, the idea of staying here when we were literally a few steps away from above-ground  was even less so. 

Savannah started on one half of the doorway and Lucas started on the other, cutting through the rock like a hot knife through butter. 

In less than ten seconds there was a hole large enough for us all to slip out, one behind the other.

Our claws, though dulled by lack of use, were still sharp enough to cut through stone with a bit of force, and if we tried hard enough and had enough time, sculpting a diamond without knowing where the cleavage lines[1] were wasn't that difficult.

[Pretty much the dividing line for a diamond, if you hit it hard enough it cracks in half fairly easily. Anywhere else it's just as hard as usual >.>]

Once all of us were out of that hole we gathered, moving upwind of the lake. As Lucas walked I looked up, implanting the scene of the stars above me in my brain. We eventually moved out of the valley and into the thick forest around the mountain.

We had reached a consensus during our time in the caves, that when we got out we would go the highest ground we could find and set up camp there. We all agreed to live on the high ground, more specifically a mountain, and to stay together.

We chose to settle on a mountain for a few reasons, the biggest being that a mountain was not only a permanent residence, it was also a literal mountain of food. We ate rocks, stone being a huge part of our diet, and a mountain was just one huge supply of prey that would never run and was permanently defenseless.

It would be the optimal place for us to thrive while still having safety in numbers and not tripping over each other every five seconds. Us just scattering in every direction wouldn't be good, whether it was the person who left or the people left behind. Our population was too low for us to just go out on our own, so the entire group had long since made a plan of what to do once we got out.